Narrative formats for teenage pregnancy prevention. The effect of the narrative modality on preventive attitudes

Abstract

Introduction: The article analyses the effect of narrative persuasion and media literacy level on attitudes, knowledge, perceptions and behavioural intention in the reception of a short video created to prevent teenage pregnancy. Methods: 220 teenage girls participated in an experiment in which they answered a pre-test questionnaire measuring their critical skill to perceive sexualised content in the media as well as dependent variables. A month later, participants were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions: half of them watched a narrative video in testimonial format and the other half watched a narrative video in dialogic format. Afterwards, female participants filled out the post-test questionnaire. Results: The level of media literacy moderated the indirect effects of the testimonial narrative video on the perception of the risks of experiencing negative situations during teenage pregnancy. Conclusions: Results are discussed as an advance in the understanding of the processes of narrative persuasion in health.