Attitudes, Perceptions, Capabilities

I’m trying to think of an example of a child or youth engagement project that doesn’t focus on changing behaviour. [Okay, well my clever wife quickly lists two examples: leadership initiatives to develop & strengthen skills, and boys & girls clubs modelling (healthy) interventions at stages in participants' lives when they need it and/or aren't currently getting it.]

Nevertheless, every once in a while I like to check out what’s going on in the research around behaviour change because I think it helps to inform my engagement work. Although not new, the latest one that caught my attention is the Theory of Triadic Influence* (TTI).

From what I can gather, people’s behaviour is directly related to their attitudes, perceptions and capabilities. And so trying to change people’s behaviour towards say…. safer driving habits, increased cycling or stopping smoking needs to take all three of these categories (& their multiple inter-relations) into consideration.

These days, I’m trying to think this through for the topic of engaging teens in healthy transport decisions.

According to TTI, if unhealthy transport decisions were a result of people’s real (or perceived) benefits, then their motivation for changing that behaviour would be in aim for other benefits. To prompt that change, we want to get to those attitudes.

As an example, I can recall a time when one of our high school groups set out to change attitudes (towards getting driven to school) by highlighting the independence and lack of scheduling conflicts that teens who walked, biked or rode the bus had to deal with with their parents. We made posters in the hope of altering the attitude that car = freedom. Our theme was that students who walked, biked or took public transit actually had a great deal more independence and control …

Cyclists parents’ never nag: “I need your bike back by 6pm ’cause I’ve got a meeting tonight!”

However, if social norms and peer pressures were the driving force around unhealthy transport decisions, then we would aim to correct errors in perception and begin to highlight some ‘preferred’ new social norms.

So, although people might think that no one walks to school, (…because there are no bike racks or parking spots to give lingering evidence of a pedestrian count…) we make sure that everyone becomes aware that our survey results and traffic counts identified that almost half (42% !) of the students walk to/from school every day.

Or, if there are any cyclists, we try to shine a light on those few. Maybe by profiling someone in the newsletter or school web-site, etc. It could be the person who rides the furthest, or someone with a relatively high social-standing amongst their peers or a fashionista who bikes but looks least like ‘a cyclist’. In this case, the goal is to shift people’s perceptions that everyone is doing any one thing and that it’s okay to be in a minority.

The third of the Triadic relates to one’s sense-of-self and their capabilities. If unhealthy transport decisions were a result of a lack of skills or knowledge then prompting a change in that behaviour would require opportunities for learning, skill-building, assessment and maybe even course-credit.

This can involve training and skills workshops around bike maintenance. Group bike rides and road trips could be available to students after they take a series of lunchtime road safety sessions. Teachers could be asked to include one bike safety question on small quizzes or as part of a homework assignment …after your campaign of posters, skits, announcement, social media postings so that students aren’t baffled. (Be sure to provide a detailed correct response to teachers so that they know what they are assessing – and/or negotiating with complainers.)

Students who are limited by what they don’t know, need opportunities to learn. Students who already know a little, will benefit from feedback to improve and develop confidence.

Of course, these three factors do not take place in isolation and so an active school travel program works on altering attitudes, perceptions and capabilities simultaneously.

Which is a necessity when engaging many contributing and collaborating youth leaders.

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* Theory of Triadic Influence – Dr. Brian R. Flay http://www.bocyf.org/flay_presentation.pdf

• Posted in: engagement
• Tagged: active school travel, behavior change, behaviour change, engagement, high school, student leadership, TTI