Assessing the Acceptability of the JUS Media? Program, a Food-focused Media Literacy Digital Intervention, Culturally Adapted for Somali-American Youth
Background: With the rise in obesity in adolescents, there is an urgency to provide low-cost and low-commitment prevention and intervention methods (Wasil et al., 2020; Simmonds et al., 2015). Prior research indicates that the surge in unhealthy food advertisements has negative implications for adolescents' health; notably, increased exposure to advertisements results in increased unhealthy food consumption (Cervi et al., 2017). Moreover, these advertisements disproportionately target Black and Hispanic adolescents, resulting in increased risk for poor diet and health outcomes in these populations (Harris et al., 2019; Cervi et al., 2017). To address the implications of this matter the JUS Media Programme, a food-focused media literacy intervention, was digitized and culturally adapted for Somali adolescents in the United States. (Ferguson et al., 2021). The new digital version, called JUS Media Global Classroom, promotes media literacy and healthy eating habits in Somali American junior high and high school students. The tailored cultural adaptation is an innovative aspect in the curriculum that connects students with the program. Specifically, we aim to examine if strong Somali cultural identity predicts receptiveness to the program. We hypothesize that stronger cultural identity will predict higher acceptability because there is more receptiveness to key culturally adapted program messages.
Methods: Participants from 7-12th grade (N=135) were recruited from a Minneapolis charter school and data were collected during health class in gender segregated classes. Students began with an initial online survey measuring their media literacy and basic nutritional knowledge and then viewed the 35-minute online program video. Following the program administration they completed two activities to reinforce the skills learned and completed the final post survey to assess change in key variables and program acceptability. Using the post-intervention data, we will analyze the acceptability measures guided by the Ecological Validity Model. This includes evaluating themes of the cultural adaptation such as context, goals, and language. Cultural identity was assessed using a validated measure from The Culture, Health, and Family Life Study (Ferguson et al., 2018). A series of correlations and descriptives will be conducted to determine the association between cultural identity and acceptability.
Anticipated Results: Data analysis is currently in progress. We expect to find a positive correlation between cultural identity and acceptability meaning that stronger cultural identity will be associated with increased acceptability. If this hypothesis is confirmed, it may suggest that tailoring details and messages to the experiences of the target audience improves the acceptability of the program messages.