How do we harness adolescent values in designing health behaviour change interventions? A qualitative study
How do we harness adolescent values in designing health behaviour change interventions? A qualitative study
Objectives: adolescent health behaviours do not support optimal development. Adolescents are reportedly difficult to engage in health behaviour improvement initiatives. Little is known about what adolescents value in relation to diet and physical activity or how best to target these in health interventions. This study explored adolescents’ values in relation to diet and physical activity and how these values can inform health intervention design.
Design: qualitative semi‐structured interviews explored adolescents’ lives, what they thought about diet and physical activity and what might support them to improve their health behaviours.
Methods: a total of 13 group interviews were conducted with 54 adolescents aged 13–14 years, of whom 49% were girls and 95% identified as White British. Participants were recruited from a non‐selective secondary school in a large southern UK city. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify key adolescent values.
Results: adolescents valued being with their friends, doing what they enjoyed and were good at; being healthy was important to them but only if achievable without compromising other things that are important to them. The need to be healthy was not aligned with adolescents’ basic psychological needs, nor their strongly held priorities and values.
Conclusions: health is not a motivating factor for adolescents; therefore, interventions designed solely to improve health are unlikely to engage them. Instead, interventions that align with the values and priorities specified by adolescents are more likely to be effective in supporting them to eat well and be more active.
adolescence, diet, health behaviour, intervention, physical activity, qualitative methods
1176-1193
Strommer, Sofia
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Shaw, Sarah
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Jenner, Sarah
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Vogel, Christina
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Lawrence, Wendy
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Woods-Townsend, Kathryn
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Farrell, David
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Inskip, Hazel
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Baird, Janis
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Morrison, Leanne
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Barker, Mary
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November 2021
Strommer, Sofia
a025047e-effa-4481-9bf4-48da1668649e
Shaw, Sarah
9629b12a-8ee2-4483-a9ca-6efb4eef74c8
Jenner, Sarah
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Vogel, Christina
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Lawrence, Wendy
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Woods-Townsend, Kathryn
af927fa3-30b6-47d9-8b4d-4d254b3a7aab
Farrell, David
d5f8167f-b474-4db8-942f-ca9166aefcf1
Inskip, Hazel
5fb4470a-9379-49b2-a533-9da8e61058b7
Baird, Janis
f4bf2039-6118-436f-ab69-df8b4d17f824
Morrison, Leanne
920a4eda-0f9d-4bd9-842d-6873b1afafef
Barker, Mary
374310ad-d308-44af-b6da-515bf5d2d6d2
Strommer, Sofia, Shaw, Sarah, Jenner, Sarah, Vogel, Christina, Lawrence, Wendy, Woods-Townsend, Kathryn, Farrell, David, Inskip, Hazel, Baird, Janis, Morrison, Leanne and Barker, Mary
(2021)
How do we harness adolescent values in designing health behaviour change interventions? A qualitative study.
British Journal of Health Psychology, 26 (4), .
(doi:10.1111/bjhp.12526).
Abstract
Objectives: adolescent health behaviours do not support optimal development. Adolescents are reportedly difficult to engage in health behaviour improvement initiatives. Little is known about what adolescents value in relation to diet and physical activity or how best to target these in health interventions. This study explored adolescents’ values in relation to diet and physical activity and how these values can inform health intervention design.
Design: qualitative semi‐structured interviews explored adolescents’ lives, what they thought about diet and physical activity and what might support them to improve their health behaviours.
Methods: a total of 13 group interviews were conducted with 54 adolescents aged 13–14 years, of whom 49% were girls and 95% identified as White British. Participants were recruited from a non‐selective secondary school in a large southern UK city. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify key adolescent values.
Results: adolescents valued being with their friends, doing what they enjoyed and were good at; being healthy was important to them but only if achievable without compromising other things that are important to them. The need to be healthy was not aligned with adolescents’ basic psychological needs, nor their strongly held priorities and values.
Conclusions: health is not a motivating factor for adolescents; therefore, interventions designed solely to improve health are unlikely to engage them. Instead, interventions that align with the values and priorities specified by adolescents are more likely to be effective in supporting them to eat well and be more active.
Text
Main_manuscript_ReviewRevisions_00000003_
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bjhp.12526
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e-pub ahead of print date: 4 May 2021
Published date: November 2021
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This research and the authors of this paper are supported by the following funding sources: UK National Institute for Health Research Programme Grants for Applied Research (RP‐PG‐0216‐20004); UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12011/4); National Institute for Health Research Southampton Biomedical Research Centre; and Wessex Heartbeat and Public Health England. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Health Service, the National Institute for Health Research, and the UK Department of Health and Social Care. We thank Martin Stevens for helping us create the initial data coding frame. We acknowledge Daniel Penn‐Newman and Taylor Morris who helped us collect data, as well as Lyall Campbell, Ross Anderson, Patsy Coakley, Judit Varkonyi‐Sepp, Donna Lovelock, and Lisa Bagust for their contributions to EACH‐B.
Funding Information:
This research and the authors of this paper are supported by the following funding sources: UK National Institute for Health Research Programme Grants for Applied Research (RP-PG-0216-20004); UK Medical Research Council (MC_UU_12011/4); National Institute for Health Research Southampton Biomedical Research Centre; and Wessex Heartbeat and Public Health England. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the National Health Service, the National Institute for Health Research, and the UK Department of Health and Social Care. We thank Martin Stevens for helping us create the initial data coding frame. We acknowledge Daniel Penn-Newman and Taylor Morris who helped us collect data, as well as Lyall Campbell, Ross Anderson, Patsy Coakley, Judit Varkonyi-Sepp, Donna Lovelock, and Lisa Bagust for their contributions to EACH-B.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Authors. British Journal of Health Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Psychological Society.
Keywords:
adolescence, diet, health behaviour, intervention, physical activity, qualitative methods
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Local EPrints ID: 449158
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/449158
ISSN: 1359-107X
PURE UUID: 54924957-4530-4a1d-b87b-a33caa7aec64
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Date deposited: 18 May 2021 16:32
Last modified: 10 Apr 2024 02:03
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Author:
Sarah Jenner
Author:
David Farrell
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