ABSTRACT
This chapter considers childhood and adolescence in relation to developmental changes and consider how these changes can impact health behaviours and subsequent health. When designing intervention to target risk behaviour in adolescents it is important to first consider the behaviour and what is already known about the behaviour to enable the targeting of behaviour change techniques to evoke change. The chapter considers models that could be used in intervention design with adolescents. While the dual process approach is relevant to both adults and children and adolescents, there are differences in memory and experience that can affect the decisional pathway and lead to greater impulsivity. The Prototype Willingness Model is a dual processing approach that was developed specifically to account for the less reasoned, more impulsive health risk behaviour that is exhibited by adolescents. Childhood and adolescence are important periods of development for establishing positive health behaviours.
