Bryant’s student-athletes aren’t the only ones turning teamwork into big wins. Researchers from the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Communication and Language Studies and the School of Health and Behavioral Sciences are working together to improve public health messages on critical topics like vaccination, perinatal care, and student mental health — projects that are attracting attention on the national level.
“One of the biggest problems in health is assuming that one group has all the answers; bringing in more people is more likely to result in solutions,” says Christopher Morse, Ph.D., professor of Communication and chair of the Communication and Language Studies Department. “Because of Bryant’s size and the range of expertise here, we are not siloed. The person you want to collaborate with is sometimes just two doors down.”
For example, recent research on vaccines and emotion involved communication and health experts including Morse; Associate Professor of Communication and Language Studies Julie Volkman, Ph.D.; Director of Bryant’s School of Health and Behavioral Sciences Kirsten Hokeness, Ph.D.; and several Bryant students. They were joined in their efforts by researchers from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and Northern Arizona University.
“The key to interdisciplinary research is to find something that everyone is interested in,” says Volkman, who has also contributed to communication research at the intersection of maternal and mental health.
Class activity to research study
What’s more important in making healthcare decisions about vaccination: hope, or fear?
Hope, it turns out, really does conquer fear, according to Bryant-led research published in Health Communication that originated from a student exercise developed by Hokeness.
In 2020, Hokeness assigned her first-year Biology students a reading about vaccination for human papilloma virus (HPV) and instructed undergrads to write a brief response. Unbeknownst to them, the article was authored by an opponent of vaccination, which Hokeness hoped would spark some interesting conversations and critical thinking. Instead, reactions included anger, fear, and even tears from students — many of whom had received the HPV vaccination themselves and were worried about the dire consequences described in the story.
“The article was accepted without questioning,” says Hokeness. “I was shocked that the students would just accept what was put in front of them, have such a visceral response, and share it with others. I went to the Communication and Language Studies Department and said this could be a good research topic.”
Hokeness’ prompt resonated strongly with Volkman.
“Emotional state plays a huge role in information seeking and processing,” she says. “I was interested in how emotions can play a role in the perception of risk, and if that can be a predictor of information seeking.”
The resulting study was initiated just before the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which thrust the issue of vaccine hesitation from the fringes to the center of a heated political and public health debate.
“Emotional state plays a huge role in information seeking and processing."
Volkman, in partnership with Hokeness and their colleagues, initially surveyed 225 college students on their attitudes about vaccines and their perceptions of vaccine safety — finding that students wanted to know more about risk and safety.
Their results prompted a follow-up study in 2022, which tested how two very different emotions, fear and hope, affect how people seek and receive information. This time, a group of 336 adults were queried about their attitudes, risk perceptions, and emotions about vaccines.
Researchers found that fear did not affect whether the participants sought more information about vaccines. Interestingly, though, perceived current knowledge — i.e., their own understanding of vaccines — and a hopeful outlook regarding vaccines were both associated with information-seeking intentions, the study noted.
The findings are significant for crafting public health messaging and interventions, including on college campuses, and the pandemic provided some real-world validation of the study findings, says Volkman.
“There was hope that the vaccine would work, and everything would go back to normal,” she recalls.
Hope helps pregnant women, too
Volkman and Morse used what they learned in the vaccine study to inform another recent health risk messaging project, this time focusing on health concerns affecting pregnant women.
“The work on vaccine hesitancy led me to consider other health issues that convey risk to help people with behavior change,” explains Volkman.
Once again collaborating with researchers from other disciplines, the communication experts surveyed around 400 women in their first trimester of pregnancy to assess their perceptions of risk regarding gestational diabetes mellitus and hypertension, a pair of common health problems that are deeply rooted in behavior. The participants were asked about their sources of perinatal health information and assessed for health literacy, with various health messages tested for perceived credibility and effectiveness.
“There’s a lot of opinion and information aimed at people who, especially if this is their first pregnancy, haven’t encountered this situation before,” says Morse.
That can lead some to underestimate their risk of developing diabetes and high blood pressure during pregnancy, but it also causes some women with healthy lifestyles to overestimate their risk, causing unnecessary stress and worry.
Preliminary findings from the study, slated for publication next year, were presented in November during a panel discussion at the National Communication Association’s Annual Convention in New Orleans.
“The goal is to construct messages that help people who need it, and reassure those that don’t,” says Morse.
What stresses out college students?
Interdisciplinary communication research at Bryant extends beyond risk perception. In a 2024 study published in the American Journal of Qualitative Research, for example, Volkman and Morse studied triggers for anxiety and how college students cope with stress, working with Heather Pond Lacey, Ph.D., professor and chair of Bryant’s Psychology Department; Psychology Professor and School of Health and Behavioral Sciences’ Associate Director Joseph Trunzo, Ph.D.; and Associate Provost and Professor of Communication Wendy Samter, Ph.D.
Anxiety rates have risen in all populations since the pandemic, but adolescents and young adults have been particularly affected, notes Trunzo, who provided Volkman with expertise regarding anxiety, both in terms of clinical presentations and measurement for research purposes. The Bryant researchers analyzed daily diary entries, gathered over a two-week period, from undergraduate students who had previously been diagnosed with or treated for anxiety.
“It’s nice to get good quality scientific data to support anecdotal experiences, as it paves the way to do additional work to address these important issues.”
“Qualitative data collection offers a more nuanced view than standard anxiety studies, which typically use inventories and other more standardized measures. The latter methods gather good information but can sometimes be more sterile and get in the way of deeper insights,” says Trunzo.
They identified five primary categories of anxiety-inducing or aggravating stressors: academic time management and performance; communication anxiety; competing life stressors; others’ presence and problems; and generalized uncertainty. Coping strategies included employing a mix of intrapersonal (alone time, breaks, hobbies, music, and staying productive) and interpersonal techniques (hanging out with and talking to friends and family).
The findings are consistent with what Trunzo, a licensed and practicing clinical psychologist, sees on a regular basis.
“It’s nice to get good quality scientific data to support anecdotal experiences, as it paves the way to do additional work to address these important issues,” he notes.
Interdisciplinary research, states Trunzo, is almost always superior because it brings together different areas of expertise and ways of looking at the world, which benefits both research processes and outcomes.
“I think I contributed something of value to this study, and I am 100 percent sure I would not have had the skills and communication background to do something like this solo,” he says.
Volkman agrees. “Health communication, by its nature, is interdisciplinary,” she says. “It’s important for Bryant to lead these conversations.”
