Nelli Hankonen

• PhD
• Professor (Full) at Tampere University

Lasten ja nuorten vähäisellä liikunnalla ja yhä lisääntyvällä paikallaan istutulla ajalla on fyysistä ja psyykkistä terveyttä ja hyvinvointia heikentäviä vaikutuksia. Tässä narratiivisessa katsauksessa tarkastellaan itsemääräämisteorian sovellettavuutta lasten ja nuorten liikunnan selittämisessä ja sen lisäämiseen kohdistuvissa interventioissa. Its...

Rokotteet ovat lääketieteen menestystarina, mutta länsimaita riivaa rokotevastaisuuden aalto. Miten tähän tilanteeseen on tultu? Siinä missä biolääketieteelliset ja teknologiset innovaatiot ovat – valtavien rahoitussatsausten voimin – mullistaneet maailmaamme, näihin ilmiöihin liittyvä käyttäytymisen (sosiaali)psykologinen ymmärrys on lapsenkengiss...

Behaviour change techniques describe the content of behaviour change interventions, but do not adequately account for the actions that people must themselves undertake to successfully change or self-manage motivation or behaviour. This paper describes the development of a compendium of self-enactable techniques, combining behaviour- and motivation-...

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, crucially, the participant must also...

Vain pieni osa nuorista liikkuu terveytensä kannalta riittävästi. Vaikka kansanterveyden kannalta olisi hyödyllistä ymmärtää paremmin liikunnan lisääntymisen syitä, valtaosassa laadullista muutoksen tutkimusta on keskitytty liikunnan ylläpitoon tai sen lopettamiseen. Tutkimuksessa tarkasteltiin keskiasteen opiskelijoiden kilpailukirjoituksissaan ra...

Koronaviruksen leviämisen ehkäiseminen vaatii monia totutusta poikkeavia tapoja käyttäytyä, kuten fyysisen etäisyyden pitämistä ja tiheää käsienpesua. Ohjeiden noudattamista on mahdotonta kaikilta osin valvoa ja osa varotoimenpiteistä saattaa jatkua hyvinkin pitkään, joten rajoitusten toimivuus on huomattavassa määrin kiinni ihmisten vapaaehtoisest...

Objectives Behaviour change theories have extensively been used in health behaviour change interventions and their programme theories. However, they are rarely evaluated in randomized field studies. The Let's Move It intervention targeted various psychosocial constructs to increase adolescents' physical activity. A theory‐based process evaluation a...

Objectives Health promotion professionals can contribute to high‐quality motivation and sustained health behaviours, for example, physical activity (PA), using motivational interaction with their target groups. However, evidence shows that even after comprehensive training, professionals do not optimally adopt motivational counselling styles. To im...

Understanding and acting upon risk is notably challenging, and navigating complexity with understandings developed for stable environments may inadvertently build a false sense of safety. Neglecting the potential for non-linear change or “black swan” events – highly impactful but uncommon occurrences – may lead to naive optimisation under assumed s...

Amidst the global momentum of behavioral insights (BI), there has been a shift from mostly nudge-based BI applications to systemic approaches. This is particularly pressing in public health, where interacting issues regularly produce unanticipated consequences. Regardless, little is known about adopting complex systems approaches in behavioral publ...

Using respiratory protective equipment is one of the relevant preventive measures for infectious diseases, including COVID-19, and for various occupational respiratory hazards. Because experienced discomfort may result in a decrease in the utilization of respirators, it is important to enhance the material properties to resolve suboptimal usage. We...

Background Low levels of physical activity are associated with numerous adverse health outcomes, yet sedentary lifestyles are common among both children and adults. Physical activity levels tend to decline steeply among children aged between 8 and 12 years, even though children’s behavioral patterns are largely governed by familial structures. Simi...

Understanding and acting upon risk is notably challenging. For instance, loss aversion has traditionally been viewed as merely a cognitive bias, but it can be interpreted as an evolutionarily advantageous heuristic for humans to avoid sudden ruin. The challenging nature of rare and highly impactful events, such as novel pathogens, may lead to under...

Background: Low levels of physical activity (PA), more prevalent among those with low education, require effective interventions. Fewer trials have tested interventions to decrease sedentary behaviour (SB). No school-based interventions have shown lasting effects on PA or sedentary behaviour in vocational schools. Purpose: To examine whether the Le...

Objective Building on the Self-Determination Theory, this study examines how basic psychological need satisfaction related to COVID-19 behavioral measures is associated with motivation quality and whether motivation quality is associated with intention to wear a face mask and to avoid meeting others. Methods Cross-sectional survey study involving...

While a large body of research on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) has identified characteristics of social environments that are conducive to optimal motivation, research has scarcely considered what individuals might themselves do to optimize motivation. Using the compendium of self-enactable techniques, this expert opinion study aimed to identify...

Ontologies are ways of representing aspects of the world in terms of uniquely defined classes of ‘entities’ and relationships between them. They are widely used in biological science, data science and commerce because they provide clarity, consistency, and the ability to link information and data from different sources. Ontologies offer great promi...

Objectives: Health promotion professionals can contribute to high-quality motivation and sustained health behaviours, e.g. physical activity (PA), by using motivational interaction with their target groups. However, evidence shows that even after comprehensive trainings, professionals do not optimally adopt motivational counseling styles. To improv...

Despite its positive effects on physical activity promotion, the motivational style of interaction by health professionals is not easily taken up, as shown by meta-analyses of training courses. The concerns professionals experience for taking up novel skills remain an open question. Preservice physical education teachers were offered a 16-h trainin...

Models and theories in behaviour change science are not in short supply, but they almost exclusively pertain to a particular facet of behaviour, such as automaticity or reasoned action, or to a single scale of observation such as individuals or communities. We present a highly generalisable conceptual model which is widely used in complex systems r...

Ontologies are ways of representing aspects of the world in terms of uniquely defined classes of ‘entities’ and relationships between them. They are widely used in biological science, data science and commerce because they provide clarity, consistency, and the ability to link information and data from different sources. Ontologies offer great promi...

Objective: Citizens’ volitional engagement in protective behaviors is essential for successful pandemic management, as much of the required adherence is beyond authorities’ control and difficult to monitor. Building on the Self-Determination Theory (SDT), this study examines how basic psychological need satisfaction (BPNS) related to COVID-19 behav...

Research generally shows that autonomous forms of motivation are associated with higher performance and job satisfaction, whereas controlled forms of motivation are linked to worse outcomes. These relationships are largely based on between-persons data from cross-sectional studies or longitudinal studies with few measurement points. However, motiva...

Background Comparative analyses of alternative interventions within the same trial enable acceptability and fidelity of each to be investigated more critically. In addition, whereas so far studies have focused on efficacy evaluations, more understanding is needed on motivational factors influencing the uptake of mental health-promoting practices ra...

While a large body of research on Self-Determination Theory (SDT) has identified characteristics of social environments that are conducive to optimal motivation, research has scarcely considered what individuals might themselves do to optimize motivation. Using the compendium of self-enactable techniques, this expert opinion study aimed to identify...

Models and theories in behaviour change science are not in short supply, but they almost exclusively pertain to a particular facet of behaviour, such as automaticity or reasoned action, or to a single scale of observation such as individuals or communities. We present a highly generalisable conceptual model which is widely used in complex systems r...

Background: In times of unprecedented infectious disease threats, it is essential to understand how to increase individual protective behaviors and support for collective measures. The present study therefore examines factors associated with individual and collective pathways. Methods: Data was collected via an online survey from 4,483 participants...

Objectives: Planning is an effective self-regulation strategy. However, little is known why some people take up planning and some do not. Such understanding would help interventions to promote planning. We investigated how adolescents explain their (non) use of planning for physical activity after an intervention. Methods: Qualitative content an...

Abstract Rationale: Translating research evidence into clinical practice to improve care involves healthcare professionals adopting new behaviours and changing or stopping their existing behaviours. However, changing healthcare professional behaviour can be difficult, particularly when it involves changing repetitive, ingrained ways of providing ca...

Rationale Clustering techniques have been used within intervention studies to locate any distinct subgroups among intervention participants. One way in which they have not yet been utilized, but for which there is potential benefit, is in finding different motivational and behavioral response types to a newly introduced behavior. Objective This st...

Introduction There is accumulating evidence for the effectiveness of mindfulness‐based interventions in alleviating depressive symptoms. A crucial question is, however, whether mindfulness interventions are more effective for some individuals than others, depending on individual characteristics before a mindfulness intervention. We exploratorily in...

Objective Habitual behaviours are triggered automatically, with little conscious forethought. Theory suggests that making healthy behaviours habitual, and breaking the habits that underpin many ingrained unhealthy behaviours, promotes long-term behaviour change. This has prompted interest in incorporating habit formation and disruption strategies i...

The present study aimed to examine effects of motivational and social cognition constructs on children’s leisure-time physical activity participation alongside constructs representing implicit processes using an extended trans-contextual model. The study adopted a correlational prospective design. Secondary-school students (N = 502) completed self-...

Objective: Many adolescents report a lack of physical activity (PA) and excess screen time (ST). Psychological theories aiming to understand these behaviours typically focus on predictors of only one behaviour. Yet, behaviour enactment is often a choice between options. This study sought to examine predictors of PA and ST in a single model. Variab...

Most coaches and instructors would like to teach more than just sport skills to their athletes and children. However, to promote athletes’ or children’s holistic development and teach them to take responsibility and lead, requires the coaches and instructors to first master the skills themselves. Therefore, feasible, high quality leadership trainin...

Objectives Planning is an effective self-regulation strategy. However, little is known why some people take up planning and why some do not. Such understanding would help improve interventions to promote planning. We investigated how adolescents explain their (non) use of planning for physical activity after an intervention.Methods Qualitative cont...

Understanding the mechanisms underlying the effects of behaviour change interventions is vital for accumulating valid scientific evidence, and useful to informing practice and policy-making across multiple domains. Traditional approaches to such evaluations have applied study designs and statistical models, which implicitly assume that change is li...

An effective response to crises like the COVID-19 pandemic is dependent on the public voluntarily adhering to governmental rules and guidelines. How the guidelines are communicated can significantly affect whether people will experience a sense of self-initiation and volition, protecting compliance from eroding. From the perspective of Self-Determi...

Health psychology is at the forefront of developing and disseminating evidence, theories, and methods that have improved the understanding of health behaviour change. However, existing evidence dissemination approaches may be insufficient for promoting the broader application and impact of findings to benefit the health of patients and the public....

The article describes a position statement and recommendations for actions that need to be taken to develop best practices for promoting scientific integrity through open science in health psychology endorsed at a Synergy Expert Group Meeting. Sixteen Synergy Meeting participants developed a set of recommendations for researchers, gatekeepers, and...

Background: To achieve real-world impacts, behavior change interventions need to be scaled up and broadly implemented. Implementation is challenging however, and the factors influencing successful implementation are not fully understood. This study describes the nationwide implementation of a complex theory-based program targeting physical activit...

Background: Inadequate physical activity in young people is associated with several physical and mental health concerns. Physical education (PE) is a potentially viable existing network for promoting physical activity in this population. However, little research has been conducted on whether PE teachers can influence students' engagement in leisur...

Social problems in many domains, including health, education, social relationships, and the workplace, have their origins in human behavior. The documented links between behavior and social problems have compelled governments and organizations to prioritize and mobilize efforts to develop effective, evidence-based means to promote adaptive behavior...

The Handbook of Behavior Change adopts a theory- and evidence-based approach to scientific inquiry into, and the practice of, behavior change. Drawing from multiple disciplines and perspectives, the handbook provides comprehensive coverage of topics in three parts: Part I covers a selection of the most prominent theories that have been commonly app...

Many problems observed in today’s society can be linked, directly or indirectly, to human behavior. Problems with roots in, or links with, behavior include debilitating illnesses and chronic conditions (e.g., cardiovascular disease, cancers, obesity, sexually transmitted infections), global pandemics of communicable diseases (e.g., SARS, H1N1, COVI...

According to self-determination theory, it is the quality rather than the quantity of motivation that counts when it comes to behavior change. The theory distinguishes between two general classes of motivation: autonomous and controlled. People are autonomously motivated when they feel that they have freely chosen or endorsed their actions, while p...

Koronaviruksen leviämisen ehkäiseminen vaatii ihmisiä omaksumaan monia totutusta poikkeavia tapoja, kuten fyysisen etäisyyden pitämistä ja tiheää käsienpesua. Viranomaisten antamien suositusten ja ohjeiden noudattamista on mahdotonta kaikilta osin valvoa ja osa varotoimenpiteistä saattaa jatkua hyvinkin pitkään, joten ohjeiden toimivuus on huomatta...

Background Inadequate physical activity in young people is associated with several physical and mental health concerns. Physical education (PE) is a potentially viable existing network for promoting physical activity in this population. However, little research has been conducted on whether PE teachers can influence students’ engagement in leisure-...

Previous research on work-related motivation and work-related outcomes generally shows that autonomous forms of motivation are associated with higher performance and job satisfaction, whereas controlled forms of motivation are generally linked to worse outcomes. These relationships are largely based on between-persons data from cross-sectional stud...

Objectives Intervention participants’ responses to and engagement with interventions are a key intermediate step between interventions and intended outcomes. The aim of this study was to qualitatively investigate crucial aspects of engagement, namely acceptability (experienced cognitive and emotional responses to the intervention), receipt (compreh...

Objectives While practicing mindfulness can potentially mitigate and prevent mental health problems among adolescents, mindfulness programs delivered in schools do not uniformly lead to uptake of mindfulness practice. This low adherence threatens the internal validity of mindfulness trials and may hinder the alleviation of mental health problems in...

Knowledge of how behaviour changes, i.e. the mechanisms underlying the effects of behaviour change interventions, is vital for accumulating valid scientific evidence and informing practice and policy-making across multiple domains. Traditional approaches to such evaluations have applied study designs and statistical models, which implicitly assume...

Background: The trans-contextual model (TCM) has been applied to identify the determinants of leisure-time physical activity participation in secondary school students. In the current study, the TCM was extended to include additional constructs that represent non-conscious, implicit processes that lead to leisure-time physical activity participatio...

Background: The trans-contextual model has been applied to identify the determinants of leisure-time physical activity participation in secondary school students. In the current study, the trans-contextual model was extended to include additional constructs that represent non-conscious, implicit processes that lead to leisure-time physical activity...

The present study aimed to examine effects of motivational and social cognition constructs on children’s leisure-time physical activity participation alongside constructs representing implicit processes using an extended trans-contextual model. The study adopted a correlational prospective design. Secondary-school students ( N = 502) completed self...

Background: Interventions to change behaviour have substantial potential to impact positively on individual and overall public health. Despite an increasing focus on health behaviour change intervention research, interventions do not always have the desired effect on outcomes, while others have diluted effects once implemented into real-life settin...

Background: School-based interventions that increase physical activity (PA) in a sustainable way are lacking. Systematic and participatory, theory and evidence-based intervention development may enhance the effectiveness of complex behavioural interventions in the long term. However, detailed descriptions of the intervention development process are...

Background: Addressing the challenge of scaling up interventions, this paper presents a case study of rolling out an intervention for real-world nationwide implementation. Multiple dimensions of perceived acceptability may predict implementation but so far, this has not been extensively studied. To implement a complex theory-based program to promot...

Previous research indicates that programmes employing Hellison’s Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model in physical activity have had a positive impact on youth development by increasing participants’ positive values, autonomy, life skills, and prosocial behaviour. Despite encouraging results of the effects of TPSR-based programme...

Background: Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) have shown promising effects on mental health among children and adolescents, but high-quality studies examining the topic are lacking. The present study assessed the effects of MBI on mental health in school-setting in an extensive randomised controlled trial. Methods: Finnish school children a...

Background: Visualisations and readily-accessible web-based supplementary files can improve data reporting and transparency. In this paper, we make use of recent developments in software and psychological network analysis to describe the baseline cohort of a trial testing the Let’s Move It intervention, which aimed to increase physical activity (PA...

Objectives To better understand life course transitions in physical activity (PA), we should identify crucial events that may play a key role as triggers for change. The aim of this study was to understand dynamic PA change by identifying triggers that adolescents themselves relate to their PA changes. Design A qualitative, inductive approach was...

Behaviour change techniques describe the content of behaviour change interventions, but do not adequately account for the actions that individuals must themselves undertake to successfully change or self-manage motivation or behaviour. This compendium of 123 self-enactable techniques fills this gap by combining behaviour- and motivation-regulation...

Rationale: Trials evaluating interventions to promote health behavior change rarely embed investigations that assess participant perceptions of crucial triggers of change. Objective: The "Let's Move It" (LMI) randomized trial evaluated a theorybased whole school system intervention aiming to increase physical activity (PA) of adolescents attendi...

Background: School-based interventions that sustainably increase physical activity (PA) are lacking. Systematic and participatory, theory and evidence-based intervention development may enhance effectiveness of complex behavioral interventions. Aims: To illustrate a stepwise process to develop intervention targeting PA and sedentary behavior (SB) a...

Objectives: We know little of the critical incidents that youths themselves associate with changes in their physical activity (PA). The aim of this study was to understand dynamic PA change by identifying narrative triggers that adolescents themselves relate to their PA changes. Design: A qualitative and inductive approach was used in this study.Me...

Introduction: A key intermediate step between interventions and their intended outcomes are participants responding to and engaging with interventions as intended, but only few health promotion interventions assess this. Research objectives: Let’s Move It was a multi-component intervention aimed to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary be...

THIS IS A LATE DRAFT VERSION OF A MANUSCRIPT TO BE SUBMITTED; freely available here: https://psyarxiv.com/46rzm/. Draft of a supplementary website: https://git.io/fhxvu. Background: Let's Move It is a complex whole-school system intervention aiming to reduce sedentary behaviours (SB) and increase physical activity (PA) among adolescents in vocation...

Background Given the documented decline in levels of physical activity in early adolescence, promoting physical activity in young people is a priority for health promotion. School physical education (PE) is an important existing network in which participation in physical activity beyond school can be promoted to the captive young people. The object...

Background We examined effects of trait self‐control, constructs from social cognition theories, and intentions on health behaviours. Trait self‐control was expected to predict health behaviour indirectly through theory constructs and intentions. Trait self‐control was also predicted to moderate the intention–behaviour relationship. Methods Propos...

For mindfulness programs to have sustained benefits, participants should continue to practice mindfulness independently. Behavioral theories have been used to predict and change other health behaviors, but have rarely been applied to mindfulness practice. This research aimed to identify predictors/determinants of sustained mindfulness practice afte...

Background Literature on persuasion suggests compliance increases when requests are accompanied with a reason (i.e. the “because-heuristic”). The reliability of outcomes in physical activity research is dependent on sufficient accelerometer wear-time. This study tested whether SMS reminders—especially those that provided a rationale—are associated...

Purpose: Motivational interaction could help physical education (PE) teachers foster students’ motivation and engagement. We investigated pre-service PE teachers’ experiences of learning and using motivational interaction after a training course.Method: Narrative analysis was employed to analyse individual interviews (N=19). Results: Expressed adva...

Creating active classroom environments and reducing excessive student sitting requires changes in teachers' behaviours. This study examines a teacher training intervention, which aimed to increase the extent to which teachers use strategies to interrupt prolonged periods of students' sitting, as well as strategies to reduce total sitting time. The...

Background: Intervention effectiveness does not only depend on fidelity of intervention delivery, but also the enactment and use of behavior change techniques (BCTs) by the participants. Theoretical and conceptual work integrating various strands of research into “what a person can do for oneself” to change behavior is needed. This would aid in des...

Creating active classroom environments and reducing excessive student sitting requires changes in teachers’ behaviours. This study examines a teacher training intervention, which aimed to increase the extent to which teachers use strategies to interrupt prolonged periods of students’ sitting, as well as strategies to reduce total sitting time. The...

More people than ever are living longer with chronic conditions such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Behavior change for effective self-management can improve health outcomes and quality of life in people living with such chronic illnesses. The science of developing behavior change interventions with impact for patients aims to opti...

Background. Given the documented decline in levels of physical activity in early adolescence, promoting physical activity in young people is a priority for health promotion. School physical education (PE) is an important existing network in which participation in physical activity beyond school can be promoted to the captive young people. The objec...

Introduction Evaluating effects of behavior change interventions is a central interest in health psychology and behavioral medicine. Researchers in these fields routinely use frequentist statistical methods to evaluate the extent to which these interventions impact behavior and the hypothesized mediating processes in the population. However, calls...

[Current version submitted to BMC Public Health.]Background: Literature on persuasion suggests compliance increases when requests are accompanied with a reason (i.e. the “because-heuristic”). The reliability of outcomes in physical activity research is dependent on sufficient accelerometer wear-time. This study tested whether SMS reminders—especial...

Motivation is a proximal determinant of behaviour, and increasing motivation is central to most health behaviour change interventions. This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to identify features of physical activity interventions associated with favourable changes in three prominent motivational constructs: intention, stage of change and a...

https://psyarxiv.com/upmy8/

Motivation is a proximal determinant of behavior in many psychological theories, and increasing motivation is central to most behavior change interventions. This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to fill a gap in the literature by identifying features of behavior change interventions associated with favorable changes in three prominent mot...

Motivation is a proximal determinant of behavior, and increasing motivation is central to most health behavior change interventions. This systematic review and meta-analysis sought to identify features of physical activity interventions associated with favorable changes in three prominent motivational constructs: intention, stage of change and auto...

Introduction: Evaluating effects of behavior change interventions is a central interest in health psychology and behavioral medicine. Researchers in these fields routinely use frequentist statistical methods to evaluate the extent to which these interventions impact behavior and the hypothesized mediating processes in the population. However, calls...

Background Health policy papers disseminate recommendations and guidelines for the development and implementation of health promotion interventions. Such documents have rarely been investigated with regard to their assumed mechanisms of action for changing behaviour. The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) and Behaviour Change Techniques (BCT) Taxo...