1,721,261 research outputs found
Participants’ enactment of behavior change techniques: A call for increased focus on what people do to manage their motivation and behaviour
No full textNelli Hankonen (2021) Participants’ enactment of behavior change techniques: a call for increased focus on what people do to manage their motivation and behavior, Health Psychology Review, 15:2, 185-194, DOI: 10.1080/17437199.2020.1814836
Intervention effectiveness does not only depend on fidelity of intervention delivery, but also the
enactment, or use, of behavior change techniques (BCTs) by the participants. For example, it is not
sufficient that intervention provider prompts an intervention participant to self-monitor their
physical activity, but crucially, the participant enacts self-monitoring.
Theoretical and conceptual work integrating various strands of research into ‘what a person can do
for oneself’ to change behavior is needed. This paper argues how this would aid in designing for,
assessing, and promoting the use individuals’ self-management techniques, and ultimately, our
understanding of sustained behavior change.
The recently published, integrative compendium of self-enactable techniques to change and self-
manage motivation and behavior can act as a useful starting point for this work. An increased focus
on the enactment of BCTs would help clarify intervention processes, help explain trial outcomes,
and potentially enhance intervention effectiveness
The compendium of self-enactable techniques to change and self-manage motivation and behaviour
No full textThe supplementary files available here relate to a manuscript published in Nature Human Behaviour, which is available from https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0798-9
This work was funded by the Academy of Finland (Project Grant No: 295765) and led by PI Nelli Hankonen
Changing activity behaviours in vocational school students: The stepwise development and optimised content of the ‘Let’s Move it’ intervention
No full textNelli Hankonen, Pilvikki Absetz & Vera Araújo-Soares (2020) Changing activity behaviours in vocational school students: the stepwise development and optimised content of the ‘let’s move it’ intervention, Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine, 8:1, 440-460, DOI: 10.1080/21642850.2020.1813036
Background: School-based interventions that sustainably increase physical activity (PA) are lacking. Systematic and participatory, theory and evidence-based intervention development may enhance effectiveness of complex behavioral interventions.
Aims: To illustrate a stepwise process to develop intervention targeting PA and sedentary behavior (SB) among older adolescents.
Methods: Two established intervention development frameworks (Intervention Mapping and Behaviour Change Wheel) were integrated, leading to a comprehensive evidence and theory based process. It was informed by empirical studies, literature reviews, expert and stakeholder consultation, including scenario evaluation and component pre-testing.
Results: After problem specification (step 1), behavioral diagnosis (step 2) identified a variety of determinants in the domains of capability (e.g. self-regulation skills), motivation (e.g.outcome expectations) and environmental opportunities. These were organized into an intervention theory integrating several formal theories, including self-determination theory. Theory-aligned principles guided material design (Step 3). Feasibility RCT allowed optimization into a final intervention protocol (Step 4).
Conclusions: Intervention elements directly and indirectly target students by changing teacher behavior and the school and wider environment. A systematic development and optimization led to a high potential for sustainability. This description provides a practical, hands-on example of intervention development process. The detailed intervention content, with specification of hypothesized mechanisms, allows replication and adaptation
Bayesian evaluation of behavior change interventions: a brief introduction and a practical example
Full text linkIntroduction Evaluating effects of behavior change interventions is a central interest in health psychology and behavioral medicine. Researchers in these fields routinely use frequentist statistical methods to evaluate the extent to which these interventions impact behavior and the hypothesized mediating processes in the population. However, calls to move beyond the exclusive use of frequentist reasoning are now widespread in psychology and allied fields. We suggest adding Bayesian statistical methods to the researcher’s toolbox of statistical methods. Objectives We first present the basic principles of the Bayesian approach to statistics and why they are useful for researchers in health psychology. We then provide a practical example on how to evaluate intervention effects using Bayesian methods, with a focus on Bayesian hierarchical modeling. We provide the necessary materials for introductory-level readers to follow the tutorial. Conclusion: Bayesian analytical methods are now available to researchers through easy-to-use software packages, and we recommend using them to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions for their conceptual and practical benefits
Studying behaviour change mechanisms under complexity
Full text linkUnderstanding the mechanisms underlying the effects of behaviour change interventions is vital for accumulating valid scientific evidence, and useful to informing practice and policy-making across multiple domains. Traditional approaches to such evaluations have applied study designs and statistical models, which implicitly assume that change is linear, constant and caused by independent influences on behaviour (such as behaviour change techniques). This article illustrates limitations of these standard tools, and considers the benefits of adopting a complex adaptive systems approach to behaviour change research. It (1) outlines the complexity of behaviours and behaviour change interventions; (2) introduces readers to some key features of complex systems and how these relate to human behaviour change; and (3) provides suggestions for how researchers can better account for implications of complexity in analysing change mechanisms. We focus on three common features of complex systems (i.e., interconnectedness, non-ergodicity and non-linearity), and introduce Recurrence Analysis, a method for non-linear time series analysis which is able to quantify complex dynamics. The supplemental website provides exemplifying code and data for practical analysis applications. The complex adaptive systems approach can complement traditional investigations by opening up novel avenues for understanding and theorising about the dynamics of behaviour change
What triggers changes in adolescents’ physical activity? Analysis of critical incidents during childhood and youth in student writings
Full text linkObjectives: To better understand life course transitions in physical activity (PA), we should identify crucial events that may play a key role as triggers for change. The aim of this study was to understand dynamic PA change by identifying triggers that adolescents themselves relate to their PA changes. Design: A qualitative, inductive approach was used to analyse writings. Methods: Critical Incident Technique can was used to analyse 115 specimens of 15-24-year-old students' writings. Results: We identified seven critical incident categories: promoting one's own well-being, becoming aware of body-image ideals, finding an inspiring sport or losing sport motivation, encountering health problems, experiencing transitions in life circumstances, receiving support or lacking support from significant others, and becoming an adult. The adolescents' stories depicted the first three associated with agentic PA increase. Conclusions: CIT holds promise as a useful analytical method for understanding impactful events leading to changes in lifestyle PA during the life course from the participants' own perspective.Peer reviewe
Thematic analysis of acceptability and fidelity of engagement for behaviour change interventions: The Let's Move It intervention interview study
Full text linkObjectives:
Intervention participants’ responses to and engagement with interventions are a key intermediate step between interventions and intended outcomes. The aim of this study was to qualitatively investigate crucial aspects of engagement, namely acceptability (experienced cognitive and emotional responses to the intervention), receipt (comprehension of intervention content), and skill enactment (skill performance in target settings), within the Let’s Move It, a multi‐component school‐based physical activity intervention.
Design:
A longitudinal qualitative study embedded in a cluster‐randomized trial, with individual interviews of purposefully sampled intervention participants immediately post‐intervention (n = 21) and at 14 months (n = 14).
Methods:
Semi‐structured interviews were analysed using thematic analysis. Abductive coding process was taken to identify categories for themes.
Results:
The analysis resulted in 12 themes and 18 subthemes. Overall, participants reported perceived effectiveness of and affective attitude towards the intervention (acceptability) and understood the main messages and skills (receipt). For example, findings indicated comprehension of the non‐judgemental nature and choice‐providing messages of the intervention underpinned by self‐determination theory. Despite reporting understanding how and why to perform the skills, not using them was a highlighted theme (skill enactment), particularly for self‐regulatory techniques such as planning. Friends’ role as key self‐motivation technique was a prevalent theme. In the within‐individual analysis, three different engager types were identified: positive, ambivalent, and negative.
Conclusion:
Identifying misunderstandings and difficulties in skill acquisition can help interpret main trial outcomes and inform further intervention optimization. This study provides an example of how to use thematic analysis to assess acceptability, receipt, and enactment in interventions
Characterizing and predicting person-specific, day-to-day, fluctuations in walking behavior
Full text linkDespite the positive health effect of physical activity, one third of the world's population is estimated to be insufficiently active. Prior research has mainly investigated physical activity on an aggregate level over short periods of time, e.g., during 3 to 7 days at baseline and a few months later, post-intervention. To develop effective interventions, we need a better understanding of the temporal dynamics of physical activity. We proposed here an approach to studying walking behavior at "high-resolution" and by capturing the idiographic and day-to-day changes in walking behavior. We analyzed daily step count among 151 young adults with overweight or obesity who had worn an accelerometer for an average of 226 days (~25,000 observations). We then used a recursive partitioning algorithm to characterize patterns of change, here sudden behavioral gains and losses, over the course of the study. These behavioral gains or losses were defined as a 30% increase or reduction in steps relative to each participants' median level of steps lasting at least 7 days. After the identification of gains and losses, fluctuation intensity in steps from each participant's individual time series was computed with a dynamic complexity algorithm to identify potential early warning signals of sudden gains or losses. Results revealed that walking behavior change exhibits discontinuous changes that can be described as sudden gains and losses. On average, participants experienced six sudden gains or losses over the study. We also observed a significant and positive association between critical fluctuations in walking behavior, a form of early warning signals, and the subsequent occurrence of sudden behavioral losses in the next days. Altogether, this study suggests that walking behavior could be well understood under a dynamic paradigm. Results also provide support for the development of "just-in-time adaptive" behavioral interventions based on the detection of early warning signals for sudden behavioral losses
Uptake of planning as a self‐regulation strategy: Adolescents’ reasons for (not) planning physical activity in an intervention trial
Full text linkOBJECTIVES: Planning is an effective self‐regulation strategy. However, little is known why some people take up planning and some do not. Such understanding would help interventions to promote planning. We investigated how adolescents explain their (non) use of planning for physical activity after an intervention. METHODS: Qualitative content analysis was employed to investigate follow‐up interviews (a purposeful sampling; n = 19 low‐to‐moderately active, vocational school students) of Let's Move It trial participants twice post‐intervention: 6–8 weeks and 14 months post‐baseline. In the intervention, planning was one of the key techniques used to promote PA. RESULTS: We identified seven categories linked to reasons for (not) using planning. Most were related to feelings anticipated to result from planning. Action‐ and identity‐related concerns were also raised. The reasons for planning were that the plan (1) helps to clarify what to do and to get things done, (2) strengthens the feeling of autonomy, (3) promotes a sense of progress, ability and control over one's PA. The reasons for not planning were that (having) a plan may (1) feel forced and like an unpleasant duty, (2) take away life's spontaneity and freedom, (3) result in anticipated annoyance and bad mood if one fails to enact the plan, or (4) be an effective strategy for others but not for the interviewee. CONCLUSIONS: Planning may not only link to behavioural control but also the sense of autonomy, and thus subsequent motivation. We suggest various strategies to promote planning, including challenging non‐planner identity and harnessing social dimension of planning
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