| Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools. |
Applying Behavioral Science to Behavior Change Communication: The Pathways to Change ToolsEmory University's Center for the Study of Public Scholarship in Atlanta, Georgia, joseph{at}ghcomm.org
Division of Reproductive Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia
Harare, Zimbabwe
Division of Reproductive Health of the Women's Health and Fertility Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Georgia
Gaborone, Botswana Entertainment-education (EE) is a popular vehicle for behavior change communication (BCC) in many areas of public health, especially in the developing world where soap operas and other serial drama formats play a central role in encouraging people to avoid risky behavior. Yet BCC/EE developers have been largely unable to integrate behavioral theory and research systematically into storylines and scripts, depending instead on external, technical oversight of what should be an essentially local, creative process. This article describes how the Modeling and Reinforcement to Combat HIV/AIDS project at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed a set of tools through which creative writers can exercise greater control over the behavioral content of their stories. The Pathways to Change tools both guide scriptwriters as they write BCC/EE storylines and help project managers monitor BCC/EE products for theoretical fidelity and sensitivity to research.
Key Words: entertainment-education HIV/AIDS behavior change communication behavior change behavioral theory behavioral science training scriptwriting narrative intervention
This version was published on October
1, 2007 Health Promotion Practice, Vol. 8, No. 4,
384-393 (2007) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
