Adolescents and health-related behaviour: using a framework to develop interventions to support positive behaviours
Jan Pringle, Lawrence Doi, Divya Jindal-Snape, Ruth Jepson and John McAteer
Abstract
Background:
Experimentation is a natural part of adolescent maturation. In conjunction with increased exposure tobehaviours such as alcohol or substance use, and the potentially intensified influence of peer groups, unhealthybehaviour patterns may develop as part of this experimentation. However, the adolescent years also provide considerableopportunity for behaviour to be shaped in positive ways that may improve immediate and longer term health outcomes. A systematic review carried out by the authors concluded that physiological changes during adolescence need to beconsidered when designing or implementing interventions, due to their influence on health behaviours. The aim of the study is to demonstrate how the six steps in quality intervention development (6SQuID) framework can be used, inconjunction with research or review findings, to inform the development of pilot or feasibility studies. Using thesynthesised findings from our adolescent systematic review, we sought to illustrate how adolescent interventionsmightbedesignedtotargetspecifichealthbehaviours and augment positive adolescent health outcomes.
Methods:
We applied the 6SQuID framework to the findings from a review of adolescent physiological influences onhealth behaviour. This involved following the process defined within 6SQuID and applying the sequential steps to build aproposed pilot study, based on the pre-defined findings of our systematic review. We used the Social Learning Theory toassist in identifying how and why change can be influenced, with and for adolescents.
Results:
We devised a pilot study example, targeting teaching assistants, to illustrate how the detailed steps within the6SQuID framework can assist the development and subsequent implementation of adolescent interventions that arelikely to be effective.
Conclusions:
This paper gives details of how the 6SQuID framework can be used for intervention development, usingspecific research findings, across a variety of adolescent health behaviours. This example provides details of how tooperationalise 6SQuID in practical terms that are transferrable to other populations and situations. In this respect, weanticipate that this illustrative case may be of use in the design, development, and implementation of a wide variety ofinterventions
