An Ecological-Systems Approach to Understanding Risk Behaviour

Question 1

Ecological-Systems approach to risk behaviour

Answer 1

1. Bronfenbrenner, 1986
2. Understands vulnerability to risk behaviour as being influenced by multiple contexts.
3. These are broadly categorised as follows:
   - Individual/Intrapersonal levels
   - Interpersonal level
   - Community level
   - Societal Level
4. Emphasises the interdependence between factors across all levels
5. When considering these four levels, we can see how they provide different strategies for reducing vulnerability to high-risk behaviour and promoting healthy behaviour
6. These strategies can generally be split into person-centred and situation-centred interventions

Question 2

Ecological-Systems Approach

Answer 2

1. Person-centred interventions

2. situation-centred interventions

Question 3

Person-Centred Interventions

Answer 3

1. Work with individuals and groups to promote health-protective behaviour and enhance resilience
2. Resilience is the successful adaptation to the environment despite exposure to risk
3. Responsibility for risk is at the:
   - Individual or intra-personal level
   - Interpersonal level

Question 4

Situation-Centred Interventions

Answer 4

1. Focused on creating environments with protective factors that enable individuals and groups to practise healthy behaviour
2. Protective factors play a moderating or buffering role
3. Responsibility for risk is at the:
   - Community level
   - Societal level
   - Policy level

Question 5

Example : Childhood Obesity

Answer 5

1. An ecological approach would view the risk for childhood obesity as an ecological construct
2. Health or risk behaviour is a result of the interplay and influence of multiple factors of a person’s life
   - Intrapersonal
   - Interpersonal
   - community (organisational),
   - society(public policy)
3. By understanding a child’s ecological influences, one can begin to identify the risk factors that are associated with the development of child health or risk behaviours that lead to childhood obesity
4. Three aspects could play a role in either increasing or decreasing the likelihood of childhood obesity:
   - The child’s diet
   - Physical activity

• Sedentary behaviours: any activity requiring little expending of physical energy from the child and often occurs while seating
  _ Eg: watching TV or playing video games

Question 6

Example: Childhood ObesityIntrapersonal Factors

Answer 6

1. The intrapersonal component would refer to various individual factors such as the knowledge, behaviours, and attitudes of the child to diet, physical activity, and sedentary behaviours
   - In other words, there is a connection between childhood obesity and the child’s knowledge, behaviours and attitudes to diet, physical activity, and sedentary behaviours
2. Understanding children’s attitudes, knowledge and behaviours in relation to diet, physical activity and sedentary behaviours is vital in terms of working out their risk for obesity

Question 7

Example: Childhood Obesity

Interpersonal Factors

Answer 7

1. The main influence on a child’s attitudes, knowledge and behaviours to diet, physical activity, and sedentary behaviours is from parents, caregivers, or family
2. Example
   - The food that parents, caregivers, or family make available in the household and their knowledge of nutritional eating is influenced by other factors

Question 8

Example: Childhood Obesity

Influencing Factors

Answer 8

1. The parents socio-economic status
   - What they can afford
   - Their level of education
2. Other factors such as:
   - Parents not being home in time to prepare meals
   - Children are left to their own devices in terms of what they will eat
   - > Thus most likely not eating a healthy meal or a filling meal
   - -> Resulting in constant eating, or eating fast-foods as it is more convenient and less time consuming
3. A child’s attitude to physical activity may be influenced by interest in physical activities at home
4. Therefore, a child’s intrapersonal attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours in relation to diet, physical activity, and sedentary behaviours is influenced by family, parental, or caregiver attitudes, knowledge, and behaviours around these activities

Question 9

Example: Childhood ObesityCommunity Factors

Answer 9

1. Furthermore, schools may provide many factors that can affect the risk of a child becoming overweight or obese
   - From the physical environment and physical activity opportunities to the food environment and the social environment
2. Not only are parents or caregivers responsible for promoting healthy eating and a healthy lifestyle, so too are schools
3. Schools are an ideal setting to provide children with the opportunity to learn about and practice healthy eating and physical activity behaviour

• • For example, through:
• Health classes
• Access to healthier foods
• Physical activity during break time
• Extra mural activities
• Physical education classes

4. The manner in which one’s community is designed, with regards to both physical and social aspects, has the opportunity to promote healthy behaviour or create more obesogenic environments
   - A child’s proximity to parks, recreational centres, shopping centres, fast-food restaurants, and the safety of the one’s community are all determinants of whether children are able, permitted, and encouraged to engage in healthy or risk avoiding behaviour
5. Environments that are not safe to walk or play in, ones that have no space for play or recreational areas
   No proper road space for physical activity can lead to increased engagement in sedentary behaviours
6. In addition, this aspect of the community level also impacts one’s intrapersonal level, in terms of parental concerns about neighbourhood crime and their child’s safety
7. If a parent feels their community is not safe it may lead to children remaining at home and engaging in more sedentary behaviour than physical activity
8. Culture is believed to contribute to differences in childhood obesity
   - Mainly due to the fact that constructions of the ideal body image occurs in a cultural context and cultures differ in their understandings of valued and disvalued body images
9. Culture can influence perceptions of risks associated with obesity
10. Culture also influences one’s preferences for certain foods
    - Linking to this culture also influences preferences for opportunities to engage in physical activity
11. Safety also plays a crucial role in the built environment of a community which in turn has an impact on a child’s health or risk avoiding behaviours
12. Communities can provide a great level of support and motivation to be healthy and active
    - Research has indicated that people tend to engage in more physical activity such as walking, if they see their neighbours or community engaging in physical activity

Question 10

Example: Childhood Obesity
Societal Factors (Public Policy)

Answer 10

Policies could include:

1. Regulations pertaining to school food programs
2. Exposure to obesogenic chemicals in foods
3. Food packaging
4. Food marketing standards
5. Policies that modify food prices
6. Physical education in schools and recreational facilities in communities