| Numerous studies have shown that the household environment plays an important role in individuals' overall development, socialization, and media use behavior. This project asks whether (and if so how) the household is also a meaningful unit of health behavior change.;Using a functional approach to the study of behavior change, this study analyzes how dietary behavior of household children and adults (total N = 576 households) was affected by the Stanford Five City Project (FCP), a long-term public information campaign instituted in two California cities. Two other cities were used as control sites.;Tests for the reciprocal interaction model, which conceptualizes household members as sources of influence on each other and subject to influence by an external agent, were supported. Children and adults were influenced by both each other and the FCP campaign in changing and maintaining health behaviors.;This project demonstrates that public health campaigns can be made more effective if they conceptualize the household as the unit of message consumption and behavior change. The long-term effectiveness of such efforts can be enhanced by (a) encouraging families, as opposed to individuals, to change health behaviors, and (b) taking advantage of children's persuasive powers in changing adults' health behaviors. |
