Date of Award
1993
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology
Specialization
Psychology
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Joseph S. Rossi
Abstract
The Transtheoretical Model of behavior change posits that four major components interact in a predictable fashion in affecting change: the Stages of Change, the Processes of Change, Decisional Balance, and Self-Efficacy. Yet the various components explicated by the model have yet to be fully structurally integrated. To date, virtually all the research on the model has examined the separate components in isolation, as a function of the stages of change, or as predictors of progress across the stages of change. However, the sequencing, direction, and magnitude of those relationships have yet to be examined within a single analytical framework, or as a function of stage movement transitions.
The study has been designed to a) contribute to the development of a more structurally integrated general model of the Transtheoretical Model of behavior change for smoking cessation, b) explicate the relationship among the decisional balance and processes of change model constructs over time and as a function of stage movement transitions, and c) to explore the utility of the derived model for understanding the change process of progressive stage movers for smoking behavior. It is hypothesized that synthesis and assessment of the model components within a single, multidimensional framework together with a consideration of alternative heuristic conceptualizations of this integration, will add to the formulation of a more fully integrated Transtheoretical -Model.
Analyses are based on data from a smoking cessation study of a population based intervention sample (N=4,144). Model integration is achieved through the use of longitudinal panel analysis and dynamic prediction analyses using latent variable structural equation modeling techniques. Such an analytical approach allowed for identification of which constructs represented independent influences on subsequent model constructs over a 6-month time period, which constructs were predictive of smoking habit strength, which relationships differed as a function of the specific stage movement transitions, and whether model. relations were consistent across sex. The implications of the derived models for our understanding of behavior change generally, and for tailoring intervention development and program implementation specifically, are considered within the context of a more fully structurally integrated Transtheoretical Model of Change.
Recommended Citation
Blais, Linelle Marie, "Structural Integration of the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change: An Application to Smoking Cessation" (1993). Open Access Dissertations. Paper 1081.
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/oa_diss/1081
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