Objectives. To conduct an in-depth analysis of all suicides occurring in Alaska between September 1, 2003 and August 31, 2006, and to conduct follow-back interviews with key informants for select cases. Study design. Suicide data were gathered from the Alaska Bureau of Vital Statistics, law enforcement agencies and the Alaska medical examiner's office. Trained counsellors administered the 302 branching-question follow-back protocol during in-person interviews with key informants about the decedents. Methods. Suicide death certificates, medical examiner's reports and police files were analysed retrospectively. Key informants were contacted for confidential interviews about the decedents' life, especially regarding risk and protective factors. Results. There were 426 suicides during the 36-month study period. The suicide rate was 21.4/100,000. Males out-numbered females 4 to 1. The age-group of 20 to 29 had both the greatest number of suicides and the highest rate per 100,000 population. Alaska Natives had a suicide rate that was three times higher than the non-Native population. Follow-back interviews were conducted with 71 informants for 56 of the suicide decedents. Conclusions. This research adds significant information to our existing knowledge of suicide in Alaska, particularly as it affects the younger age groups among the Alaska Native population and the role of alcohol/drugs.

This study investigates how timing of the introduction of unpleasant emotional tone in a traffic safety video impacts the intensity of the viewer's emotional experience. Traffic safety advertising is a multi-million-dollar business in the United States. In many instances, 30-60 s ads are produced to raise awareness of the consequences of unsafe behaviors with the expectation that simply providing information will motivate safer behaviors. Producing videos intended to generate behavior change requires a complex understanding of what motivates behavior. Behavior change theory, neuroscience, and psychophysiology all provide guidance to improve the persuasive power of traffic safety videos. This study consisted of a 3 (message tone) × 3 (video) × 4 (order) repeated measures within subjects designed experiment. Participants (N = 75) were 20-30-year-old men who were shown nine traffic safety videos. Arousal intensity, attention, and negative emotion were tracked with the psychophysiological measures of skin conductance (measuring intensity of arousal), heart rate (measuring attention paid during the video), and corrugator muscle activation (measuring the negative emotional experience). Videos with three different aversive tones were used, low, high, and videos in which the tone switched from low to high aversive. Aversive tone is defined as stimuli that motivate a desire to escape or avoid something like death or pain. All videos were designed to prevent motor vehicle crashes. The results obtained from this study indicate that when attempting to persuade males aged 20-30 to practice safer driving behaviors, switched message tone appears to be the most effective message design in terms the intensity of emotional arousal and maintenance of attention.

Traffic safety initiatives frequently involve passive measures such as building safer cars and roads. Traffic safety also involves driver behavior. A seatbelt is only useful if an occupant uses it. Traffic safety advertising has become a multi-million-dollar business in the United States. In many instances, 30 second ads are produced to raise awareness of the consequences of unsafe behaviors with the expectation that simply providing information will motivate safer behaviors. Video messaging intended to generate behavior change requires a more complex understanding of what motivates change. To be powerful, videos must capture attention and create a motivating emotional experience. Psychophysiology can provide guidance to improve the persuasive power of traffic safety videos. Psychophysiological measure can index cognitive and emotional processes underlying persuasion and provide insights beyond the traditional method of collecting self-reported impressions. This study consisted of a 3 (Message Tone) X 3 (Messages) X 4 (Order) repeated measures within subjects designed experiment. Participants (N=75) were 20–30-yearold men who were shown nine traffic safety video messages. Attention, emotion and arousal were quantitatively tracked through skin conductance (measuring arousal), heart rate (measuring attention paid during the video) and corrugator muscle activation (measuring the negative emotional experience). Three types of videos were used, one with pleasant (appetitive) content, one with negative (aversive) content and one in which the video started out pleasant, then switched to negative. The results obtained from this study indicate that when attempting to persuade males aged 20-30 to practice safer driving behaviors through exposure to video ads, switched content appears to be the most effective message design in terms of arousing motivation and maintaining levels of attention. On a practical level, the research suggests that for this demographic switching from low to high aversive content will hold viewer attention, and result in high levels of arousal.

BackgroundUnited States teenagers have the highest crash rate of any group in the nation. Alaska data tell a similar story. Leading causes of crashes for Alaska teen drivers are: driver inattention, unsafe speed, failure to yield and driver inexperience (Alaska Injury Prevention Centre, 2012). In partnership with the Alaska Injury Prevention Centre, a resource guide was created, listing best practices in Alaska teen driving interventions connected to three areas: distracted driving, seat belt use and drinking and driving.MethodsGuide content was evaluated for alignment with best practice through a multi-step filtering process. Available literature was distilled down to a final collection of safe teen driving intervention strategies based on best-available evidence. Results were categorised into a taxonomy of approaches, and were classified into levels of promise associated with certainty of effectiveness and potential population impact.ResultsStrategies found to be most promising included public policy efforts surrounding graduated drivers’ licensing programs, a minimum legal drinking age of 21, cell phone restrictions while driving and seat belt requirements. In addition, community and parental roles of partnerships, boundary setting and monitoring teens’ driving behaviours, were found to have equal levels of promise. Of significance was the importance of intervention strategies with diverse influences, including all levels of the Social Ecological Model.ConclusionsThe developed process can be used as an effective model when synthesising large amounts of data, and can work in a variety of study areas to help practitioners understand complex research and guide them in their intervention choices. Resulting recommendations included multiple public policy enhancements in the state of Alaska, including graduated driver’s license program modifications, enhancement of the state’s zero-tolerance policy and broad scale restrictions of driver cell-phone use.