Faculty and graduate students in the Department of Speech Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign are researching topics on communication in the management of mental and physical health.  The following sections provide more information about the health communication focus at the University of Illinois:

Kristen Harrison is conducting a longitudinal project, funded by a Faculty Scholars Award from the William T. Grant Foundation, to study (a) the effects of early childhood media exposure on the development of self-discrepancies in elementary school children, and (b) the effects of these discrepancies on self-esteem and eating disorders.  In this study, Professor Harrison and graduate student Amy Marske will be interviewing 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grade girls and boys three times over two years, to find out whether early media exposure is linked with the later development of problems with eating and self-esteem.

Barbara Wilson is a member of the Evaluation Consultant Panel for the Youth Media Campaign, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The national, multi-media campaign is designed to promote healthy lifestyles and displace unhealthy, risky behaviors among American youth (ages 9-13) and to target certain communities for high-dose messages and events that encourage healthy behaviors. According to the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 29% of children in the US attend physical education classes daily, down from 42% in 1991.  Decreased physical activity, together with unhealthy eating habits, has resulted in epidemic of obesity in youth.  In fact, the proportion of youth who are overweight has doubled over the past 20 years. The Youth Media Campaign will be launched in 2002 and will target tweens (9-12 years), their parents, and other adult influencers. 

Dale Brashers, Daena Goldsmith, and Daniel O'Keefe currently are conducting a meta-analysis of the effects of social support on health and psychosocial outcomes in persons living with HIV or AIDS. Doctoral student Elaine Hsieh is assisting on this project. This project is funded through the University of Illinois Research Board.

John Lammers is working on a project that examines the formalizing role that managed care plays in health communication among providers and between patients and providers.  With the assistance of several graduate students, including Joshua Barbour, he has collected data from large samples of physicians in three U.S. cities characterized by varying levels of managed care penetration.  Future work on this project will involve additional survey and field research.

Peggy Miller is  conducting a study titled "The meanings and discourses of self-esteem: Ethnotheories across time and space." The idea that self-esteem is associated with a variety of  psychological strengths and thus should be embraced as a childrearing  and educational goal is an assumption shared by many American parents, teachers, and mental health professionals. In this study, Professor Miller and doctoral students Todd Sandel and Su-hua Wang are interviewing mothers and grandmothers in the U.S. and Taiwan concerning their beliefs about childrearing and self-esteem. These cross-cultural and generational perspectives will shed fresh light on self-esteem as a culturally and historically situated discourse.

Daena Goldsmith is interviewing couples in which one partner has had a myocardial infarction (MI) about (a) communication challenges that arise from the coping demands associated with rehabilitation and (b) the uncertainty over identity and relationship that result from a life threatening experience. "The Illinois Heart Care Project" focuses on identifying communication challenges and coping  strategies in order to develop educational materials and support programs for patients and their partners. This project is funded by the University of Illinois Research Board.

Dale Brashers is directing "The HIV Uncertainty Management Project," a multi-year, multi-project study funded by the National Institutes of Health to investigate the role of communication in the management of health and illness for persons living with HIV or AIDS. With Daena Goldsmith and Judith Neidig (from the Department of Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University), he is currently completing a study of the role of social support in managing HIV associated uncertainty based on focus group interviews. Doctoral students Lance Rintamaki and Jennifer Peterson are working along with Professors Brashers, Goldsmith, and Neidig on an additional study of the role of "peer" support in managing stress, uncertainty, and health. To date, they have interviewed over 70 people living with HIV or AIDS for this portion of the study. The final phase of the study involves testing an educational intervention aimed at teaching communication skills to newly diagnosed individuals in a peer support environment.

Barbara Wilson is working on several projects related to media violence as a public health risk to children.  Most recently, she is examining how television programs targeted to younger viewers pose risks for the learning of aggressive attitudes and behaviors.

Daena Goldsmith is completing a book that will focus on the ways in which friends, family, and romantic partners communicate support to one another for daily hassles and major life stresses.

Dale Brashers is working with Stephen Haas (from the Department of Communication at the University of Cincinnati), Judith Neidig (from the Department of Internal Medicine at The Ohio State University), and Lance Rintamaki (graduate student in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) on a study describing the relationship between activist group membership and illness coping behaviors for persons living with HIV or AIDS.

Peggy Miller is directing two dissertations on health topics. The dissertation of doctoral candidate Julie Hengst focuses on adult aphasics and focuses on their everyday communication with significant others.  Debjani Mukherjee, a doctoral candidate in psychology, is constructing a deeply contextualized account of the aftermath of a family's decision to withdraw life support after their teenage daughter sustained a severe brain injury in an automobile accident. This project addresses the impact of the young woman's death on her family and on the medical personnel and explores the ethical dimensions of such decisions.

Barbara Wilson is working with Stacy Smith (Department of Communication at Michigan State University) on several studies that assess the impact of television news on children's emotions, particularly fear. Barbara Wilson and Stacy Smith (Department of Communication at Michigan State University) also are working on a project that explores how adolescents interpret and respond to television messages about sexuality.

Doctoral student Lance Rintamaki's dissertation work is a study of stigma and social identity for people living with HIV or AIDS. His model addresses the connections between social identity and responses to stigmatizing interactions.

Doctoral student Jennifer Peterson's dissertation involves of study of the social support needs for women living with HIV. She is developing a normative model of social support that accounts for effective support seeking and support providing behaviors.

Doctoral student Elaine Hsieh is beginning work on a dissertation to examine the role of medical interpreters in conveying cultural information. Her long-term goal is to develop a theory of bilingual health communication.

Doctoral student Jennifer Peterson is conducting a study of the support process in an on-line support group for men with HIV or AIDS.  She is examining the effect of a group rule that requires only "positive" communication, which limits the topics discussed in the group. In an effort to understand what this limitation does to the support process, a narrative analysis is being conducted.

Doctoral student Lance Rintamaki currently is examining the strategies professional HIV care providers employ to cope with work-related stress. Interviews with providers to date have revealed that social support, intra-group conflict, rejection sensitivity, burnout, and humor are important facets of the HIV care-provider experience.

Doctoral student Joshua Barbour and master's students Joe Albano, JR Ramsey, and Michael Dockum are working with Dale Brashers on a project investigating health information-seeking and information-avoiding behaviors for college students.

Doctoral student Jennifer Bute and master's students Erin Donovan, Nicole Martins, and Ally Bibart are collaborating on a project that investigates the challenges and dilemmas faced by people who have friend or family member with a communication-debilitating illness (e.g., a stroke or traumatic brain injury).

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Albrecht, T. L., & Goldsmith, D. J. (in press). Social support, social networks, and health. In A. Marshall, K. I. Miller, R. Parrott, T. L. Thompson (Eds.), Handbook of health communication. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Alexander, S. C., Peterson, J. L., & Hollingshead, A. B. (in press). Help at your keyboard: Support groups on the internet. In L. Frey (Ed.) Group communication in context: Studies of bona fide groups. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Beaudin, C., Lammers, J.C., & Panarites, C. (1995). A framework for understanding donative behavior in an AIDS service organization.  In Stanfield, J.H. (Ed.). Research in Social Policy (Volume 4). pp.13-38.

Brashers, D. E. (2001). Communication and uncertainty management. Journal of Communication, 51, 477-497.

Brashers, D. E., & Babrow, A. (1996). Theorizing communication and health. Communication Studies, 47, 243-251.

Brashers, D. E., Goldsmith, D. J., & Hsieh, E. (2002). Information seeking and avoiding in health contexts. Human Communication Research, 28, 258-271.

Brashers, D. E., Haas, S. M., Klingle, R. S., & Neidig, J. L. (2000). Collective AIDS activism and individual's perceived self-advocacy in physician-patient communication. Human Communication Research, 26, 372-402.

Brashers, D. E., Haas, S. M., & Neidig, J. L. (in press). Argumentative requirements of self-advocacy. In F. H. van Eemeren, R. Grootendorst, J. A. Blair, & C. Willard (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Argumentation. Amsterdam: Sic Sat.

Brashers, D. E., Haas, S. M., Neidig, J. L., & Rintamaki, L. S. (2002). Social activism, self-advocacy, and coping with HIV illness. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 19, 113-133.

Brashers, D. E., Haas, S. M., & Neidig, J. L. (1999). The patient self-advocacy scale (PSAS): Measuring involvement in health care decision making. Health Communication, 11,  97-122.

Brashers, D. E., & Jackson, S. A. (1991). "Politically savvy sick people": Reclaiming the technical sphere. In D. Parsons (Ed.), Proceedings of the Seventh SCA/AFA Conference on Argumentation (pp. 284-288). Annandale, VA: Speech Communication Association.

Brashers, D. E., Neidig, J. L., Cardillo, L. W., Dobbs, L. K., Russell, J. A., & Haas, S. M. (1999). "In an important way, I did die." Uncertainty and revival among persons living with HIV or AIDS. AIDS Care: Psychological and Socio-Medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV, 11, 201-219.

Brashers, D. E., Neidig, J. L., Dobbs, L. K., Russell, J. A., Cardillo, L. W., & Haas, S. M. (2001). Transitions and challenges: Revival and uncertainty for persons living with HIV and AIDS. In S. G. Funk, E. M. Tornquist, J. Leeman, M. S. Miles, & J. S. Harrell (Eds.), Key aspects of preventing and managing chronic illness (141-160). New York: Springer.

Brashers, D. E., Neidig, J. L., Haas, S. M., Dobbs, L. K., Cardillo, L. W., & Russell, J. A. (2000). Communication in the management of uncertainty: The case of persons living with HIV or AIDS. Communication Monographs, 67, 63-84.

Brashers, D. E., Neidig, J. L., Reynolds, N. R., & Haas, S. (1998). Uncertainty in illness across the HIV/AIDS trajectory. Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, 9, 66-77.

Burleson, B. R. & Goldsmith, D. J. (1997). How comforting messages work: Some mechanisms through which messages may alleviate emotional distress.  In P. A. Anderson & L. K. Guerrero (Eds.), Handbook of Communication and Emotion:  Research, Theory, Applications, and Contexts (p. 245 - 280).  Orlando, FL: Academic Press.

Clark, C., & Miller, P. J. (1998).  Play.  In H.S. Friedman (Ed.), Encyclopedia of mental health. Vol.3.  San Deigo, CA: Academic Press.

Devine, P. G., Plant, E. A., & Harrison, K. (1999).  The problem of "Us" versus "Them" and AIDS stigma.  American Behavioral Scientist, 42, 1212-1228.

Goldsmith, D. J. (1999).  Content-based resources for giving face-sensitive advice in troubles talk episodes.  Research on Language and Social Interaction, 32, 303-336.

Goldsmith, D. J. (2000).  Soliciting advice: The role of sequential placement in mitigating face threat.  Communication Monographs, 67, 1-19.

Goldsmith, D. J. & Dun, S. (1997).  Sex differences in the provision of support.  Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 14, 317-337.

Goldsmith, D. J. & Fitch, K. (1997).  The normative context of advice as social support.  Human Communication Research, 23, 454-476.

Goldsmith, D. J., & MacGeorge, E. L. (in press).  The impact of politeness and relationship on perceived quality of advice about a problem.  Human Communication Research.

Goldsmith, D. J., McDermott, V. M., & Alexander, S. C. (in press).  Helpful, supportive, and sensitive: Measuring the evaluation of enacted social support in personal relationships.  Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.

Harrison, K. (1997).  Does interpersonal attraction to thin media personalities promote eating disorders?  Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 41, 478-500.

Harrison, K.  (2000).  The body electric:  Thin-ideal media and eating disorders in adolescents.  Journal of Communication, 50, 119-143.

Harrison, K.  (2000).  Television viewing, fat stereotyping, body shape standards, and eating disorder symptomatology in grade school children.  Communication Research, 27, 617-640.

Harrison, K. (2001).  Ourselves, our bodies:  Thin-ideal media, self-discrepancies, and eating disorder symptomatology in adolescents.  Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 20, 289-323.

Harrison, K., & Cantor, J. (1997).  The relationship between media consumption and eating disorders. Journal of Communication, 47, 40-67.

Harrison, K., & Cantor, J. (1999).  Tales from the screen:  Enduring fright reactions to scary media.  Media Psychology, 1, 97-116.

Harrison, K., & Fredrickson, B.L. (in press).  Women’s sports media, self-objectification, and disordered eating in Black and White adolescent girls.  Journal of Communication.

Lammers, J.C., & Beaudin, C. (1995). Social conscience and the trustees of California Medical Center: A turbulent environment for an inner city hospital.  In Wood, M. (Ed.) Nonprofit Governance in Dynamic Perspective: A Casebook (pp. 206-220). Jossey Bass. Also published in Cases in Nonprofit Governance CNG No. 5, Program on Nonprofit Organizations Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University, 1994.

Lammers, J.C., & Beaudin, C. (1999). Patients' perceptions of efforts to coordinate hospital care:  The role of organized communication. Journal for Healthcare Quality 21, 18-23.

Lammers, J.C., & Bhrany, V.  (1997). Applying systems thinking to public health leadership.  Journal of Public Health Management & Practice, 3, 39-49.

Lammers, J.C., Cretin, S., Gilman, S., & Calingo, E. (1996). Total quality management in hospitals: the contributions of commitment, quality councils, teams, budgets, and training to perceived improvement at Veterans Health Administration hospitals. Medical Care, 34,  463-478.

Lammers, J.C., & Geist, P.  (1997). The transformation of caring in the light and shadow of managed care. Health Communication 9, 45-60.

Lammers, J. C., & Gilman, S. (1993).  Quality Improvement in VA Hospitals: A report on the Western Region project action teams. Quality Management in Health Care, Special issue, December, 1993, 10-11.

Lammers, J.C., & Gilman, S. (1994). Predicting Success in TQI Implementation: What makes total quality management work at a medical center? Alliance for Continuing Medical Education Almanac Vol.16 no.4 (December), p.2.

Lammers, J.C., & Gilman, S. (1995). Tool use and team success in continuous improvement: Are all tools created equal? Quality Management in Health Care 4, 56-61.

Lammers, J.C., Gilman, S., & Clark, K. (1996). Fostering total quality improvement in the Western Region. In G. Barbour, (Ed.) Quality Improvement in the Veterans' Health Administration (pp. 240-255). San Francisco:
Jossey-Bass.

Lammers, J.C., & Krikorian, D. (1997).  Theoretical extension and operationalization of the bona fide group construct with an application to surgical teams. The Journal of Applied Communication Research 25, 17-38.

Leslie, K. B., & Orbe, M. P. (2001). Networking, coping, and communicating about a medical crisis/miracle: A phenomenological inquiry of transplant recipient communication. Health Communication, 13, 141-161.

Rubenstein, L., Lammers, J.C., & Tabbarah, M., Yano, E., & Robbins, A. (1996). Changing academic paradigms: Organizational stresses associated with implementation of primary care.  Academic Medicine 71, 784-792.

Shweder, R.A., Goodnow, J. J., Hitano, G., LeVine, R., Markus, H., & Miller, P. J. (1998). The cultural psychology of development: One mind, many mentalities.  In W. Damon (Eds.), The handbook of child psychology. Vol. 1 (5th ed.)  New York: John Wiley.

Smith, S. L., Nathanson, A. I., & Wilson, B. J. (2002). Prime time television: Assessing violence during the most popular viewing hours.  Journal of Communication, 52(1), 84-111.

Smith, S. L., & Wilson, B. J. (2000).  Children's reactions to a television news story: The impact of video footage and proximity of the crime.? Communication Research, 27, 641-673.

Smith, S. L., & Wilson, B. J. (2002).  Children's comprehension of and reactions to television news.  Media Psychology, 4, 1-26.

Smith, S. L., Wilson, B. J., Kunkel, D., Linz, D., Potter, W. J., Colvin, C., Donnerstein, E. (1998).  Violence in television programming overall: University of California, Santa Barbara study.  In National television violence study: Vol. 3 (pp. 5-220).  Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.

Strasburger, V. C., & Wilson, B. J. (2002).  Children, adolescents, and the media.  Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

Weiss, A. J., & Wilson, B. J. (1998).  Children's cognitive and emotional responses to the portrayal of negative emotions in family-formatted situation comedies. Human Communication Research, 24, 584-609.

Wilson, B. J., Colvin, C. M., & Smith, S. L. (2002).  Engaging in violence on American television:  A comparison of child, teen, and adult perpetrators.  Journal of Communication, 52(1), 36-60.

Wilson, B. J., Kunkel, D., Linz, D., Potter, W. J., Donnerstein, E., Smith, S. L., Blumenthal, E., & Berry, M. (1998).  Violence in television programming overall: University of California, Santa Barbara study.  In National television violence study: Vol. 2 (pp. 3-204).  Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Wilson, B. J., & Smith, S. L. (1998).  Children's responses to emotional portrayals on television.  In P. Anderson & L. Guerrero (Eds.), Handbook of communication and emotion: Research, theory, applications, and contexts (pp. 533-569).  New York: Academic Press.

Wilson, B. J., Smith, S. L., Potter, W. J., Kunkel, D., Linz, D., Colvin, C., & Donnerstein, E. I. (2002). Violence in children’s television programming: Assessing the risks.  Journal of Communication, 52(1), 5-35.
 

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Psych 460 Motivation and Personality Development (Professor Miller)

Addresses classic topics in social development.  These include: forming relationships, emotion and emotional socialization, and play.

Sp Com 321 Persuasion (Professor O'Keefe)

Focuses on competing theoretical accounts of the processes underlying persuasion and on research evidence concerning the effects of various factors on persuasive effectiveness.  Issues of attitudinal and behavioral change are developed throughout the course.

Sp Com 396 Media and the Body (Professor Harrison)

Explores the ways in which the body is portrayed within, and affected by, the mass  media. Examines the effects of media portrayals on the bodies of audience members, especially on arousal and emotion, behavior, and health.

Sp Com 396 Communication and Health: Organizational Issues (Professor Lammers)

Focuses on the role of organizational issues, such as managed care and organizational structure, in determining health care communication.  Examines the interaction between health care providers as well as between health care providers and patients.

Sp Com 396 Communication and Health: Interpersonal Issues (Professor Brashers)

Focuses on five general areas: (a) communication and identity, (b) health and personal relationships, (c) health care provider-patient interaction, (d) impacts of technology on health communication, and (e) interpersonal health education/prevention efforts. dyadic, group and organizational levels.

Sp Com 396 Children and Media (Professor Wilson)

Examines children's responses to media violence, media advertising, stereotypes in the media, and educational content. The course also looks at such topics as media and children's health and the development of critical viewing skills.

Sp Com 429 Ethnographic Research Methods (Professor Miller)

Provides a graduate level treatment of how to do ethnographic  research. Students read exemplary ethnographies (several of which pertain to emotion and mental health issues) as well as "how to" books and articles. Students are required to formulate or work on an interpretive project in connection with this course. Several of these projects have dealt with health or mental health (aphasia, stuttering, recovery from brain injury).

Sp Com 429 Communicating Identity in Health and Illness (Professor Goldsmith)

Examines diverse theoretical approaches to understanding the ways in which one's enactments of identity shape the experience of health and illness and the ways in which one's health status may constrain or enable identity performances. Topics include the sick role, stigma, cultures of disability, identity issues in risk prevention, identity changes in chronic illness, and the role of medical interpreters.

Sp Com 429 Persuasion in Health Contexts (Professor O'Keefe)

Examines general theories of persuasion and models of behavior change.  Applies these theories to health contexts, including health campaigns, risk appraisal and risk communication, product warning messages, patient compliance, and physician-patient interaction.

Sp Com 429 Social Influence in Health Communication (Professor Brashers)

Examines the nature of influence in interactions between patients and health care professionals, with attention to such issues as the bases of power that health care professionals and patients have, communication behaviors which signal attempts to gain control and exercise influence, the interaction of mutual influence, and reasons for the acceptance or rejection of influence attempts.

Sp Com 429 Social Support (Professor Goldsmith)

Surveys theory, methods, and findings in interdisciplinary research on how relationships and communication can have positive effects on individuals' health and well-being. Emphasis on how persons communicate support and on factors that affect the helpfulness of support attempts.

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