Increasing adolescents' acceptance of long-term personal health behavior.

Assessed the effects of contingency management procedures for increasing children's acceptance of fluoride mouthrinsing. 351 7th and 8th graders received specific action instructions or simple reminders, and all Ss received rewards contingent on compliance. Action instructions had the predicted beneficial impact on compliance among urban lower-income Ss; however, among suburban upper-middle-income Ss, they had a negative effect. The participation level was 66% for urban Ss. Postcard reminders had no effect on compliance in either population. At this time, the primary finding of the series of studies of which this is part is that only contingent rewards seem to have generally beneficial effects on adolescents' long-term personal health behavior; the addition of action instructions seems useful for some populations, but must be approached with caution until the factors affecting the response to such instruction are better understood. (38 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)