This is a brief screening used to evaluate an individual’s readiness to act on a new healthier parenting behavior, and provides strategies, or processes of change to guide the individual through the stages of change to action and maintenance. Based on the work of Prochaska and the transtheoretical model of change. See below from wikipedia.
Stages of change
In the transtheoretical model as of 1997, change is a “process involving progress through a series of six stages”[26]:
- Precontemplation – “people are not intending to take action in the foreseeable future, usually measured as the next 6 months”
- Contemplation – “people are intending to change in the next 6 months”
- Preparation – “people are intending to take action in the immediate future, usually measured as the next month”[nb 1]
- Action – “people have made specific overt modifications in their life styles within the past 6 months”
- Maintenance – “people are working to prevent relapse,” a stage which is estimated to last “from 6 months to about 5 years”
- Termination – “individuals have zero temptation and 100% self-efficacy… they are sure they will not return to their old unhealthy habit as a way of coping”[nb 2]
In addition, the researchers conceptualized “relapse” (recycling) which is not a stage in itself but rather the “return from action or maintenance to an earlier stage”[26][nb 3].
Processes of change
The 10 processes of change are “covert and overt activities that people use to progress through the stages”[26]. These processes are most emphasized at different transitions between stages of change[26][nb 4]:
- For movement from precontemplation to contemplation, the processes of “consciousness raising,” “dramatic relief,” and “environmental reevaluation” are emphasized.
- Between contemplation and preparation, “self-reevaluation” is emphasized.
- Between preparation and action, “self-liberation” is emphasized.
- Between action and maintenance, “contingency management”[nb 5], “helping relationship,” “counterconditioning,” and “stimulus control” are emphasized.
To progress through the early stages, people apply cognitive, affective, and evaluative processes. As people move toward maintenance or termination, they rely more on commitments, conditioning, contingencies, environmental controls, and support.[28]
Prochaska and colleagues state that their research related to the transtheoretical model suggests that interventions to change behavior must be “stage-matched,” that is, “matched to each individual’s stage of change”[26].