Planning multiple behavior health interventions for adolescents using the Behavior-Image Model (BIM)

Background: Planning and deploying efficacious interventions impacting multiple behaviors could have a significant impact on the nation's public health, while spanning a critical gap in our scientific knowledge. This session will describe the Behavior-Image Model (BIM), an emerging paradigm for developing brief interventions for adolescents that couple health risk and health promoting behavior messages. Methods: First, the conceptual underpinnings of the BIM will be presented. Second, the key components of the BIM will be identified and their relationship to each other illustrated. Third, step-by-step procedures for applying the BIM to create brief and non-brief multiple behavior interventions for adolescents will be discussed, with concrete examples presented. Finally, the BIM will be compared to other common models of brief intervention. Results: The BIM posits that selected salient images of others and ourselves may be used to cast gain and loss framed messages coupling and motivating health promoting and health risk behaviors within single interventions. This content in turn it thought to activate prototypes and future self-images through the processes of social and self-comparison, leading to improvements in risk and protective factors and subsequent change in targeted health promoting and risk behaviors. Discussion: The Behavior-Image Model is an emerging paradigm for planning multiple behavior health interventions emphasizing holistic, personal development messages. As such, the BIM proposes an innovative approach for developing potentially cost-effective health education interventions for youth and adults.