Abstract
Purpose: Behaviour change techniques are fundamental to the development of any behaviour change intervention, but surprisingly little is known about their properties. Key questions include when, why, how, in which contexts, for which behaviours, in what combinations, compared with what, and for whom behaviour change techniques are typically effective. The aims of the present paper are to: (1) articulate the scope of the challenge in understanding the properties of behaviour change techniques, (2) propose means by which to tackle this problem, and (3) call scientists to action. Methods: Iterative consensus (O’Connor et al., 2020, Br. J. Psychol., e12468) was used to elicit and distil the judgements of experts on how best to tackle the problem of understanding the nature and operation of behaviour change techniques. Results: We propose a worldwide network of ‘Centres for Understanding Behaviour Change’ (CUBiC) simultaneously undertaking research to establish what are the single and combined properties of behaviour change techniques across multiple behaviours and populations. We additionally provide a first attempt to systematize an approach that CUBiC could use to understand behaviour change techniques and to begin to harness the efforts of researchers worldwide. Conclusion: Better understanding of behaviour change techniques is vital for improving behaviour change interventions to tackle global problems such as obesity and recovery from COVID-19. The CUBiC proposal is just one of many possible solutions to the problems that the world faces and is a call to action for scientists to work collaboratively to gain deeper understanding of the underpinnings of behaviour change interventions.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-14 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | British Journal of Health Psychology |
Volume | 26 |
Early online date | 20 Oct 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 17 Jan 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Acknowledgement. The authors declare no conflicts of interest. This research was funded by: Tesco PLC and supported by the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre and the NIHR Greater Manchester Patient Safety Translational Research Centre. The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the National Institute for Health Research or the Department of Health. Tesco PLC and NIHR had no role in the design of this study and did not have any role during its execution, analyses, interpretation and storage of the data or decision to submit results. We would like to thank David French, Kate Hunt, Afroditi Kalambouka, Carine Meslot, Susan Michie, Sally Wyke for helpful discussions that informed early work on this paper.Keywords
- behaviour change
- interventions
- techniques
- methods
- taxonomy
- systematic review
- meta-analysis
- COVID-19
- Obesity
- Humans
- International Cooperation
- Behavior Therapy/methods
- METAANALYSIS
- CONSENSUS
- TAXONOMY
- INTERVENTIONS
- SELF-AFFIRMATION
- HEALTH