Social Ecological Approaches to Individuals and Their Contexts

Twenty Years of Health Education & Behavior Health Promotion Interventions

Bibliographic Data

ID5779745
AuthorsShelley D Golden (0000-0002-3283-542X, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA), Jo Anne L Earp (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA), Jo Anne Earp
Year2012
Volume39
Issue3
Pages364-372
Publication date2012-01-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueHealth Education & Behavior (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1090-1981 • E-ISSN: 1552-6127
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1090198111418634
PMID22267868
OpenAlexW2154835470
LanguageEN
Citations received339
References cited47

Social ecological models that describe the interactive characteristics of individuals and environments that underlie health outcomes have long been recommended to guide public health practice. The extent to which such recommendations have been applied in health promotion interventions, however, is unclear. The authors developed a coding system to identify the ecological levels that health promotion programs target and then applied this system to 157 intervention articles from the past 20 years of Health Education & Behavior. Overall, articles were more likely to describe interventions focused on individual and interpersonal characteristics, rather than institutional, community, or policy factors. Interventions that focused on certain topics (nutrition and physical activity) or occurred in particular settings (schools) more successfully adopted a social ecological approach. Health education theory, research, and training may need to be enhanced to better foster successful efforts to modify social and political environments to improve health

Ecological psychology · Ecological systems theory · Promotion (chess · Social ecological model · Social ecology · Community Health and Development · Food Security and Health in Diverse Populations · Health Policy Implementation Science