Storybridging: Four steps for constructing effective health narratives

Abstract

Objective:To develop a practical step-by-step approach to constructing narrative health interventions in response to the mixed results and wide diversity of narratives used in health-related narrative persuasion research.Method:Development work was guided by essential narrative characteristics as well as principles enshrined in the Health Action Process Approach.Results:The ‘storybridging’ method for constructing health narratives is described as consisting of four concrete steps: (a) identifying the stage of change, (b) identifying the key elements, (c) building the story, and (d) pre-testing the story. These steps are illustrated by means of a case study in which an effective narrative health intervention was developed for Dutch truck drivers: a high-risk, underprivileged occupational group.Conclusion:Although time and labour intensive, the Storybridging approach suggests integrating the target audience as an important stakeholder throughout the development process. Implications and recommendations are provided for health promotion targeting truck drivers specifically and for constructing narrative health interventions in general.

The Experience of Applying a Narrative Research Approach With Female Entrepreneurs in Sri Lanka

“…Both parties acceptance and understanding are vital if a successful interview is to be conducted. These findings are similar to others mentioned: a sense of understanding, friendship, and nonjudgmental attitudes between both parties (Boeijinga et al, 2017;Hytti, 2003).…”

“…The narrative interviews were conducted over five phases (Mueller, 2019; Bauer, 1996; Birch, 2011), and some specific rules were applied in each phase (Boeijinga et al, 2017). In the first stage, the researcher became familiarized with the research field.…”

“…In the first stage, the researcher became familiarized with the research field. This included initial investigations, informal chats, listening to rumors, and reading industry-related documents (Boeijinga et al, 2017). Based on the information through initial experiments, the researcher made exmanent questions.…”

Facts Tell, Stories Sell? Assessing the Availability Heuristic and Resistance as Cognitive Mechanisms Underlying the Persuasive Effects of Vaccination Narratives

“…When readers (or listeners, viewers) are “transported” into the story, they are neither motivated nor able to properly perceive any guiding and moralizing intentions of the narrative (Green, 2006 ). Additionally, recognizable story characters with comprehensible goals and achievable solutions can be relevant role models for their target group (Hoeken et al, 2016 ; Boeijinga et al, 2017b ) and arouse interest through specific story details that lead to deeper processing (Bernstein, 1955 ).…”

Episodic Narrative Interview: Capturing Stories of Experience With a Methods Fusion

“…Although narrative research has long been associated with better understanding human experience, it was not until the 1990s that a seminal body of discourse began to emerge in the area of narrative inquiry (Connelly & Clandinin, 1990), which is a distinctive suite of approaches designed for studying stories of human experience. Many other narrative approaches have emerged on the qualitative landscape more recently; some adopt narrative principles in qualitative inquiry (Cotterill & Letherby, 2012;Heikkinen, Huttunen, & Syrjälä, 2007;McNiff, 2013), while others such as storybridging (Boeijinga, Hoeken, & Sanders, 2017), organizational storytelling (Boyce, 1996;Smith & Keyton, 2001), narrative ethnography (Gubrium & Holstein, 2009;Tedlock, 1991), narrative case study (Etherington & Bridges, 2011;Simons, 2009), critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 2003(Fairclough, , 2014, and narrative interviewing (Ayres, 2012) involve collecting, constructing, and/or analyzing various forms of narrative data.…”