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Numerous behavioral theories and models include "environment" as a construct. For example, social cognitive theory posits that behavior is influenced by individual factors in combination with the social and physical environment (Bandura, 1986 xClose
Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundation of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.). A social ecologic perspective acknowledges multiple levels of behavioral determinants, including individual, interpersonal, organizational, and community, as well as both social and physical environments at various levels (McLeroy et al., 1998 xClose
McLeroy, K., Bibeau, D., Steckler, A., Glanz, K. (1988). An ecologic perspective on health promotion programs. Health Education Quarterly, 15(4), 351-77.). Health decisions are made, and behaviors occur, in environmental contexts (Stokols, 1992 xClose
Stokols, D. (1992). Establishing and maintaining healthy environments. Toward a social ecology of health promotion. American Psychologist, 47, 6-22.).
The types of environments that affect behavior may be physical (e.g., weather or climate, community resources, the built environment, the information environment) or social (e.g., social support, norms, beliefs, and attitudes) as well as objective (actual) or subjective (perceived) (Sallis & Owen, 2002 xClose
Sallis, J.F., Owen, N. (2002). Ecological models of health behavior. In Glanz K, Rimer BK, Lewis FM, eds, Health Behavior and Health Education: Theory, Research, and Practice, 3rd ed. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 462-484.). The environment can be a particularly strong behavioral determinant for behaviors that are directly shaped through environmental constraints and supports, such as physical activity (Owen et al., 2004 xClose
Owen, N., Humpel, N., Leslie, E., Bauman, A., Sallis, J. (2004). Understanding environmental influences on walking: Review and research agenda. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 27(1), 67-76.; Bandura, 1986 xClose
Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundation of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.). This entry focuses mainly on the built environment related to eating and physical activity. The final two sections present brief overviews of tobacco control environments and alcohol environments, two other major public health issues in which ‘environments’ have been the focus of study in recent years.
As the widespread prevalence of obesity has been poorly explained by individual-level psychological and social correlates of diet and physical activity behaviors, researchers have increasingly turned their attention toward understanding environments that may shape eating and activity (Glanz et al., 2005 xClose
Glanz, K., Sallis, J.F., Saelens, B.E., Frank, L.D. (2005). Healthy nutrition environments: concepts and measures. American Journal of Health Promotion, 19, 330-3.). Recently, much attention has turned toward measuring and understanding the "built environment," which many experts now agree must be considered in any effort to understand or reduce obesity (Sallis & Glanz, 2006 xClose
Sallis, J.F., Glanz, K. (2006). The Role of Built Environments in Physical Activity, Eating, and Obesity in Childhood. The Future of Children, 16(1), 89-108.). Consistent with theoretical foundations, environments are likely to have broad effects. They are also expected to have reciprocal determinism (Bandura, 1986 xClose
Bandura, A. (1986). Social Foundation of Thought and Action: A Social Cognitive Theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.): they may reflect individuals’ influence on their environments as much as environments affect individuals’ behaviors.
Loosely defined, the built environment consists of the neighborhoods, roads, buildings, food sources, and recreational facilities: the places in which we live, work, are educated, eat, and play. The built environment affects many of our daily decisions. Whether we walk to work or school, eat frequently at fast-food restaurants, or take our children to parks depends in part on how our neighborhoods are built. The built environment is multidimensional, and thus presents significant challenges for measurement. Although it is possible to collect verbal reports of features of people’s environments, and of their perceptions of their environment, the most objective assessments are likely to include observation of the actual features of environments. This presents challenges: for example, in addition to being valid, the measures must have a high degree of inter-rater reliability; and if the assumption that environments influence behavior over the long term is to be supported, then the measures should have good test-retest reliability (or stability) as well. |
