Health Promotion Models
We are all a complex mass of motivations and beliefs. If you need proof of this, just listen to a Wildcat and a Jayhawk arguing about which is the better team! We have many motivations for the things we do, and this includes eating and exercising. Researchers have developed several useful models to help us talk about why we do what we do. We all should learn a little about "health promotion models" so that we have some sense of why people do—or do not!—adopt more healthful behaviors. The most effective physical activity and healthy-eating programs are based on well-accepted health promotion models.
Although many of the models below focus on individual change for improved health, the most successful programs use elements of them to make community-level changes. Most human behavior is influenced by community-level factors such as affiliations (the groups we belong to), economic power (our financial status and how it affects our place in our community) and culture (the messages we take in from those around us). Health promotion efforts focused at communities are essential. Some of the primary health promotion theories that nationally recognized programs are based on are:
- Health Belief Model
- This model explains and predicts the health behaviors individuals adopt.
- Theory of Reasoned Action
- This theory is based on the concept of behavioral intent.
- Social Ecological Model of Human Development
- This model, developed primarily by Dr. Urie Bronfenbrenner, is often demonstrated as concentric circles, with the individual at the center. The social elements (relationships, settings, groups, social institutions, social class, and so forth) in each circle influence the circles inside it.
- Social Cognitive Learning Model
- This theory says that people self-regulate their environments and actions, and that new behaviors are learned and maintained by those interactions between the person and their environment.
- Transtheoretical Model (Stage of Change)
- This model uses five stages to explain the ability of a person to achieve a recommended health promotion action or behavior.
Community-Level Health Promotion
Community-level health promotion is intended to improve the health behaviors of whole populations and groups for large effect.
Community Youth Development
In the early 1990’s Gambone and Connell, of Stanford University’s Center for the Study of Families, Children and Youth, researched and developed the Youth Development Framework for Practice which explains how to engage youth to benefit themselves and their communities.
The Youth Development Framework, which integrates many of the health promotion theories and models previously listed, describes how to develop and deliver community-based programs to support youth who will be able to sustain economic self-sufficiency, healthy human relationships and positive community involvement as adults. Gambone and Connell’s Youth Development Framework explains how a youth-centered, developmental approach—which includes community-wide, meaningful engagement for youth—leads to positive development.