PHILADELPHIA -- A $25 million endowment from the Annenberg Foundation of St. Davids, Pa., will be used to establish a new Institute for Adolescent Risk Communication at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center, according to an announcement today by Penn President Judith Rodin.

The new Institute will feature a unique cross-disciplinary approach to developing effective mass communications programs to address a major social concern -- the propensity of adolescents to engage in a variety of "risky behaviors." The Institute will draw upon outstanding faculty members in medicine, social work, nursing, arts and sciences, and law to build upon extensive work already underway at the Annenberg Public Policy Center to evaluate and formulate mass media campaigns geared at minimizing high-risk behavior among adolescents. The Institute's work will focus on four critical areas: tobacco use; drug use; behaviors leading to sexually transmitted diseases; and suicidal behavior.

"This extraordinary gift from the Annenberg Foundation will help us find new ways to reduce the incidence of high-risk behavior among teenagers and ensure that they become healthy, happy and productive adults," Rodin said. "The new Institute will harness the formidable efforts already underway in this area at the Annenberg Public Policy Center and provide important new opportunities for scholars to collaborate with colleagues at other schools and centers at Penn who are working on issues of adolescent behavior."

An additional $2.5 million will be used to establish the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Chair for the Director of the Public Policy Center at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. The chair will be held by the director of the Center.

Leonore Annenberg, Vice Chairman of the Annenberg Foundation, said: "With our nation increasingly focused on minimizing adolescent risk, this new Institute is poised to advance research in the field and contribute to a better understanding of the issues and treatments. Walter and I are pleased to be able to make these grants, which affirm our confidence in the work of the Public Policy Center and its leadership."

The Annenberg Public Policy Center has played an important role in evaluating and developing many mass media campaigns that attempt to alter the disposition of adolescents to engage in risky behaviors, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication and Director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. Major ad campaigns within the past decade have urged teens to avoid drugs and tobacco, use seat belts, not drink and drive, and avoid behaviors that can lead to the contraction of sexually transmitted diseases. Other efforts have focused on reducing teen pregnancy.

"Most of these campaigns, and the research accompanying them, have concentrated on reducing one risky behavior at a time," she said. "What's lost in this 'single issue' approach is whether, for example, a successful anti-smoking campaign results in a decreased perception of the risks of drugs, or how the effectiveness of a particular campaign changes as very young teens grow older. What works for one campaign may actually be harmful to another.

"The new Institute will enable us to have, for the first time, an integrated focus on adolescent risk communications that will leverage our expertise and resources for the best possible results."

Jamieson said that the Institute would also provide additional opportunities for undergraduate and graduate student research in adolescent risk. In addition, the Institute will host an international summit on issues surrounding adolescent risk in May 2001.

The Annenberg Public Policy Center has been actively engaged in projects relating to the four target risk behaviors. In the area of minimizing tobacco use by adolescents and encouraging adolescents who smoke to quit, the Policy Center sponsored a conference summarizing the scholarly literature, produced a book and secured funding for a national survey about adolescent risk perception about tobacco.

In 1997 and 1998, the Policy Center hosted conferences on the issues of minimizing the likelihood that adolescents will use illegal drugs and convincing those who do to stop. Research is currently being conducted on the efficacy of current anti-drug public service announcements and on models for future campaigns.

The Policy Center is currently evaluating interventions designed to minimize adolescent participation in risky sexual behavior that could lead to sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS.

Finally, the Center is conducting research concerned with changing the ways in which the popular culture and the news media portray suicide.

The Annenberg Foundation is the successor corporation to the Annenberg School at Radnor, Pennsylvania established in 1958 by Walter H. Annenberg. It exists to advance the public well-being through improved communication. The foundation current grant-making interests include youth development and public school reformation in the United States.

For more information on the Annenberg Public Policy Center, visit www.appcpenn.org.