Smoking Intervention

2123 Words5 Pages

The development, implementation and evaluation of a school based smoking intervention focusing on primary prevention.
Summary:
This intervention is a school-based intervention for a middle school, commissioned by an Executive Head of a Multi-Academy Trust in Staffordshire. It will be a primary prevention intervention, targeting smoking, taking place over 6 weeks, and aimed at 9-11 year olds (Years 5 and 6).
Needs analysis:
Smoking is the leading cause of preventable morbidity and premature mortality in the United Kingdom (UK), and smoking related deaths exceed the sum of deaths from the next six most common causes of preventable mortality (HM Government, 2011). Statistics show that the prevalence of smokers is highest in the younger age group …show more content…

The TPB was developed by Ajzen and Madden (1986) and posits that a person’s intention determines their behaviour. Intention, in turn, is determined by three constructs: attitude, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC). This intervention will target all three of the constructs that determine intention, aiming to develop a stronger intention not to smoke which in turn should lead to abstinent behaviour. The HBM suggests that a person’s health behaviour is determined by a ‘cost-benefit’ analysis based on their beliefs about certain health risks and whether the benefit of reducing or eliminating those risks outweighs the cost of changing their behaviour. It also recognises the importance of self-efficacy which, simply stated, is the confidence a person has that they can carry out the proposed behaviour change (Becker, 1974, as cited in Corcoran, 2013). The initial stages of the intervention will include some facts and figures about smoking; it’s consequences and the positive consequences of not smoking, to enable the children to make better-informed decisions regarding the ‘cost-benefit’ of their choices. And finally, COM-B suggests that the constructs of capability, opportunity and motivation work together to determine behaviour and the intervention will target both the motivational construct by providing rewards for achievements throughout the intervention and also the capability construct as students will have opportunity to develop and practice refusal techniques, leading to enhanced capability (Michie, van Stralen, & West,

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