Message Framing Effects on Helping Behavior as a Function of Age in Early Childhood and School-Age Children

TL;DR

This study shows how message framing affects children's willingness to help, depending on their age and how relevant the issue is to them.

Contribution

The study reveals how message framing interacts with age and issue relevance to influence helping behavior in children.

Findings

Perceived importance and helping intentions increase with age in children.

High issue relevance increases perceived importance regardless of framing type.

Framing effects on helping intentions vary by age for low-relevance issues.

Abstract

This study determined the effects of message framing on helping behavior as a function of age in preschool and early school-age children. After validating the instrument used in a preliminary study, the researchers conducted a repeated-measures ANOVA of the responses of 90 children aged 5, 6, and 7 years. The results showed that, first, perceived importance and behavioral intention to help tended to increase with age. The results revealed significant differences in both variables depending on the self-relevance of issues and framing type. Second, when issue relevance was high, helping behavior was perceived as more important regardless of framing type, but when issue relevance was low, gain and loss frames were effective. Third, an interaction effect between age, issue relevance, and framing type was identified. While no differences in framing type were found for high-relevance issues, framing effects differed by age for low-relevance issues: loss and gain frames were more effective for younger (5 years) and older children (6 and 7 years), respectively, in promoting behavioral intentions. This study suggests that the effectiveness of message framing depends on the child’s age and issue relevance, which has implications for the development of effective persuasive message delivery strategies for promoting helping behavior among children.

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