Abstract
Acculturating immigrant and refugee adolescents are at risk for unhealthy eating and obesity through exposure to mainstream U.S. media featuring unhealthy food advertisements. Moreover, food marketing research shows that Black youth, including Black immigrants and refugees, are disproportionately targeted by U.S. junk food advertising. To help address this problem, this study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of JUS Media? Global Classroom – Somali American version (JMGC-SA), a culturally adapted, digital, food-focused media literacy intervention that promotes healthier eating for acculturating Somali American adolescents. This pilot study recruited 159 students in 7th–12th grades attending a Somali American charter school (Mage = 15, 47.8% girls) in the Midwestern United States. Students received the JMGC-SA video curriculum accompanied by two interactive activities. Primary outcomes of readiness to eat a healthier diet and food-focused media literacy were assessed before and after the intervention and analyzed using the Wilcoxon signed-ranks test. Predictors of acceptability were assessed and analyzed using Pearson correlations and t-tests. Implementation of JMGC-SA in school classrooms was found to be feasible with a retention rate of 85.55%. Students reported the program as acceptable overall (3.56/5) and across each cultural adaptation dimension (all means > 3.2/5). After participating in the intervention, students demonstrated significantly higher readiness to increase consumption of vegetables (Cohen’s d = 0.27) and reduce dietary salt (d = 0.20). This brief, digital, culturally adapted, food-focused media literacy intervention for Somali American adolescents was found to be feasible, acceptable, and effective. Efficacy research and extension to other acculturating Black adolescents are the next steps.
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Notes
Junk food includes salty snacks and foods high in sugar such as desserts (Dunford et al., 2022).
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Acknowledgements
Tori Simenec, Salma Ibrahim, Sarah Gillespie, Jasmine Banegas, JUS Media? Adaptation Team, and Gail Ferguson, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota—Twin Cities. All authors are affiliated with the Culture and Family Life Lab directed by the anchor author, Dr. Gail Ferguson, within the Institute of Child Development.
This publication was supported by funds from University of Minnesota: Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota Faculty Seed Grant (Ferguson), Institute of Child Development Internal Grant (Simenec & Gillespie), and National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (Simenec & Gillespie). We gratefully acknowledge research assistance from Noa Cherney, Sarah Eckerstorfer, Leyla Abdirizak, and Saari Lane in the Culture and Family Life Lab, generous consultation from Melissa Falldin and Xiong Xy from Digital Education and Innovation in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota, and contributions to JUS Media? Global Classroom from Drs. Michelle Nelson, Lisa Harnack, and Roli Dwivedi (media and advertising, nutrition, and family health content experts, respectively), Dr. Saida Abdi (Somali social work and cultural expert), and from Teen Cultural Advisor Awa Bilan-Amarreh. Finally, we thank the Food, Culture, and Health Study Team, the participants and teachers from our school partner, the Somali American Community, and all other supporters of the JUS Media? Programme.
Funding
This work was supported by funds from the University of Minnesota: Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota Faculty Seed Grant (Ferguson), Institute of Child Development Internal Grant (Simenec & Gillespie), National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (Simenec & Gillespie) and Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (Ibrahim).
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation was performed by Tori S. Simenec, Salma A. Ibrahim, and Jasmine Banegas, with consultation from Gail M. Ferguson. Data collection was facilitated by Gail M. Ferguson and performed by Tori S. Simenec and Salma A. Ibrahim. Analysis was performed by Tori S. Simenec and Sarah Gillespie. All authors contributed to the writing of the manuscript led by Tori S. Simenec and all authors critically reviewed manuscript drafts. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Simenec, T.S., Ibrahim, S.A., Gillespie, S. et al. Feasibility, Acceptability, and Effectiveness Pilot Study of a Culturally Adapted and Digitized Food-Focused Media Literacy Intervention: JUS Media? Global Classroom – Somali American. J. technol. behav. sci. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-024-00413-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41347-024-00413-x