Health Behavior Theory for Public Health: Principles, Foundations, and Applications

While a solid understanding of human behavior theory is an essential tool for designing and implementing successful health promotion programs, changing health behavior requires multiple skills beyond the ability to simply apply theory. Divided into three sections, the book takes a unique ecological approach to learning about health behavior theory and its application. The reader will first gain a broad understanding of health, public health, health behavior and health promotion planning. Important Notice: The digital edition of this book is missing some of the images or content found in the physical edition.

Dr. Ralph DiClemente is Professor and Chair of the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and Associate Dean of Public Health Innovation at the School of Global Public Health at New York University.Dr. DiClemente was trained as a Health Psychologist at the University of California, San Francisco where he received his PhD in 1984 after completing a ScM at the Harvard School of Public Health.' He earned his undergraduate degree at the City University of New York.Dr. DiClemente is the author of ten CDC-defined, evidence-based interventions for adolescents and young African-American women and men. He is the author of more than 540 peer-review publications, 150 book chapters, and 21 books. He serves as a member of the Office of AIDS Research Advisory Council.Previously, Dr. DiClemente served as the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Public Health at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.' He was also Associate Director of the Center for AIDS Research, and was previously Chair of the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health Education at the Rollins School of Public Health.Dr. DiClemente is Past President of the Georgia chapter of the Society for Adolescent Health & Medicine.' He previously served as a member of the CDC Board of Scientific Counselors, and the NIMH Advisory Council.

Laura F. Salazar, PhD is a Professor and Director of the PhD Program at Georgia State University’s School of Public Health. Dr. Salazar’s research has been devoted to helping prevent and ameliorate violence against women and HIV/AIDS. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and focuses on u understanding the etiologic mechanisms underlying HIV/AIDS and violence and developing public health interventions that target those mechanisms. Her intervention approaches include the use of educational entertainment in the form of serial drama episodes, social media marketing and web-based approaches to expand the reach of public health efforts. Most recently, Dr. Salazar's research has expanded to focus on understanding the determinants of mental and physical health disparities experienced by sexual and gender minorities with an emphasis on contextual and structural-level factors. Dr. Salazar has published over one 150 journal articles in medical, public health and social science journals and is the author of over thirty book chapters and coauthor of four other public health textbooks. Dr. Salazar teaches advanced research methods and intervention development and evaluation for public health.

Richard A. Crosby, PhD, is an endowed professor of public health at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Crosby’s research has been highly focused on promoting condom use for populations most at-risk of HIV/STD acquisition, e.g., young minority men who have sex with men; low-income minority women; transgender women having sex with men. Dr. Crosby has been consistently funded by the National Institutes of Health and by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In recent years his research has expanded to include work with sexual and gender minority youth pertaining to food security; low-income rural women at elevated risk of cervical cancer; and pregnancy prevention among young minority males residing in urban foster care facilities. Having published well over 400 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, Dr. Crosby’s current passion lies in writing textbooks that greatly aid the teaching-learning process for students who have dedicated their careers to public health practice and research.'