Feasibility of Intervention Program to Prevent Adolescent Health-Compromising Behaviors

Abstract

Most people start experimenting with and/or initiating health-compromising behaviors and establishing behavioral patterns during adolescence. Possible selves and episodic future thinking have been used to foster behavioral changes. In this study, we aimed to (1) develop a program incorporating possible selves and episodic future thinking to decrease the risks associated with health-compromising behaviors, and (2) examine the feasibility and fidelity of implementing this intervention among Taiwanese adolescents. A novel combination of existing intervention approaches tailored for the Taiwanese context was applied to develop a school-based intervention, which we named the Future Mapping Master program. This program contains four core units: exploring the self, setting goals, developing strategies and problem solving, and understanding the threats of health-compromising behaviors. It includes daily episodic future thinking visualization exercises. The feasibility evaluation was conducted with 88 adolescents aged 12–14 years. Feedback from teachers and students supported the proposed program's feasibility and revealed favorable reactions to the intervention. The Future Mapping Master program is feasible and offers promising strategies for implementation in Taiwanese school settings.

Keywords

self-cognition adolescence prevention alcohol drinking disordered eating school setting

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