Weinstein N D, Rothman A J, Sutton S R
Department of Human Ecology, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick 08903, USA.
Health Psychol. 1998 May;17(3):290-9. doi: 10.1037//0278-6133.17.3.290.
Despite growing interest in stage theories of health behavior, there is considerable confusion in the literature concerning the essential characteristics of stage theories and the manner in which such theories should be tested. In this article, the 4 key characteristics of a stage theory-a category system, an ordering of categories, similar barriers to change within categories, and different barriers to change between categories--are discussed in detail. Examples of stage models of health behavior also are described. Four major types of research designs that might be used for testing stage theories are examined, including examples from the empirical literature. The most commonly used design, which involves cross-sectional comparisons of people believed to be in different stages, is shown to have only limited value for testing whether behavior change follows a stage process.
尽管人们对健康行为阶段理论的兴趣与日俱增，但文献中对于阶段理论的基本特征以及检验此类理论的方式仍存在相当大的困惑。本文详细讨论了阶段理论的四个关键特征——一个类别系统、类别排序、类别内相似的改变障碍以及类别间不同的改变障碍。还描述了健康行为阶段模型的示例。研究了可能用于检验阶段理论的四种主要研究设计类型，包括实证文献中的示例。最常用的设计，即对被认为处于不同阶段的人群进行横断面比较，结果表明其在检验行为改变是否遵循阶段过程方面的价值有限。
