ABSTRACT
The important role of self-efficacy in health education is argued, illustrated with Dutch research, which shows that self-efficacy is an important determinant of health behavior, of future health behavior, and of health behavior change. Health education is a form of planned behavior change. Research shows that the effectiveness of health education activities is determined by the quality of this planning process: analysing the problem, analysing the related behaviors, developing interventions to change that behavior, organising implementation, and finally evaluating of the effects on the problem or the behavior. This chapter suggests strategies to improve self-efficacy, based on attribution theory and relapse prevention theory. Programs to improve self-efficacy by attribution retraining have been developed successfully, mostly based on relapse prevention theory. The chapter presents research that shows the contribution of self-efficacy in the determination of behavior. Self-efficacy expectations predict future success or failure in behavior change programs, like quitting smoking.
