Phase 3: Educational and Ecological Assessment
After selecting the relevant behavioral and environmental factors for intervention, the framework directs planners to identify the antecedent and reinforcing factors that should be in place to initiate and sustain the change process. These factors are classified as predisposing, reinforcing, and enabling, and they collectively influence the likelihood that behavioral and environmental change will occur. “Predisposing factors are antecedents to behavior that provide the rationale or motivation for the behavior” (Green and Kreuter, 2005); they include individuals’ knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, personal preferences, existing skills, and self-efficacy beliefs. “Reinforcing factors are those factors following a behavior that provide continuing reward or incentive for the persistence or repetition of the behavior” (Green and Kreuter, 2005). Examples include social support, peer influence, significant others, and vicarious reinforcement. “Enabling factors are antecedents to behavioral or environmental change that allow a motivation or environmental policy to be realized” (Green and Kreuter, 2005). Enabling factors can affect behavior directly or indirectly through an environmental factor. They include programs, services, and resources necessary for behavioral and environmental outcomes to be realized and, in some cases, the new skills needed to enable behavior change.