Health and Well-Being | Prevention | ERQ

Prevention strategies

Prevention strategies are approaches designed to reduce the likelihood of health problems developing;

Different forms of prevention strategies

Prevention strategies can take many different forms depending on the health problem being targeted;

Choosing a prevention strategy

The choice of prevention strategy is partly determined by the specific health problem that the intervention aims to prevent;

Prevention of drug addiction

Prevention programmes for drug addiction may use different approaches from prevention programmes for social media addiction because the behaviours and factors involved are not identical;

Prevention of social media addiction

Prevention programmes for social media addiction may require approaches that address excessive social media use and the factors that encourage it;

Overlap between prevention strategies

Although prevention programmes may differ depending on the health problem they target some generic protective factors can be relevant to several different health problems;

Generic protective factors

Generic protective factors are characteristics or abilities that can help protect individuals against multiple health problems;

Self control as a protective factor

Self control is an example of a generic protective factor because it can help individuals regulate behaviours associated with different health problems;

Environmental prevention strategies

Some prevention strategies primarily target environmental conditions that influence an individuals behaviour;

Environmental influences on behaviour

Environmental conditions can influence behaviour by making certain actions easier or more difficult to perform;

Nudges as prevention strategies

Nudges can be used to encourage healthier behaviours by influencing the environment in which individuals make decisions;

Nudges and healthy eating

A nudge could encourage healthy eating by changing the environment in ways that make healthier food choices more likely;

Automatic notifications and social media

Automatic notifications can remind individuals about the amount of time they have spent on social media and encourage them to regulate their use;

Individual focused prevention strategies

Some prevention strategies primarily target the individual rather than the environment in which their behaviour occurs;

Self efficacy and prevention

Individual focused prevention strategies may enhance self efficacy so that people become more confident in their ability to control their health behaviours;

Goal setting and prevention

Individual focused prevention strategies may improve goal setting so that individuals are more likely to consciously regulate their health behaviours;

Environmental versus individual prevention strategies

Environmental strategies change the conditions influencing behaviour whereas individual focused strategies strengthen personal abilities such as self efficacy and goal setting;

Social media addiction as an example

Social media addiction is used as the example for discussing prevention strategies although the main principles and research problems also apply to other health problems;

Role of self control in social media addiction

Self control is frequently identified as a protective factor against excessive social media use;

Self control and social media checking

Individuals with self control may limit themselves to checking their social media accounts once or twice daily rather than repeatedly checking them throughout the day;

Impulsive social media use

Impulsive social media use involves repeatedly checking social media throughout the day without deliberately deciding to do so;

Self control and healthy social media habits

Self control can help individuals regulate their social media use by limiting how frequently they check their accounts and preventing repetitive impulsive use;

Developing self control

An important question in prevention research is what can be done to develop and strengthen an individuals self control;

Baumeister et al 1998

Baumeister and colleagues proposed the strength model of self control in 1998;

Strength model of self control

The strength model proposes that self control depends on a limited resource that becomes depleted when it is used continuously;

Self control as a limited resource

According to the strength model self control relies on a resource that can become exhausted after repeated or prolonged use;

Muscle analogy for self control

The strength model compares self control to a muscle because a muscle can run out of energy after being used for a long time;

Continuous use of self control

According to the strength model repeatedly engaging in self control consumes the limited resource available for regulating behaviour;

Ego depletion

Ego depletion is the state in which an individual has reduced self control because the limited resource needed to regulate behaviour has been depleted;

Self control and ego depletion

When individuals use self control their available resource becomes depleted which can leave them less capable of controlling their behaviour afterwards;

Consequences of ego depletion

Ego depletion is believed to diminish an individuals ability to exercise self control following an earlier effortful activity;

Brevers et al 2018 aim and relevance

Brevers and colleagues conducted an experiment in 2018 that provided support for the idea that self control relies on a limited resource;

Brevers et al 2018 participant allocation

Participants were randomly divided into an experimental group and a control group;

Experimental group in Brevers et al 2018

The experimental group was asked to read five sentences describing effortful actions and imagine themselves performing each action;

Effortful visualization task

After reading each sentence participants in the experimental group closed their eyes and imagined themselves engaging in the described activity for thirty seconds;

Number of effortful sentences

Participants in the experimental group read five sentences describing effortful actions;

Duration of each visualization

Participants imagined each described activity for thirty seconds;

Total effortful visualization time

Participants completed five visualizations lasting thirty seconds each;

Example of effortful visualization one

One sentence asked participants to imagine studying instead of going on the internet;

Example of effortful visualization two

One sentence asked participants to imagine studying instead of going out with friends;

Example of effortful visualization three

One sentence asked participants to imagine waking up instead of pressing the snooze button;

Purpose of effortful visualizations

The experimental group imagined activities that required resisting an immediately tempting behaviour in order to carry out a more effortful action;

Control group in Brevers et al 2018

The control group completed a similar reading and visualization procedure but their sentences described ordinary daily objects and situations rather than effortful actions;

Control group visualization task

Control participants read sentences describing everyday objects or situations and visualized each scene for thirty seconds;

Example of control sentence one

One control sentence described a building that contains five levels;

Example of control sentence two

One control sentence described an elevator that goes up to the second floor;

Example of control sentence three

One control sentence described a room painted in white;

Difference between experimental and control groups

The experimental group visualized effortful actions requiring self control whereas the control group visualized neutral everyday objects and situations;

Similarity of experimental and control procedures

Both groups read five sentences and visualized each described activity or scene for thirty seconds but the content of the sentences differed;

Gambling task in Brevers et al 2018

After the visualization exercise participants completed a gambling task involving a series of financial decisions that required them to make choices under risk;

Purpose of gambling task

The gambling task was used to examine how participants made risky financial decisions after completing the visualization exercise;

Brevers et al 2018 results

Participants who completed effortful visualizations put less effort into thinking about the decision making problems and made riskier decisions during the subsequent gambling task;

Effortful visualization and decision making

Imagining themselves performing effortful actions was followed by reduced effort in thinking about financial decisions and riskier choices;

Experimental group gambling performance

Participants who imagined effortful actions subsequently put less effort into considering the gambling decisions and made riskier decisions;

Control group comparison

The results suggested that participants who visualized effortful actions experienced reduced self control compared with the control condition;

Interpretation of Brevers et al 2018

The findings appeared to support the strength model because participants who engaged in effortful visualizations seemed to have less self control available for the subsequent gambling task;

Ego depletion in Brevers et al 2018

The researchers suggested that imagining effortful actions depleted the limited self control resource leaving participants with less ability to regulate their behaviour during the gambling task;

Self control resource explanation

According to the strength model participants used up some of their limited self control resource while imagining effortful actions and therefore had less available for the later financial decisions;

Evidence for the strength model

The finding that effortful visualization was followed by less thoughtful and riskier decisions was interpreted as supporting the idea that self control depends on a limited resource;

Development of the strength model

The theoretical model of self control later developed as researchers began paying more attention to proactive behaviours that help people avoid challenging situations;

Proactive self control

Proactive self control strategies involve acting in advance to prevent oneself from encountering situations that demand more self control than one currently has available;

Reactive self control

Reactive self control strategies involve changing the way an individual cognitively responds to a situation rather than changing the situation itself;

Two categories of self control strategies

Self control strategies can be divided into proactive strategies and reactive strategies;

Situation selection

Situation selection is a proactive self control strategy in which individuals choose situations that reduce their exposure to temptation or situations requiring self control;

Situation modification

Situation modification is a proactive self control strategy in which individuals change an existing situation to reduce the temptation or demands placed on their self control;

Purpose of proactive strategies

Proactive strategies prevent individuals from entering or remaining in situations that demand a level of self control they may not have available;

Proactive strategies and temptation

Proactive strategies reduce exposure to tempting situations before individuals need to rely on self control to resist them;

Reactive strategies and cognition

Reactive self control strategies aim to modify an individuals cognitive response to a situation rather than changing the external situation itself;

Reactive strategies and self control

Reactive strategies help individuals regulate their thoughts and responses when they are already facing a situation that may tempt them;

Proactive versus reactive strategies

Proactive strategies change or avoid the situation that creates temptation whereas reactive strategies change how an individual thinks about or responds to that situation;

Brevers and Turel 2019 aim

Brevers and Turel conducted a naturalistic investigation in 2019 to examine the self control strategies people use to regulate their social media use;

Naturalistic investigation

A naturalistic investigation examines behaviour or experiences in a real world context rather than relying entirely on an artificially created experimental situation;

Brevers and Turel 2019 sample

The study included seven hundred and fifty one undergraduate students from an American university;

Brevers and Turel 2019 participant age

Participants were between eighteen and forty nine years old;

Brevers and Turel 2019 research method

Participants completed an online open ended survey about the strategies they used to regulate their social media use;

Open ended survey

An open ended survey allows participants to describe their experiences and strategies in their own words rather than selecting only from predetermined response options;

Questions in Brevers and Turel 2019

Participants were asked to name the strategies they used to regulate their social media use and provide a one sentence clarification for each strategy;

Purpose of strategy clarifications

The one sentence clarification helped explain what participants meant by each strategy they reported using;

Analysis of participant responses

After collecting the responses three trained coders read the answers and extracted recurring themes;

Three trained coders

Three trained coders independently examined the participants responses to identify recurring themes relating to social media self control strategies;

Inductive content analysis

Inductive content analysis is a qualitative method in which researchers examine collected responses and identify recurring themes that emerge from the data;

Inductive analysis in Brevers and Turel 2019

The three trained coders used inductive content analysis to identify recurring themes in the strategies participants described;

Brevers and Turel 2019 findings

The analysis identified eight themes with each theme representing a specific self control strategy used to regulate social media use;

Theme one no need to control

The first theme was no need to control which referred to participants who did not believe they needed to regulate their social media use;

Example of no need to control

One participant explained that they had never had social media;

Theme two no strategy

The second theme was no strategy which referred to participants who did not use a strategy to control their social media use;

Example of no strategy

One participant stated that they did not want to control their social media use;

Theme three full prevention of access

The third theme was full prevention of access which involved completely preventing oneself from accessing a phone or social media;

Example of full prevention of access one

One participant described charging their phone in a different room;

Example of full prevention of access two

One participant described leaving their phone in the locker room while at work;

Full prevention of access purpose

Completely removing access to a phone makes it difficult or impossible for an individual to check social media during the period of restriction;

Theme four partial prevention of access

The fourth theme was partial prevention of access which involved making a phone less accessible without completely removing access to it;

Example of partial prevention of access one

One participant described placing their phone four metres away while it charged;

Example of partial prevention of access two

One participant described keeping their phone in their purse instead of their pants pocket to make it harder to grab;

Partial prevention of access purpose

Making a phone less convenient to reach creates an additional barrier that can reduce impulsive social media checking;

Theme five modifying a device feature

The fifth theme was modifying a feature on the device which involved changing device settings to reduce the temptation to use social media;

Example of modifying a device feature one

One participant described leaving their phone on mute at all times;

Example of modifying a device feature two

One participant described turning off notification sounds;

Modifying device features purpose

Changing device features such as muting a phone or disabling notification sounds can reduce interruptions and cues that encourage social media use;

Theme six delimiting use time

The sixth theme was delimiting use time which involved setting specific limits on when social media could be used;