A study on the intended and unintended factors influencing
the help-seeking behaviour of children
Sander van Casteren MSc Thesis Business Studies
University of Amsterdam Amsterdam, September 2010
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Sander van Casteren Student number: 5811023 E-mail: scasteren@hotmail.com Supervisor: Dr. W. van Dolen University of Amsterdam (UvA) Amsterdam, September 2010
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Summary
Children appear to be influenced by environmental factors which change their help-seeking behaviour. This study investigates in what way various environmental factors influence the decision of a child to report a problem or not. The investigated factors enhance both intended and unintended events. With respect to the intended factors, the impact of advertising activities by Childline Netherlands, non-profit sector and profit sector is
investigated. Furthermore, also the influence of service innovation events by the Childline Netherlands is investigated. The impact of releases movies and Dutch television
broadcastings represent the unintended factors.
The research method used is a case study, the data of the dependent variable – the help-seeking behavior - of children – consists of data from the Childline Netherlands. The dataset provided by the Childline Netherlands enables the determination of the responsiveness of the children to the events since it enhances call-data during a fifteen year period. The data of the independent variables – the intended and unintended factors – are retrieved from several primary and secondary sources. By means of linear regression analysis the
relationship between help-seeking behavior of children and the distinct factors is examined.
Overall can be concluded that the influence of the investigated intended factors is very limited. Firstly, advertising events were found to have no effect on children’s help-seeking behaviour. This finding holds for the influence of all investigated parties - Childline, non-profit and non-profit. Furthermore, also for service innovations events within the Childline no significant effect on help-seeking behaviour has been detected.
According to the results, unintended forces appear to have more influence. The regression analysis indicates a significant effect of violent content in movies on help-seeking behaviour of children. This effect was found to be negative implying that violent content in movies has a discouraging effect on help-seeking behaviour of children. Furthermore, several control variables were tested and also these factors – seasonal influences and unemployment – are found to influence children’s help-seeking behaviour.
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Preface
Ten years ago when I studied at high school, I did not expect to ever earn the degree of “Master in Science”. After a dynamic road of HBO education, working experience and university I am close to actually achieving this status. The delivery of this master thesis feels like the final piece of all previous years. The making of this master thesis was not always easy. Especially in the beginning I struggled with outlining and conceptualizing the research project. Sometimes it was also difficult to stay focused on the research project day after day. There were moments of deep inspiration but also moments when I asked myself “how do I
ever get the job done”. Luckily, I had lots of support from many people during this
challenging time who I would like to thank.
First of all my special thanks goes out to my supervisor Dr. W. van Dolen. The whole initial idea of a study which explains the effect of various factors on help-seeking behavior of children stems from her. I still remember how excited I was after the first meeting when we talked about the research possibilities. Also during my thesis she provided informative suggestions and comments, this definitely was crucial to keep me finding the right direction. Secondly, I would like to thank the director and coordinator of the Childline for providing the extensive dataset of incoming calls. This data enabled me to identify the behavioral
consequences needed for this study. The next person I would like to extend gratitude to is junior researcher L. Ma who conducted the statistical analyses for this study. It saved me much time and effort since I have not the greatest expertise in the field of statistical
calculations. Last but not least I would like to thank my family and friends who supported me all time during the process of my thesis. Especially my brother, girlfriend and student peers from university with whom I was able to exchange ideas about my master thesis, I am also grateful to my sister in law who helped me editing contents and grammar of my master thesis. And of course my parents for their all time encouragement. I think they will be delighted to hear that after two graduations I finally go find my way in business.
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Table of contents
Summary
3
Preface
4
Table of Contents
5
Chapter 1: Introduction
7
Chapter 2: Problem Statement
9
Chapter 3: Literature Review
10
3.1 Help-seeking Behaviour
10
3.2 Intended Factors
11
3.2.1 Advertising
11
3.2.1.1 The role of Advertising
11
3.2.1.2 Mass Audience Advertising vs. Targeted Advertising
13
3.2.1.3 Effectiveness of Advertising
14
3.2.2 Service Innovation
16
3.2.2.1Defining Service Innovation
16
3.2.2.2 Rise of the Service Sector
17
3.2.2.3 Role of the Client
18
3.2.2.4 Effects of Service Innovation
18
3.3 Unintended Factors
19
3.3.1 Children and The Media
19
3.3.2 Impact of Media Violence
21
3.3.3 Impact of Sexual Content in Media
24
3.4 Hypotheses
25
Chapter 4: Methodology
28
4.1 Case Study Approach
28
4.2 Research Set-up
28
4.3 Data Collection
33
4.4 Data Categorization
35
4.5 Data Analysis
36
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Chapter 5: Results
38
5.1 Data Analysis
38
5.1.1 Data Calculations
38
5.1.2 Control Variables
39
5.2 Results
40
5.2.1 Parameters
41
5.2.2 Linear Regression of Calls
42
5.2.3 Linear Regression of Major Topics
43
5.3 Confirmation and Rejection of the Hypotheses
45
Chapter 6: Discussion
47
6.1 Intended Factors
47
6.2 Unintended Factors
49
Chapter 7: Conclusion
51
7.1 Impact Influential Factors on Help-seeking Behaviour of Children
51
7.2 Limitations
52
7.3 Future Research
53
References
54
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Chapter 1 Introduction
`I hate it to be depressive and live an awful life``I wish I knew my own parents`
`Children at school ignore me and yell at me everyday`
`Next year I move to high school and won’t know anyone out there`
These are a few examples of the thoughts of children who posted their problems on the website of a child counseling service in the Netherlands. Even though the Netherlands is a well developed country, there are children who live in distress. Stress in childhood and adolescence encompasses short-term unhappiness through to major trauma and long term trauma (Brannen e.a., 2000, p. 18). Short-term unhappiness can be caused by an incident as the movement to a new neighborhood or the break-up of a friendship, long-term stress can be due to serious incidents as neglect by parents, (sexual) abuse or death of a close relative. The last decades the position of children is strengthened to become more active in help demanding situations; this is due to an increasing tendency to listen to children’s views and opinions on matters affecting them (Heptinstall, 2000, p. 867). According to Roche (1996) the 1979 international year of the child triggered the transformation in the debates
surrounding children’s rights. This resulted in incentives of diverse legal and organizational developments which reflect the ongoing debate of children’s rights to be heard.
Organizations operating as a listening ear for children with the ability to give feedback – and in risky situations – intervene or redirect to specialized childcare organizations are well-used by children.
Self-disclosure of children is critical to initiate intervention in terms of comforting, advising and protecting the child in cases of distress. Without self-disclosure it is difficult for
counseling services to detect these children. Only a minority of the children is in contact with professionals and looking at serious cases as child abuse the family has the tendency to close itself of (Hoefnagels & Mudde, 2000, p. 1092). Also important is the quickness; lengthy delays in self-disclosure can, profoundly in serious problematic situations, cause long term negative outcome.
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By stating this, the question arises: “What influences the self-disclose behaviour of children who are in need of help? ”
Children in distress appear to be influenced by many factors which changes their
help-seeking behaviour. Besides the fact that children may be affected by intended actions aiming to encourage children to look for help, also unintended events may influence them. Both will be considered in this study.
Prior academic research profoundly focuses on the influence of social and personal factors on the help-seeking behaviour of children. Environmental influences in this respect are insufficiently researched yet while in daily life children are continuously in contact with environmental factors which – on intend or by incident – affect children.
Consequently, this study will take a step towards closing the gap in our knowledge about environmental factors effecting help-seeking behaviour of children.
Also, this research has great explanatory power for practice; by measuring the effect of these factors insights are gained about important factors for children to seek counselling help. Consequently, new opportunities towards strategizing activities based on increasing the likelihood for children to seek counselling help – such as modelling successful campaigns – can be explored.
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Chapter 2 Problem Statement
Children in distress appear to be influenced by many factors in their environment which changes their help-seeking behaviour. This master thesis stresses the impact of these influences, separated by intended and unintended ones.
This leads to the following research question:
With respect to intended influences, firstly the impact of the Childline Netherlands is investigated, which is referred to as the organizational influence in this study. Secondly, the impact of the government and non-governmental organizations is investigated, these are identified as the influence of the non-profit sector. The final investigated intended influence entails the impact of businesses, which indicates the impact of the profit sector.
The unintended influences which are investigated in this study enhance the impact of the movie industry and television broadcasting channels. This is referred to as the influence of media in this study.
What is the impact of intended and unintended influences on children’s help-seeking behavior?
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Chapter 3 Literature review
Chapter three is divided in three different sections. Section one provides a background describing prior academic contributions on the subject of help-seeking behaviour. In the second section academic literature of the distinct intended and unintended factors is
discussed. From the reviewed literature hypotheses are constructed which are highlighted in the third section.
3.1 Help-seeking Behaviour
Help-seeking encompasses any communication about a problem or troublesome event which is directed toward obtaining support, advice or assistance in times of distress
(Gourash, 1978, p. 414). Throughout the years many research has been conducted on help-seeking theory among different groups, also on young people and their help-help-seeking behavior.
In common with other relatively powerless members of society, young people might well be expected to play less of a part in defining what problems are legitimate and, in consequence, problems for which society would expect them to seek help (Murray, 2005).
Murray (2005) proposed a model concerning steps young persons undertake in the process of help-seeking. The model starts with a problem, for example a parental
conflict/separation, bullying, death of a relative, abuse etc. The first step the young person faces is “perception of the dis-ease”. Recognition of the problem is necessary, the young person should be aware of the fact that the particular situation is problematic. Then, if the person has experienced unproblematic prior help-seeking pathways, he/she can directly search for help. If not, Murray (2005) describes the next step after the “perception of dis-ease” as the realization that something can be done. The young person should know that there are solutions possible for the problem he/she is facing. After this realization the young person needs a certain motivation to act, according to Murray (2005) this motivation is highly dependent on how big the problem is. If there is a motivation the young person finally has to choose a particular source of help. This concept provided by Murray (2005) creates understanding about the sequel steps a young person undertakes towards help-seeking.
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With regard to this study, each of these steps in the process of help-seeking can be
influenced by environmental influences. To illustrate this, an underlying campaign strategy can be formed in order to increase awareness for the problem and consequently make children more conscientious that a particular situation is problematic while another strategy can profoundly focus on the motivation to act. Promotion of a more concrete particular choice of help is predominantly done by the child counseling services in order to attract more “clients”.
3.2 Intended Factors
In order to encourage people to change attitude and move through the stages of
behavioural change, intended approaches can be implemented. Childcare organizations initiate advertising and service innovation events with the intention to affect behaviour. Furthermore, profit and non-profit organizations launch advertising campaigns which can be considered as a potential influence on children’s help-seeking behaviour. Before the impact of the research constructs advertising and service innovation will be investigated, the concept of these constructs will be described and prior research findings related to these constructs will be discussed.
3.2.1 Advertising
In this section the concept of advertising is explored in depth, the understanding of the concept and determination of advertising effectiveness functions as an important background for this research. The role of advertising, consumer responses, audience approach and advertising effectiveness are examined in this section.
3.2.1.1 The Role of Advertising
Today, advertising is everywhere. Whether you wait for the bus, send an email or watch television, there is a high possibility you get confronted with advertisements. Estimates of the number of advertisements that reach consumers vary from hundred to more than
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thousand a day according to Tellis (2004, p. 3). These figures indicate advertisements heavily influence awareness of individuals and have the potential of affecting their behavior.
However the emphasis of the prior sentence should focus on the word ‘’potential”, since many advertisements are argued to have not much or none impact (Tellis, 2004).
Let’s first focus on the goals advertising may fulfill. Many see advertising as a commercial evil (Tellis, 2004), but advertising may achieve more than just convincing people to buy a product or service. According to Petty & Ciacioppo (1983, p.3) advertising may also involve
convincing a person to vote or to change an important personal behavior (Petty & Cacioppo, 1983, p.3). The corresponding goal, whether it aims for commercial, political or social
purposes, is to persuade people. Persuasion is an intended approach towards adjusting the feelings and perceptions of people. Consequently, advertising may consumers process the advertising message in such a way that it elicits desirable consumer responses (MacInnis & Jaworski, 1989).
Advertising which focuses on social goals is relevant regarding this study, this type of
advertising is regularly seen in approaches as for instance public service campaigns. It differs with commercial advertising on the following aspects (McCron e.a. 1981):
- Social campaigns attempt to change fundamental behaviours whereas commercial advertising aim to mobilize an existing predisposition, as in switching brands.
- Social campaigns aim to change large proportions of the market whereas commercial advertising campaigners usually are satisfied with small shifts in gained market share. - Social campaigners avoid overselling the benefits of a particular behaviour while in
commercial advertising benefits are generally exaggerated.
- Social campaigners work with smaller monetary budgets than the commercial campaigners.
- Commercial campaigns are often distrusted, social campaigns are designed to avoid distrust because it cannot be allowed.
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3.2.1.2 Mass-audience Advertising vs. Targeted-audience Advertising
By means of mass media an identical message can be spread to a large audience. For example the paper and television are seen as a medium that reaches large proportions of the public. Such media can function as an important instrument to channel the message to large numbers of individuals in a consistent manner. For social perspectives mass
communication is widely used to disseminate a message towards society. When seeking to implement broad-scale change in behaviours mass media strategies as a campaign are among the mostly used (Daro & Donnely, 2002). The use of mass communication in a campaign-format can be defined as an integrated series of communication activities, using multiple operations and channels, aimed at populations or large target audience, usually of long duration, with a clear purpose (Atkin e.a., 1990, p. 130).
The usage of a mass medium however, does not automatically exclude that there is reached a targeted group of people; magazines, television channels usually do not serve a wholly undifferentiated market. By focusing on a specified niche of people the linkages between advertisements and consumers can be strengthened. According to Yankolovich & Meer (2006) the fragmenting of the media provides many opportunities for targeting niche
groups. The division of consumers in different groups is called market segmentation. Besides demographical segmentation criteria (i.e. gender, age), also non-demographical criteria as values and preferences can function as distinguishers of the audience. Yankolovich & Meer (2006) state that market segmentation as it can be used today may even go beyond
stereotypes of humans by capturing real truths about people’s lifestyles, attitudes, self-images and aspirations (p. 124).
Whether a campaign succeeds in changing individuals depends on audience characteristics, their attention to the message, interpersonal communication and the level of social change (Atkin e.a., 1990, p. 140). Campaigners need to know much information about their target audience. The readiness for change depends on diverse audience characteristics. Campaign planners should initially target those who are most ready for change, but they also need to target motivational messages to those less ready for change is argued by Atkin e.a. (1990). Also, those who attend to the message are most likely to change. The authors further note
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that two groups usually discuss issues: those ready for change and those who are committed to their position and are willing to convert others to it. By targeting the former group,
campaign messages can encourage discussion between these two groups.
In this study the target group of advertising obviously are children in distress. A rather undifferentiated audience approach in this respect is advertising in a way that both adults and children get confronted with the advertisements. A more targeted approach would enhance advertisements in situations where only children are likely to get in touch with the advertisements, to speak of ultimate targeted advertising also the distress aspect must be present. Ultimate targeted advertising in the context of this study can be achieved by for instance advertising on a community for bullied children or advertising in child abuse related books.
3.2.1.3 Effectiveness of Advertising
The variety of potential consumer responses advertisements elicits, provides different ways of measuring advertising effectiveness; advertising effects can be measured in intermediate and behavioral effects. Intermediate effect relate to for example awareness, memory and attitude, it refers to a mental effect of the consumer. Behavioral effect relates to a
behavioral change such as the product purchasing and usage (Vakratsas & Ambler, 1999). In general for social campaigns effects in behavior are more difficult to measure compared to commercial campaigns, according to Lannon (2008) this is due to fundamental differences. Considering costs and benefits for the latter these are more visual; performance measures as sales and financial benefits are appropriate measurements techniques for determining effectiveness. For the former there is usually no price tag on wellness and health which indicate the campaign’s effectiveness. In this study the dataset gives opportunity to directly determine the relationship between the consumer’s exposure to advertising and observable behaviour.
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Linking this with consumer response theory the investigated relationship in this study can be characterized as the following:
The direct measurement of behavior is an advantage since indirect measures often provide biased predictions of behavior. For instance behavior measures by attitudes - i.e. intention to buy – are usually inexact indicators since there is often lack of correspondence between attitude and behavior which makes it hard to indirectly determine the attitude-behavior relationship (Armitage & Christian, 2003). What people say they will do, not actually predict what they will do.
Prior academic research indicates that the effects a mass communication advertising campaigns can generate are generally raise in awareness and increase in knowledge, the so called intermediate effects. Change in attitude and motivation to act differently are harder to accomplish and substantial behaviour is even more difficult (Atkin e.a., 1990). Various meta analysis studies concerning campaign effectiveness confirm that behavioural change is very small; Snyder e.a. (2004) reported only very small measurable effects considering behaviour change in undifferentiated health communication campaigns and McAlister (1981) found in a review of large-scale anti-smoking campaigns had not been successful in stopping people from smoking (it only proved successful in making people aware of the dangers).
Mendelsohn (1968) characterizes the effectiveness of mass communication by comparing it with aerosol spray: "As you spray it on the surface, some of it hits the target; most of it drifts away; and very little of it penetrates".
Cognitive responses
Attitude Affective responses
Advertising Behaviour
Investigated relationship
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Targeted advertising can be considered as more efficient than a mass audience approach since less spill over of the marketing budget occur to an untargeted public. But will it also be more effective regarding behaviour change? Looking at prior academic research it is.
Svenkerud & Singhal (1998) examined the effectiveness of targeting social messages to unique populations of high risk for HIV / AIDS in Thailand. Audience segmentation models were used in this research, categories of segmentation where homophile, opinion leadership and position in the innovation decision continuum. The authors did found out that the diffusion of the message to these categorized groups were used to a greater degree by more effective programs. Generally untargeted outreach models had little impact. This made the authors conclude a more targeted designed HIV / AIDS prevention program approach is more likely to be effective than a program for a mainstream public.
3.2.2 Service Innovation
This study’s second explored influence with the intendancy to affect people’s behavior are the implementations of service innovation. How this concept is defined, and what
consequences in terms of people’s likelihood to use a service, is determined in this section.
3.2.2.1 Defining Service Innovation
In order to define service innovation, first a definition of the distinct terms is given:
The term “service” can be defined as a heterogeneous and intangible process rather than a product which is produced and consumed simultaneously (Johne & Storey, 1996).
The term “innovation” refers to both improvements in technology and better methods or ways of doing things. It can be manifested in product changes, process changes, new approaches to marketing, new forms of distribution, and new concepts of scope (Porter, 1998, p.45).
Although innovation is often seen as the creation of something new, innovation can also refer to refining what already exists (Goffin & Mitchell, 2005). As long as the stakeholder
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perceives something as new, it can be called an innovation. This perceived newness can be reached by offering a radically new something or by means of adjusting, modifying and changing the existing service (Goffin & Mitchell, 2005).
Combining this knowledge service innovation can simply be described as a new or improved way to offer services. Goffin & Mitchell (2005) describe it as “new services and new ways of production or delivery of services as well as adjustments in existing services or their
production or delivery”.
3.2.2.2 Rise of the Service Sector
A frequent complaint in academic literature is that services have been overlooked by economists and innovation researchers (Miles e.a., 1998). Until recently, services where seen as the tertiary sector with no real contribution to the economy in terms of extracting value, technological change etc. As such, services were seen as dependent on other sectors of the economy (Andersen e.a.,2000). The focus in research which involved topics as economic effects and innovation rates was therefore predominantly on sectors as
manufacturing. But as soon as services did grew to constitute a large part in employment and economy the role of the service sector became more acknowledged. This rise of the services did take place at the end of the twentieth century; around 1995 Canada yielded 68.8% employment shares in services and the USA 62.2% (Miles e.a., 1998). With the growing economic significance of services, greater attention has been devoted to exploring the nature and impact of services (Andersen e.a.,2000). The fresh look at services indicated a major usage of new information technology; IT-expenditure rates in the service sector were proved increasingly high (Miles e.a. 1998). This dramatic raise in IT- usage transformed the service sector from a supplier-driven sector in a more technology-driven sector.
Also non-profit and voluntary services possess a significant potential for innovative activity, especially when compared to inflexibility and bureaucracy of government departments (Osborne, 1998). Stimulating developments of these services will result in a wide range of benefits for the consumer according to Osborne (1998), since it meets individuals in a more flexible, innovative way.
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3.2.2.3 Role of the Client
A key facet of services is the interaction with clients and consumers that are commonly involved in services. Since consumption and production are often coterminous in time and space, the delivery is important (Miles e.a., 1998). With regard to this study, the delivery of conversations by Childline counsellors determines the perceived quality of the service. For products, a service – i.e. a helpdesk - is usually optional whereas for services positive costumer evaluations are crucial for the perceived quality of the service itself. Nearly all service products involve close interaction with the consumer, this interaction can be indicated as the distinguishing feature of service offerings (Johne e.a., 1996).
According to Miles e.a. (1998) the relations between service suppliers and their clients, and the process of service delivery, are of great significance for innovation and learning
processes. The authors argue services often require movements from suppliers or clients in order to be at the same place at the same time for service delivery to occur. Consequently, this may lead to various initiatives as the settlement of service offices in firms to save effort for the client. At present, the implementation of IT in service delivery can yield similar effects since the information components of services can be delivered through new media. For services delivering an information product, IT-usage can be entirely provided by such means (Miles e.a., 1998). The Childline which in essence is an information product due to its consultant nature, improved its service delivery IT-wise by providing chat conversations alongside their phone conversations (Childline, 2003).
3.2.2.4 Effectiveness of Service innovation
Innovation effectiveness describes the benefits an organization receives as a result of its implementation of a given innovation (Klein & Sorra, 1996). These effects can indicate productivity improvements, raise in profitability, sales growth etc. In this study behavioral response of the consumer will be examined. Insights in self-disclose behavior pertains data which is directly connected to the demand of the service rather than profitability or
efficiency of the service. Due to the focus on behavioral responsiveness, only service innovation features which are visual for the consumer will be considered. Consequently,
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back-office improvements – as process innovation - are not evaluated since these are not directly observable for the client.
Despite the raise of services the last decades and it’s increasing innovation-intensity,
investigation of economic impact of service innovation has been largely ignored, particularly in terms of firm-level analyses (Cainelli e.a., 2005). Hipp e.a. (2000) are one of the few researchers who investigated the relationship between service innovation indicators and organizational performance measures. The authors concluded that firms innovating their service were not necessarily likely to have increased their sales more than non-innovators or have higher future sales growth. The conclusion is supported by Lööf & Heshmati (2010) who investigated the relationship between innovation and various outcome measures. The authors did found an increase in sales per employee, implying productivity improvement but could not find an absolute raise in sales. Lack of detection in sales increase indicates that there is no behavioral consequence on the demand side.
3.3 Unintended Factors
Unintended factors which appear to effect children’s behaviors can be found in elements of movies and broadcastings. Impact of these media exposures will be investigated in this study. In this section prior academic findings on this subject will be described and analyzed.
3.3.1 Children and Media
The young generation largely engages in using media. In the households of youngsters, there is a surrounding presence of media. In a research investigating the media usage of children, Roberts (2000) concludes 97% of the investigated households have televisions, VCRs and audio systems. Furthermore is concluded that 70% has a gaming system and more than two-thirds possesses a personal computer. These figures indicate a high accessibility for children to media. The Western child is raised with media, from their point of view it’s not more than normal that is exists and is used by many. According to Strasburger (2004) the time spend with media by children and adolescents is even more than any other leisure time activity except sleeping. The large amount of time spend with media, makes the media an important
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driver in children’s thinking, opinions and social development. According to Thurow (1996) the position of the media as inculcator of values has become stronger than that of family, church or social institutions.
The television can be argued as a dominant media instrument; in the Netherlands children watch on average between 1½ and 2 hours television a day (GGD, 2010). Also outside the home environment youngsters seek pleasure of media. Despite the appearance of various new media the last decade, cinema admissions didn’t decrease. Even in the recession year 2008, admissions in the Netherlands increased with 2,4% (NVF, 2009).
Besides the frequent contact of children with media over a long period of time, academic literature also indicate a susceptibility of children to media. This can be explained by various reasons:
children have less real life experience which makes them less knowledgeable and sophisticated (Dorr, 1986).
since children have less critical thinking skills they are more likely to believe information appearing in media (Wilson & Weiss, 1992).
older children are sensible to peer pressure, elements as violence and sexuality can function as triggers in this pressure (Strasburger, 2002).
children are likely to live conform the rules and behavior they see from characters and people broadcasted on television (Gerbner et. al. 1994)
Since children are heavily susceptible to media, the media has a great potential power to alter children’s perceptions, believes and attitudes. Stanger and Gridina (1999) confirm the power of media on 10- to 17-year-old’s awareness. American children and teens recognized for example the frogs used in Budweiser campaigns more than their vice president (see figure 2).
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Figure 2 Media Influence on Awareness of Children (Stanger and Gridina, 1999)
In this study the focus is on children’s behavior, how big is the role of the media on
children’s help-seeking behavior? In order to develop understanding and expectations for this study, in the next paragraph theories and prior investigations will be described which are able to explain the impact of media on children.
3.3.2 Impact of Media Violence
There have been conducted many investigations explaining the impact of media violence on children. One of the earliest theories stems from Bandura e.a. (1961), later called the social learning theory. In an experiment where children (3 to 6 years old) witnessed aggressive behavior of an adult towards a Bobo doll, there was tested whether these children imitated the behavior (also known as modeling or observational learning). First the children watched a video where the Bobo doll was aggressively attacked by an adult. Then, the children were placed in a room with all types of toys, but they could not touch them. This was done in order to increase frustration and anger of the children. The final step of the experiment was the placement of children in new room with identical toys used in the video. Bandura e.a. (1961) concluded 88% of the children imitated the aggressive behavior seen in the video. Eight months after the experiment, 40% of the observed children reproduced the violent behavior once more. These figures are argued by Bandura e.a. (1961) as significant indicators that children learn certain behaviors after seeing models demonstrate the behavior.
According to Bandura (1977, p. 24-28) there are four components in the process of
observational learning: attention, retention, motor reproduction and motivation. The first component in the process of observational learning is attention. Individuals are unable to learn behavior by observation unless they perceive and attend to the significant features of
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the modeled behavior. In the Bobo doll experiment, there was ensured that the children clearly witnessed the aggressive behavior towards the Bobo doll. The retention component refers to the coding of information and storage in memory, so that the individual can
retrieve the information. The coding and storage of the modeled behavior in the memory of the children did make children imitate the aggressive behavior towards the Bobo doll. The next process in observational learning is motor reproduction. The individual who observed the witnessed act must be physically capable of reproducing the modeled behavior.
Obviously, the with air filled Bobo doll was a weak opponent, reproduction of hitting the doll was an easy act for the children. The final process in observational learning is motivation. If the observer gets positively reinforced by reproducing the behavior, he/she is more willing to reproduce the act in order to receive similar awards.
Since significant amount numbers of children reproduced the aggressive behavior, Bandura (1977) indicates the media as an important source of behavior modeling. In media, the usage of violence is often exposed as an acceptable behavior. Especially when good triumphs over evil by violence viewers get strongly influenced (Bandura, 1978, p. 15). Justification of the violence appears to be a key component for cueing modeled aggressive behavior (Berkowitz, 1990).
A frequently occurring problem for academic researchers is the existence of unimportant variables which can affect research outcomes. For that reason experimental studies are often criticized as being too artificial (Strasburger, 2004). Williams (1986) managed to disentangle all other effects besides the effect of media, in a research exploiting a unique situation to investigate the influence of television on children’s aggressiveness. Habitants of a town in British Colombia were not able to watch television since the town was located in a remote valley where no television signal was possible. After the leading broadcasting
channel was convinced to install a sophisticated transmitter, television was receivable in its current and matured form. Williams (1986) studied the children who lived in the particular community in two phases; before the introduction and two years after the introduction of television. The results where compared with two communities nearby, both similar in size and similar in social demographic characteristics of the community. One community only had a single TV station and the other community had multiple TV stations. The only
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dissimilarity between the communities was the existence or non-existence of television. This enabled the disentanglement of the effect of television from all other effects. The behaviors of children in all towns where rated on aggression. The aggressiveness measures prior introduction of the television and after yielded significant increase in aggressive behavior, both physically and verbally. The effects between a single or multiple station were less impressive, implying that the presence of the television was the most important factor for the aggressive behavior.
The investigations of Bandura (1961; 1977; 1978) and Williams (1986) indicate children do not automatically reject violent behavior seen in media, moreover children tend to copy certain behavior. The link between media and aggressive behavior is confirmed in numerous other investigations (e.g. Heussmann, 1984;, Johnson e.a., 2002; Dominick & Greenberg, 1972; Belson, 1978;).
Besides the subject whether children reject or imitate violent types of behavior after
observing it, prior academic research also had much attention for the influence of media on the tolerance level of children. Closely related to the tolerance level of children is the term desensitization. Desensitization refers to the process in which repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to reduced responsiveness to it (Strasburger, 2004, p. 61). Less activity in response indicates a higher tolerance for the initial action. Drabman e.a. (1974) investigated the impact of violent movies on the toleration level of children concerning aggressiveness and violence. The results indicated that the children who watched an aggressive movie did create higher tolerance levels of violence. Drabman e.a. (1974) proposed that the
expectancies in real-life behaviour are affected due to the exposure of media violence; viewing violence, even though is in an entertainment setting, may increase one’s tolerance of aggression in the real world. Also in situations of witnessed violence it seems likely that reactions to aggression encountered in everyday life may be significantly affected by portrayal of violence (Drabman e.a., 1974). This conclusion is shared by Funk (2003), who states that repeated exposure to real-life and entertainment violence may alter cognitive, affective, and behavioural processes which may stronger pro-violence attitudes (p. 23).
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3.3.3 Impact of Sexual Content in Media
The media are full of sexual information, and in some of the different kinds of media the portrayals have grown increasingly frequent and explicit (Brown e.a., 2005). Research indicated that from the top 10 shows identified by teenage viewers 8 out of 10 episodes included some kind of sexual content, furthermore only 15% of sexual depictions included reference to safe sex, contraceptives or consequences related to having sex (Kunkel e.a., 2009). According to Strasburger (2004) the media has become the leading sex educator for the youth. The author argues that children and teenagers are getting vicariously confronted with sexual content in the media while simultaneously parents are reluctant to discuss sexual activity or birth control and the existence of comprehensive sex education programs nationwide is very low (p. 63).
The role media plays as influencer on children’s sexual perceptions and opinions is generally explained as harmful and negative. Media often portray sexual provoking content which is unrealistic (Malumuth & Impett, 2001). Also according to Brown & Shilders (1990) sexual content in media is often wrongly portrayed; the authors state sexual behavior is often associated with violence or a display of power and is rarely depicted in the context of a loving or committed relationship or as an expression of mutual affection (p. 63). As earlier mentioned children and adolescents are susceptible to media, regarding portrayal of sexual content children and adolescents can feel pressure towards conducting sexual behavior. Young people also achieve much information about sex from peers, the impact of peers is universally acknowledged (Strasburger, 2004). At the same time, many of these peers are influenced by the media. Therefore, the media is argued by Strasburger (2004) to work as a “super peer”.
Fabes & Strouse (1987) investigated the influence of media role models on sexual behavior of students. The authors asked more than 500 students to identify models of responsible and irresponsible sexual behavior. Students were separated in two groups; those who
identified media and peers as examples of their top choice of responsible sexuality and those who identified more traditional models as their top choice of responsible sexuality. The relationship between attention to sexual models and the reported sexual behavior and
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attitudes of the observers was also examined. Results of the research indicated that the media/peers group reported a significantly greater frequency of sexual intercourse than did the parents/educators group (Fabes & Strouse, 1987). According to the authors, students who have media and peers as primary models of sexual responsibility also are more permissive in terms of sexual attitude and sexual behavior (p.70). Another study which focused on the relationship between media and sexual activity of young people was conducted by Brown & Newcomer (1991). The proportion of sexually oriented television relative to total programming was proved significantly related with to the sexual activity status of junior high school students. This relationship held regardless of perceived peer encouragement to engage in sex and across race and gender groups (Brown & Newcomer, 1991, p. 78). The authors state the effect of media to engage earlier in sexual intercourse can be explained by the social learning theory of Bandura (1977). “Heavy” television viewers frequently see young adults interact sexually, consequently they start seeing it as a cultural norm (Brown & Newcomer, 1991, p. 79). Furthermore modeling will occur more readily when the model is similar and attractive, and the modeled behavior is possible, simple and has functional value (Bandura, 1994). Since sexual behavior is often displayed as such in media, modeling can be achieved easily.
3.4 Hypotheses
Based on the findings in the literature review, expectancies in the form of hypotheses can be constructed. These hypotheses provide insights in the overall research question of this study: What is the impact of intended and unintended influences on children’s help-seeking
behavior?
In this study the advertising efforts of the Childline, non-profit sector and profit sector are studied. The advertising influence can be considered as an intended approach towards adjusting the feelings and perceptions of people. The main criteria is that there is a particular purpose behind the action, so the audience see an underlying message. With regard to this study an advertising effort can for example relate to a government campaign aiming to attend children to the dangers of domestic violence or a promotional activity by
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the Childline. In this study a distinction is made in general advertising and targeted
advertising. This relates to the differentiation in approach towards the audience, where the targeted approach focuses on a more segmented audience.
Looking at the effectiveness of advertising in prior academic research, there can be concluded a low effect of general advertising on people’s behaviour. According to the literature targeted approaches of advertising are proved to be more effective in eliciting behavioural response.
This conclusion leads us to the first hypothesis:
H1: The intended influence general advertising has no effect on the help-seeking behavior of children, targeted advertising has a significant effect on the help-seeking behaviour of children
The second hypothesis encompasses the relation between service innovation and help seeking-behaviour. Service innovation refers to a perceived newness in the production or delivery of a service. The investigated service innovations are implemented by the Childline and consider appreciable improvements for the client.
Prior research indicates low association between service innovation and behavioural effects. The lack of responsiveness of the consumer may question whether new efforts in services are always worthwhile. This leads us to the second hypothesis:
H2: The intended influence service innovation has no effect on the help-seeking behaviour of children
The investigated unintended factors consider the influence of violent and sexual content in media. From the literature review can be derived that children learn and imitate certain behaviours after observation in media. Violent content in media can stimulate aggressive behaviour of children in real-life situations. Also the sensibility of children to aggressive and violent behaviour appears to be affected by portrayal of violence. Consequently, the
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media. This assumes that children who are confronted more often with violent content in media are less likely to engage in help-seeking behaviour.
Sexual content in media affects children and adolescents in their sexual behaviour. Sexual intercourse is proved to be positively related to sexual content in media, furthermore permissiveness of sexual interaction is higher for those who watch sexual content in media more often. Consequently, undesired sexual contacts appear less often when confrontation of children with sexual content in media increases. From these findings there can be assumed that observation of sexual content in the media by children affects their help-seeking behaviour negatively.
The similar findings for violent and sexual content in television broadcasting and movies enables the creation of one hypothesis for both influences:
H3: The environmental unintended influence “violent and sexual content in television broadcastings and movies” effects help-seeking behaviour of children negatively
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Chapter 4 Methodology
The fourth chapter of the master thesis is divided in four different parts. The first paragraph explains what kind of study the master thesis is. The second paragraph shows the research set-up. The third paragraph pertains the data collection and the last paragraph provides information about the context wherein the study takes place.
4.1 Case Study Approach
The research question will be addressed with support of data gathering provided by the Childline Netherlands, which can be considered as the leading child support service for children in the Netherlands.
Chosen is for the case study method because this method is very flexible and it is a method that can explain almost a new topic by gathering specific information of a case (Yin, 2003, p.1). Also, the case study method allows freedom in the investigation since different approaches and collection methods can be used. The resultant theory of the case study approach is often novel, testable, and empirically valid (Eisenhardt, 1989, p. 534). There is no sufficient prior research concerning factors effecting help-seeking of children in distress, to make use of - or test - existing theory. However, there is academic literature available of the research constructs in other context than the child care sector. The review of the literature constituted in several hypotheses which, at the end of the study, are tested. Consequently, this can be considered as a case study with a deductive nature.
4.2 Research Set-up
The research consists of two parts. The first part is focused on the influence of intended environmental factors and the second part focuses on the influence of unintended environmental factors. These factors are the independent variables of the study which are supposed to effect help-seeking behaviour of children which is the dependent variable. Graphically this leads to the following relationship between the variables:
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Various entities attempt to lower the prevalence of child distress. Organizations operative within the child protection agencies promote and communicate its activities to the outside world and innovate services, the government department of child and youth care and non-governmental organizations launch campaigns and, from corporate responsibility
perspective, also companies contribute by meeting ethical standards or campaign launches. All these entities, whether it is the government or a non governmental organization, have the intendancy to initiate a type of behaviour or change a type of behaviour of people. The underlying messages is designed to encourage people to move through the stages of behavioural change.
Organizational influence
The organizational influence refers to the Childline counselling service which attempts to attract new clients. In fact, by advertising their service and increasing awareness for the problem, they attempt to reach children in distress and consequently change their behaviour - in terms of making them become active in help-seeking. The national department of the Childline Netherlands initiate many advertising activities, almost all activities occur in environments where children and adolescents are likely to interact. Schools, libraries and youth care institutions are common places for the Childline to place advertising content. Also, the Childline often connects with media and press in order to do announcements about scheduled events, activities, achievements etc. Since these attempts are used to create awareness, this also is indicated as advertising.
Intended influences
Help-seeking behaviour of children
Dependent variable Unintended influences
Independent variables
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The effect of service innovations by the Childline on help-seeking behaviour of children also is investigated in this study. By improving service features and changing offers, the Childline aims to serve the client as good as possible and eventually attract new clients. Examples of implemented service innovations are the renewed website and the launch of the chat application. Back-office improvements – as process innovation - are not evaluated since these are not directly observable for the client
Non-profit sector influence
The non-profit influence consists of initiatives of the government and the non governmental organisations (NGO’s). The Netherlands has a ministry for Youth and Family. The incentive of this ministry is argued by some worrying trends: growing reports of child abuse, children with behavioural problems, the unhealthy lifestyle of some youngsters, the number of children who neither attend school nor work, and the increase of antisocial behaviour among the youth (Jeugd en Gezin, 2010). The main goals of the youth and family ministry are: to accord the family its rightful place in society, prevention by identifying and tackling problems early, and binding commitments on all stakeholders (Jeugd en Gezin, 2010). The problems are tackled through a concerted effort: the ministries in The Hague, the municipal and provincial authorities, youth care institutions, schools and other stakeholders work together closely in order to succeed. The ministry of Youth and Family has its own portfolio with a dedicated budget of more than 5 Billion Euro (Jeugd en Gezin, 2008).
Also non-governmental organizations are operative with motivations to protect Children’s rights. For example the network of No Kidding strives to break the silence among child abuse. They see this as a first step towards their final goal which is the prevention of child abuse.
The advertising efforts of these governmental and non-governmental entities will be considered in this research. In the campaigns, not only by focusing on the individualized child but also by focusing on interpersonal relations, attempts are made to create social responsiveness and awareness.
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Profit sector influence
By means of corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs also businesses have social contributions to society. Businesses that are implementing CSR in their strategies are looking beyond how their decision making impacts their commercial activities. These firms also examine what kind of effects their decisions have on the society around them (Kermani, 2006). Many believe that companies engage in CSR because of their own sake; empathy for the company can be developed by operating socially responsible. Also there are pressures of activist groups and the media in pluralist western societies which have increasing power (Orlitzky e.a., 2003). Despite the nature of the motivation for companies to use CSR, there is contributed a social message towards society which can result in behavioural change. In this study social advertising campaigns related to child distress are investigated on their impact on children’s help-seeking behaviour.
Unintended influences
Factors which do not intend to have any influence on activity of children towards
self-disclosure of problems are, in contrast to intended environmental influences, not embedded in social and promotional messages. Unintended influences are originated from an activity which has – by accident - as side effect to be influential. The media and movie releases are considered in this study.
Media
This refers to broadcastings executed by media corporations without any interests to influence the viewer. As side effect of the program delivery, people’s behaviour might be affected. For instance in documentaries and discussion programs where child-related problems come across, children who can identify themselves with the problems (i.e. abuse, sexuality) can be affected by portrayals, stories and discussions.
Movie industry
There is an overload of movies containing elements – as violence – which can influence children. The intentions of the movie producers are to entertain audience, not specifically to
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initiate behavioural change. Every year new movies release, they are seen by millions in the Netherlands only. In 2009 Dutch cinema’s noted 27,6 million admissions while this was 18,6 in 1999 (Nederlandse vereniging van film distributeurs, 2010). These figures show that it is a growing market. In this study only movies are considered which have achieved high
admission rates in the Netherlands (>600.000), and simultaneously connect with sexual or violent issues.
Help-seeking behavior of children
The described intended and unintended influences are investigated on their impact of help-seeking behavior of children. Extensive call data is provided by the Childline service in the Netherlands for this study. The dataset enhances data from 1995 until present, the data enables investigation not only on total calls but also on topic related call intensity since the data is segmented on subject.
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The figure below conceptualizes the study in a research framework.
4.3 Data Collection
This paragraph pertains the data collection of the independent variable and the dependent variable. The data collection of the independent variable consists of many sources of primary and secondary data, this is summarized in table 1.
Organization (Childline) Non-profit sector Profit sector
Service innovation
Advertising
Government advertising campaigns
NGO advertising campaigns
Business advertising campaigns Intended influential factors
Television broadcasting channels Movie industry
National television broadcastings related to Childline-topics
Movie releases Unintended influential factors
Overall call intensity
Subject intensity of calls Help-seeking
behaviour of children
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Influential factor Collected from source URL
In
te
n
d
ed
Service innovation CL - Annual reports CL
Advertising events CL - Annual reports CL
Generated press by the CL – other than service innovation and advertising events - broadcasted on national television
- Dutch broadcasting archive
- Online storage missed broadcastings
www.beeldengeluid.nl www.uitzendinggemist.nl
Generated press by the CL – other than service innovation and advertising events – published in the newspaper
- Archives of nationally operating newspapers
www.ad.nl www.telegraaf.nl
etc.
Government advertising - Official announcements from
governmental institutions - Contact with spokesperson
NGO advertising - Official NGO announcements
- Contact with spokesperson
Profit sector advertising - Official company websites
Un in te n d ed
National television broadcastings - Dutch broadcasting archive
- Online storage missed broadcastings
www.beeldengeluid.nl www.uitzendinggemist.nl
Movie releases related to CL-topics
- Statistics Dutch Federation for Cinematography (used for release dates and admission rates).
- Database of Kijkwijzer; Dutch agency for movie and broadcasting
recommendation (used for official movie-classifications – content of violence/sex etc.) www.nfcstatistiek.nl www.kijkwijzer.nl Behavi o u ral e ff ect Help-seeking behaviour of children
Dataset provided by the Childline Netherlands. All incoming calls of 1995 until present are administrated. The extensive dataset entails information about gender, age, subject, duration and date.
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Sources of data collection include official data only in order to collect reliable input of data. Some of the data-findings are cross checked because multiple sources of evidence in the data collection phase protect the research findings against researcher bias and overall increase the construct validity of the case study (Yin, 2003, p. 159). For example if in the official announcement of a campaign launch is responded a start date and a duration period there is in all cases cross checked by a spokesperson of the institution/organization if the campaign actually ran that period of time or due to reasons has been cut off earlier or has been extended.
4.4 Data Categorization
After the data collection phase, the data is categorized in tables. The first distinction in data categorization is the nature of intention, a further distinction identified the initiator
(organization, non-profit sector, profit sector, movie industry, broadcasting channels). All events are linked with a time period wherein the event has occurred. For service innovation and advertising events there is also checked if the event has been reported in media. For example the touring information bus of the Childline is a form of advertising. If this event is explicitly reported in the media awareness about the event is raised by a broader public, therefore the date of broadcasting or publication is also considered. Furthermore, besides service innovation and advertising events, the Childline uses media channels to report other types of events. For example information about the amount of calls in a particular month. Especially the journal for children which is daily broadcasted on national television is often used to do announcements. Besides broadcastings, also publications in nationally operating newspapers are used by the Childline to disseminate a message to the audience. These types of contacting the society can be considered as self-generated press with the purpose to create awareness for the Childline counselling service. Therefore, this type of organisational informing and reporting in media is identified as advertising events as well. Next, there are selected five books which are categorized as targeted advertising events. All books are related to specific child distress topics – child abuse, incest, sexual intimidation, general questions – and enhance advertising content of the Childline.
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Advertising of profit and non-profit organisations predominantly entail advertising campaigns which run a longer period in time.
Data of the unintended influence the movie industry entail information about movie releases in Dutch cinema’s. The movies which yielded the highest amount of attendance in Dutch cinema’s are expected to have the largest impact. Therefore only the movies with highest admissions are considered in this study, as cut-off rate is chosen for 600.000 admissions. Furthermore the content of the movie plays an important role in this study. From the studied literature can be derived that violent and sexual content in movies have great potential power on the help-seeking behaviour of children. Consequently, movies which did not connect to these subjects were excluded from the dataset. Furthermore there have been released a few movies which connect so heavily with Child distress issues (i.e. domestic violence, sexual intimidation) that these movie releases have been added to the data even though admissions rates of > 600.000 were not reached. Also television
broadcastings were identified on topic, the broadcastings which had connection with sexuality and/ or violence were added to the dataset.
All the data of the intended and unintended events which I coded and used for this research can be found in the appendices section (appendix I until appendix XII) at the end of this report. The data of the behavioural consequences, which includes the Childline dataset of incoming calls is not published in this report for confidential reasons.
4.5 Analysis of the Data
The independent variable representing the events which happened in a particular period of time are linked with the call-intensity variables of total calls and topic-related calls.
Regression analysis in SPSS is used in order to describe the strength and direction of the relationship between the separate analyzed influences on the one hand and the help-seeking behavior (call intensity, subject) of children on the other hand. The process of data analysis will be more specifically explained in chapter five.
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4.6 The Context of the Research
The Childline Netherlands (in Dutch: Kindertelefoon) is the leading confidential counseling service for children in the Netherlands. The Childline is available for those under eighteen years old who struggle with problems or concerns. There is no standard for the emergence of the problem which results in a low barrier to call (Kindertelefoon, 2010). From origin the Childline is a free telephone service, since 2003 it
is also available for chatters (Kindertelefoon, 2003). The organization is dependent on its trained volunteers who inform, advice and
support the callers. The Childline is part of Bureau
Jeugdzorg, an entity subsidized by the government
which is able to provide more practical help for the children - and parents (Kindertelefoon, 2010). In critical cases where practical intervention is demanded, children can be redirected to the specialized people of Bureau Jeugdzorg. The child can only be redirected if he/she gives permission. The regional departments of the Childline, where the volunteers do their conversations, are located all around the country with 15 locations
(Kindertelefoon, 2010). The national department of the Childline functions to launch national
publicity, initiate projects and manage the organization.
Childline Facts*
Founded in January 1979 (international year of the Child)
Conversations by telephone in 2008: 153.816
Conversations by chat in 2008: 62.757
Telephone lines are open from 14.00 until 20.00 daily 365 days a year
In 2008 the “hottest” topic was sexuality (telephone) and relationships (chat)
At the end of 2008, 677 volunteers were active within the organization
*Kindertelefoon (2010). Retrieved ; june, 2010, from:
http://www.kindertelefoon.nl/overdekindertelefoon and
http://www.kindertelefoon.nl/volwassenen/verslagen
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Chapter 5 Results
The fifth chapter is the analyzing part of the master thesis. This chapter is divided in two different parts. The first part pertains the data analysis; it explains the analyzing parts which are practised and how they contribute to answering the research question “What is the
impact of intended and unintended influences on children’s help-seeking behavior?”. The
second part of this chapter shows and describes the results of this study.
5.1 Data Analysis
After the collection and categorization of data there have been conducted many
calculations. The calculation part is done by junior researcher L. Ma. of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) who directed the outcomes back to me in order to evaluate them. A description of the analyzing and calculating sections is provided in the next paragraphs, also is described how the effect of other non-research variables on this study’s outcomes is limited.
5.1.1 Data Calculations
The data calculations are conducted using linear multiple regression analysis in SPSS, this includes techniques for modelling and analyzing the relationship between one dependent variable and several independent variables. The analysis helps understand how the
dependent variable changes when one of the independent variables varies, while the others remain constant. The multiple regression model attempts to model the relationship between the independent variables which are the explanatory variables and the dependent variable which is the responsive variable by fitting a linear equation. The set of independent variables used in the analysis consists of variables of interest as well as other predictor variables which do not underlie the research question but do have affective nature. Various variables of non-interest are included in the dataset in order to control for its effect on other variables, these variables will be more elaborately explained in the paragraph 5.1.2.
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Two types of multiple linear regression analyses have been conducted in order to investigate the relationship between the (un)intended factors and the help-seeking behavior of children. The first method entails a multiple linear regression analysis linking the amount of
attempted calls to the Childline Netherlands with the categorized events. Outcomes of this analysis give insights whether the overall call intensity is affected by the events. Since some events are subject sensitive and thus are expected to influence only a subset of the call behavior, there is also conducted a multiple linear regression analysis regarding the share of major topics. The major topics of calls are categorized in four categories: violence, sexuality, relationships at home and love relationships & friendships.
Additionally, the data of the two types of regression analyses entails both interval data and rational data. Data concerning the dependent variable enhances rational data considering the amount of calls and a classification of calls. Data of the independent variables enhances interval data on a timeline from 1995 until present. The length of the interval data differs since it depends on the studied event.
5.1.2 Control Variables
Besides the environmental factors investigated in this study there are other factors which are argued to have powerful influence on the dependent variable help-seeking behavior. The outcome values displayed of the dependent variable are inaccurate unless the effect of these variables is standardized. By controlling these variables there is attempted to separate their effect from the investigated effect. The following variables are indicated as control variables in this study:
Unemployment Rainfall millimeter First four months Holidays
Number of divorces Table 2 Control Variables
