Health Behavior Theory

adolescent is changing may help explain a puzzling contradiction of adolescence: young people at this age are close to a lifelong peak of physical health, strength, and mental capacity, and yet, for some, this can be a hazardous age. Mortality rates jump between early and late adolescence. Rates of death by injury between ages 15 to 19 are about six times that of the rate between ages 10 and 14” (2011). With this being said, teens are at a dangerous age because of their vulnerability to reality and their understanding of the risks that they are taking. They have an optimistic bias, believing that the consequences of dangerous behaviors they take part in will not affect them. Looking at their musculoskeletal development, the bones in an adolescent …show more content…
This theory considers the attitude an individual has towards a specific behavior and the social implications behind that action. Teenagers are a highly social and inexperienced population, as previously discussed, making this model especially effective in reaching their age group. Their lack of experience affects their attitudes towards behaviors, making them more likely to engage in behaviors that lead to injury (Insurance Information Institute, 2016). It also considers the social aspect of decision making, which is a very strong determinant of behavior when it comes to adolescents. Both of these factors lead to the adolescent’s behavioral intention, which is the perceived likelihood that they will take part in a behavior or not. An additional construct borrowed for this program is perceived threat, taken from the health belief model. In order to make a behavior change in the lives of teenagers, they need to feel at risk (Glanz, Rimer, & Viswanath, 2015). Each of these constructs will be discussed in further detail, along with examples of how they will be implemented into our program (Glanz, Rimer, & Viswanath, …show more content…
This looks at an individual’s normative beliefs, which is her perception of whether others will approve or disapprove of her behavior. As in the last construct, this belief will then be evaluated and weighed by the teenager’s motivation to conform to those beliefs. An example of this construct may be a teenage female driver. She may know that her parents strongly disapprove of her texting while driving, however she may lack motivation to gain their approval because of her need to be texting her friends. The health promotion program will be aiming to influence either aspect of this construct. The teenage girl may not care what her parents approve of at this stage in her life, but she will care what her peers think. A possible intervention at this level could be to normalize placing the phone in the backseat, making this behavior popular among her peers. In order to meet their approval, she will now perform the safe behavior (Glanz, Rimer, & Viswanath,