Behaviour change and sexual health; SHARE programme evaluation

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine a national sexual health and relationships education (SHARE) educational package for behaviour change techniques (BCTs) utilised in order to make recommendations for further improvements. Design/methodology/approach – Using BCTs taxonomy (BCT V1), two coders independently examined the 22 session plans within SHARE for their utilisation of BCTs. All three authors then examined the results, and agreed on any discrepancies. Findings – The SHARE package utilises only a small range of BCTs detailed in BCT V1. SHARE makes use of a range of techniques which may impact on the distal factors that influence sexual risk taking, such as self-esteem and building confidence to say “no” to sex. Practical implications – SHARE – and perhaps other sexual health education programmes – may need to draw on more BCTs, particularly those supported by evidence, in order to effectively reduce risky sexual behaviours among young people. Programmes may also benefit from including broader elements around pleasure, self-examination and screening behaviour. Originality/value – Sexual health packages rarely encounter such scrutiny, particularly being examined in relation to the BCTs. The new and rigorous way of rating the SHARE package has enabled a range of recommendations relating to BCTs to be made both for improving the package and other sexual health education programmes.

Developing an evidence-based online method of linking behaviour change techniques and theoretical mechanisms of action: a multiple methods study

“…The BCTTv1 incorporates a number of cross-behaviour BCT taxonomies 33,34 and some behaviour-specific taxonomies for physical activity, 36 alcohol use, 35 smoking 45 and condom use. 39 The BCTTv1 has been used to specify the potentially 'active ingredients' in many types of intervention, for example those aiming to change physical activity and dietary behaviours, 40,46 oral hygiene behaviours, 47 hazardous and harmful drinking, 48 sexual health behaviours, [49][50][51] blood pressure control/management behaviours, 52 antibiotic prescribing 53,54 and type 2 diabetes preventative behaviours. 55 As well as being widely used for intervention reporting, the BCTTv1 is used to support intervention design and development and to synthesise information across intervention evaluations.…”

Looked after young people: Reducing health inequalities through an evidence- and theory-informed intervention

“…A 40-item taxonomy of recorded behaviour change techniques used in each session was documented in order to help inform future practice and research (Michie et al, 2011). Further techniques have been defined and were also included in the evaluation and are identified within Supplementary Table 1 (Dale et al, 2014).…”

A multiple case study based on action-oriented sexuality education

“…Despite the growing number of studies showing the positive impact of SE in the school setting (e.g. Alekseeva et al , 2015; Dale et al , 2014; Graf and Patrick, 2015; Ollis and Harrison, 2016; Vilaça, 2014), SE still lags behind, especially when it comes to students’ diversity (Elia and Tokunaga, 2015), namely, students with physical or mental disabilities, and lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgendered and queer individuals or students with different ethnic origins. SE continues to be “a controversial and contested issue that has evoked wide debate on the question of its aims, contents, methods, pedagogy and desired outcomes” (Simovska and Kane, 2015, p. 2).…”