Rainie Graham and Dr. Michael D. Barnes, Health Science
This report is written as a summary of the research that was conducted throughout the winter and spring of 2000 in support of the funded research proposal titled “Channels of Communication for Emergency Preparation”. This research was intended to establish the preferred communication channels for receiving emergency preparedness information by married students attending BYU. The BYU Institutional Research Office compiled a randomly selected list of 395 students’ electronic addresses. A simple random selection was used for the sampling strategy, to select students who were married and attending the Spring Term at BYU.
A survey was established with questions regarding channel preferences, level-of-interest in obtaining emergency preparedness information, and level-of-satisfaction in previously obtained emergency preparedness knowledge. Content validity was assessed through a panel of experts.
Each participant received a cover letter by e-mail, explaining the significance of the study and an invitation to become involved in the study. Attached to this e-mail message was a direct link to: www.byu.edu/health/epsurvey.html, the website address that contained the electronic survey. The electronic questionnaire was to be completed by selecting given response options using the computer mouse. To increase the response rate, five twenty-dollar gift certificates were offered as an incentive, to be drawn from the pool of participants who completed and submitted their survey within seven days of the initial e-mail being sent. Also, reminder messages were sent out ten days following the initial receiving of the first e-mail. Following the completion of the questionnaire, participants were prompted to submit their response for analysis. Completion of the questionnaire indicated consent to participate.
The web-based surveys were completed and submitted resulting in a 45% return rate from the students invited to participate in the survey. The completed questionnaires were entered into designated fields in a spreadsheet created for the purpose of the survey. Simple statistics such as frequency counts were taken of all possible responses to determine the frequencies for each question.
This research was expected to determine how channel preferences could be linked to given levels of interest in emergency preparedness and to identify how select factors (religion, education, and income) are related to the prominent health communication channels preferred among married college students.
Ninety-one percent (91%) of the population described themselves as “very religious” which is seen to have a direct impact on the survey results. The strongest correlation found in the research results identified church leaders as the most preferred outlet from which to receive emergency preparedness information. More students believed religious leaders over public health officials when they say emergency preparedness is essential. News and Media stood as the majority at 57% as the channel of communication in which knowledge had previously been received on emergency preparation. Although when asked from who they would most prefer to receive emergency preparation information, the majority answered with the choice of a church leader.
Other demographics that describe the surveyed population and influenced the survey results include the following factors: 1) Eighty-nine percent (89%) of the group are between the ages of 18 and 25, 2) Sixty-one percent (61%) are in the middle of obtaining undergraduate degrees, 3) Eighty-six percent (86%) of the households contain 1-3 individuals including those surveyed, and 4) the majority of respondents income bracket is between $10,000 and $20,000 annually. These factors influence their current level of emergency preparedness because of cost, current storage space and near future plans to become better prepared after a more permanent establishment following graduation from college. The gender breakdown of participants was fairly equal.
In conclusion, this research established preferences for health communication channels according to the needs and conditions of married college students at BYU with emergency preparedness interests. The preferred health communication channels of emergency preparedness were found to be strongly influenced by demographic variables (such as religion), levels of interest, and levels of satisfaction in current knowledge.