Summary: The Transtheoretical Model

The Transtheoretical is a theoretical model of behavior change that integrates model of key concepts from other theories. This model is widely used by professionals to effectively promote health behavior change. This model describes how an individual modifies a certain behavior – such as smoking. TTM uses the stages of change as the central concept that integrates the most powerful principles and processes of change from leading theories of counseling and behavior change. The stages of change are pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination. Studies related to change have found that individuals go through series of stages when modifying behavior. Processes of change work

The initial phase of the self-directed intervention consisted of baseline measurement of smoking behaviour. Baseline data was collected for a period of 7 weeks and a functional assessment was completed during this time. Upon starting the intervention phase, the final target behaviour of smoking cessation was broken down into smaller, short-term objectives lasting 2 weeks each.

Growing up, I can remember my mother’s ongoing disappointment and frustration with my grandmother’s smoking addiction. She continuously begged her mother to quit smoking, but unfortunately, her words never had much of an impact other than my grandmother trying not to smoke around her or moving outside the house to smoke. With my grandmother aging, her smoking has not decreased and with other compounding health issues, my mom is not just frustrated but also extremely saddened by the state of my

Exercise behavior is the study of theories which work to explain actions and phenomenon’s that occur when looking at peoples perspectives of exercise. One overall theory called The Transtheoretical model (TTM), includes elements from “across a variety of theories and models behavior, some of which are social-cognitive in nature and some of which are not” (79). The TTM describes five stages of behavior change: Precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. By using TTM as the base of multiple theories, a greater picture of exercise behavior is created to understand how individuals become interested and continue to make a life style that involves normal exercise.

Over the years, statistics show that smoking cigarettes can cause many serious health issues. These issues compound when the smoker is expecting. Fourteen percent of U.S. mothers smoke while pregnant despite knowing the fact that smoking causes harm to both mother and child. In younger mothers, age 25 and under, that number rises significantly to 20 percent. If a woman smokes then becomes pregnant, she must decide whether or not to quit. Woman are aware that cigarettes are not good for them or their baby, but do they understand the severity of smoking while carrying their unborn child in their womb? In this paper I will evaluate how women who smoke while pregnant are at high risk for early miscarriage, preterm birth, and birth defects. Is smoking a cigarette worth risking the life of your unborn child?

The second stage is the contemplation stage where the individual is motivated to consider changing their behaviour, maybe she reads the leaflet and attempts to seek information (Naidoo and Wills 2000). The role of the midwife at this stage would be to determine why the woman smokes and what barriers she may face in stopping smoking (Dunkley 2000). The leaflet facilitates this by allowing the woman to question why she smokes and how she feels about it. It also seeks to establish what the woman feels is good and bad about smoking and how she anticipates changing her behaviour towards smoking. It has been suggested (McLeod et al 2003) that some midwives find it difficult to broach the subject of smoking particularly with women who have no desire to stop and those who are still considering stopping. However McLeod et al (2003) found from their qualitative study that women expected to be asked about smoking during routine antenatal care and indeed they felt it was part of the midwives role to ask.

Originally these recommendations were published in the journal “Annals of Internal Medicine” in 2015. In this article, the behavioral recommendations in which our Capstone project we will be focusing on, listed counseling, feedback, health education, incentives, and social support as effective interventions (Siu, 2015). Telephone calls provided by train staff proved to be effective in smoking abstinence. As our group continues to form our project, this information will be a motivational tool for us in hopes of reducing the number of pregnant smokers in Carter County.

It is irrefutable that the formulation of the Transtheoretical Model (TTM), has efficaciously contributed to current perspectives in health psychology, allowing for a greater understanding in facilitating healthy behaviour change (Adam & White, 2003). TTM is a comprehensive six-stage theory which logically describes behaviour change as a process rather than a single event, providing the pathway to a more enduring and successful outcome (Adam & White, 2003; Prochaska, 2008). These stages include: pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance, which occur cyclically in the event of relapses, until temptation is no longer present, resulting in termination (Marshall & Biddle, 2001; Prochaska, 2008).

The Transtheoretical Model does not only consist of the stages of change. Self-efficacy, or one’s self confidence in engaging in action, also plays a huge factor in this theory. A person is less likely to engage in a positive health behavior if there self-efficacy is low. Decision balance is the balancing of pros and cons towards the behavior change the person takes into account. In early stages, such as precontemplation and contemplation, cons outweigh the pros, and a behavior change is unlikely. In contrary, the pros outweigh the cons in the later stages. Throughout all stage of the Transtheoretical Model, there are situational temptations, which are external triggers that can cause a person to relapse. These include negative emotions associated with the behavior change such as anger or sadness, and social

The transtheoretical model posits that health behavior change involves progress through six stages of change: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination. Ten processes of change have been identified for producing progress along with decisional balance, self-efficacy, and temptations. Basic research has generated a rule of thumb for at-risk populations: 40% in precontemplation, 40% in contemplation, and 20% in preparation. Across 12 health behaviors, consistent patterns have been found between the pros and cons of changing and the stages of change. Applied research has demonstrated dramatic improvements in recruitment, retention, and progress using stage-matched interventions and proactive recruitment

Introduction: A lot has been said about the relation between maternal smoking and infant mortality in the recent past. According to a report from CDC, the infant mortality rate for 2013 was 5.96 infant deaths per 1000 live births. Sudden infant death syndrome was found to be the 4th leading cause of infant mortality (Kochanek, Xu, Murphy, Miniño, & Kung, 2011). Maternal cigarette smoking is an

Exposure to second hand smoke, also called involuntary smoking, occurs when non-smokers breathe in the cigarette smoke from others around them. Second hand smoke is harmful to both pregnant women and infants (NTP). Paternal smoking reduces birth weight by about 2 oz. (Berger 115). After birth, babies exposed to cigarette smoke may experience more colds, lung problems, and even ear infections.

Smoking tobacco is known to be one of the largest epidemics the world has ever encountered. Smoking kills over seven million people per year. It not only kills, but also harms those who have not yet entered this world. Unborn babies impacted by their mothers who smoke can have life-altering problems (“WHO | Tobacco”, nd). Expecting mothers who smoke during the prenatal period could expect a 5 – 8% chance of a preterm or stillborn birth, a 13 – 19% chance of having a low birth-weight baby, or a 23 – 34% chance of sudden infant death syndrome. Fortunately, smoking awareness has garnered attention over the past two decades and smoking during pregnancy has decline in high socioeconomic countries like the United States (Meernik & Goldstein, 2015).

It has previously been found that following delivery, women are at an increased risk both for developing depression and experiencing a smoking relapse (Cooper and Murray, 1998) Researchers (should we use their names?) looked to find a correlation between an episode of major depression and smoking status 15 months following delivery. They hypothesized that either smoking or depression increased the likelihood of the other condition and examined this question by surveying new mothers following delivery and 15 months after delivery. Women were classified as having had a major depressive episode if they reported having had a two-week period in which experienced a dysphoric mood or anhedonia occurring almost every day. Additionally, they needed

O’Byrne, Haddock, Poston, and Mid America Heart Institute (2002) investigated whether parenting style was a risk factor of smoking initiation and experimentation among adolescents and whether there was a relationship between parenting style and readiness to quit, and nicotine dependence among smokers. O’Byrne et al. (2002) defined current smokers as those who smoke regularly, experimenters as individuals who have smoked on one or two occasions, but have not smoked in the past month. Initiated smokers were considered both current smokers and individuals who smoked regularly in the past and then quit. Readiness to quit was categorized into four stages: precontemplation, for those who had no intent on quitting, contemplation, for those who may quit but not within the next 6 months, preparation, for those who will quit within the next 6 months and action, for those who will quit next month. Parenting style was measure by the Family of Origin Scale (FOS) which measured family intimacy and autonomy. This scale