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  • Essay / The ecological perspective for health promotion and behavior change interventions

    The ecological perspective is pivotal in the advancement of health promotion. Using this concept involves designing multi-faceted, multi-level health interventions that work using mixed methods – a far cry from simply providing health education to individuals. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Essentially, the ecological perspective assesses health and behavior based on two key concepts: (1) the effect of behavior across multiple levels of influence (i.e., intrapersonal, interpersonal, and community) and, conversely, of these levels on behavior; and (2) reciprocal causality between people and their social environment. Integrating these two concepts into one comprehensive innovation is a strategy used in the most effective health promotion and behavior change interventions. Such a strategy is implemented in Healthy Balangueno 2020, an initiative that uses both Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) and Theory of Participatory Action (TPA). SCT and TPA are known for supporting the development of peer education. SCT works at the interpersonal level using the social environment as a behavioral model, while TPA works at the community level and has an empowerment component. Social cognitive theory Developed by Albert Bandura, social cognitive theory revolves around the basic principle that people acquire and maintain certain patterns of behavior based on the reciprocal interaction between the following factors: (1) individual experiences, (2) the actions of others and (3) the environment. SCT is an extended version of social learning theory (SLT), which was proposed by Neal Miller and John Dollard in 1941. In SLT, it is postulated that an individual's learning is not only obtained through one's lived experiences, but also through observing the actions of other people and the benefits of said experiences. actions. In 1977, Bandura expanded SLT by introducing the concept of self-efficacy. He later renamed it Social Cognitive Theory. A distinctive feature of SCT is that it operates at the interpersonal level, meaning that it emphasizes the influence of a social environment, which includes the individual's family members, co-workers, their peers and health professionals. This theory recognizes that the social environment has an impact on behavior, and therefore on health. Since its proposal, SCT has been used in health communication because it organizes opportunities for social support through self-efficacy, goals, and outcome expectations. , while using observational learning and other reinforcements, all with the goal of achieving behavior change. Adopting new behaviors will bring about a wave of changes both in the environment and in the person. Bandura recognizes that "behavior is not simply the result of the environment and the person, just as the environment is not simply the result of the person and the behavior." Constructs from cognitive, behaviorist and emotional models of behavior change are assimilated to form the SCT. Central concepts of this theory include: reciprocal determinism, behavioral capacity, expectancies, observational learning or modeling, reinforcements, and self-efficacy. Reciprocal determinism refers to mutualitybetween personal factors, environmental factors and human behavior; each exerts an influence on the other components. A strategy is the implementation of various ways to promote behavior change, such as adjusting the environment or influencing personal attitudes. Healthy Balangueno 2020 uses this concept by using a mixed methods approach to educate young people, such as lecture-discussions, small group discussions, role-plays, exercises/games, practical exercises and practicum sessions to to maximize learning. This tactic is supposed to create a learning environment suitable for adolescents. Behavioral capability describes the process by which knowledge of a behavior precedes skill in performing that behavior. To promote mastery of learning, Healthy Balangueno 2020 implements participatory teaching-learning methods. The goal is to have participants equipped with knowledge on various health-related topics. Observational learning is a learning process that occurs when a person examines the actions of credible models. The Healthy Balangueno 2020 initiative plans to create a group of young leaders who can share knowledge and provide emotional, social and informational support to their peers. Expectations are the end results that a person expects to occur after taking action. Setting expectations involves demonstrating positive outcomes of healthy behavior. In the context of Healthy Balangueno 2020, this objective is achieved by equipping adolescents with knowledge that will improve health-seeking behavior in Balanga City. Self-efficacy, or a sense of personal agency, motivates a person to persist in behavior change despite obstacles in the field. process. This is the concept identified by Bandura as the primary personal driver of behavior change. As a strategy, behavior change is approached through a step-by-step process to ensure success. One application of this theory is the implementation of participatory teaching and learning methods that will eventually result in behavior change involving the use of health services, adaptation of healthy lifestyle behaviors, avoidance of risk behaviors (i.e. smoking, alcohol use, drug abuse and risky sexual behaviors) and participation in the development of a healthy community. Reinforcements are positive or negative responses to an individual's behavior. Positive reinforcements promote the likelihood of repetition, while negative reinforcements cause a person to remove a negative stimulus. This construct is not used in Healthy Balangueno 2020, but could be integrated into future activities after the creation of the young leaders' organization. Positive reinforcements can take the form of incentives such as positive points in the extracurricular component of the grading system, monetary compensation, or medals/honors. Participatory Action Theory The integration of community participation, research and action has given rise to collaboration. investigation process called Participatory Action Research (PAR). It is an unorthodox research method that involves the use of local knowledge and capacity to solve community problems, through cooperative inquiry between the researcher and the community. In essence, PAR was “research conducted with and for people rather than about people.” Participatory action research is based on theoretical constructions of.