Participants’ enactment of behavior change techniques: A call for increased focus on what people do to manage their motivation and behaviour

Nelli Hankonen (2021) Participants’ enactment of behavior change techniques: a call for increased focus on what people do to manage their motivation and behavior, Health Psychology Review, 15:2, 185-194, DOI: 10.1080/17437199.2020.1814836 Intervention effectiveness does not only depend on fidelity of intervention delivery, but also the enactment, or use, of behavior change techniques (BCTs) by the participants. For example, it is not sufficient that intervention provider prompts an intervention participant to self-monitor their physical activity, but crucially, the participant enacts self-monitoring. Theoretical and conceptual work integrating various strands of research into ‘what a person can do for oneself’ to change behavior is needed. This paper argues how this would aid in designing for, assessing, and promoting the use individuals’ self-management techniques, and ultimately, our understanding of sustained behavior change. The recently published, integrative compendium of self-enactable techniques to change and self-manage motivation and behavior can act as a useful starting point for this work. An increased focus on the enactment of BCTs would help clarify intervention processes, help explain trial outcomes, and potentially enhance intervention effectiveness.