The Role of Resources and Message Exposure on Health-Related Outcomes

The current study involved analysis of the relationships between frequency of health message exposure, perceived resource availability, health-related self-efficacy, health-related anxiety, negative rumination, and positive rumination. Drawing from the Conservation of Resources theory, health messages were conceptualized as a resource contributing to health-related outcomes for individuals. A survey containing seven self-report measures of the study variables was provided to a sample of participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. Although findings did not support the proposed moderating effect of perceived resource availability on the relationship between health message exposure and health-related outcomes, results suggest that perceived resource availability and frequency of health message exposure may additively contribute to improving an individual's health-related outcomes. Practical and theoretical implications related to the study findings and avenues for future research were also explored.