ENHANCING SOCIAL DIFFUSION-THEORY AS A BASIS FOR PREVENTION INTERVENTION - A CONCEPTUAL AND STRATEGIC FRAMEWORK

Social diffusion theory has recently been recognized as a promising ap proach for large-scale disease prevention and health promotion efforts . This paper describes how principles and tactics from social cognitiv e theory, operant psychology, social psychology, social marketing, and the overarching stages of change model can be used to further develop the conceptual and strategic (technological) bases of social diffusio n theory. Within an integrative framework, we discuss in detail more e ffective ways to train peer mediators of behavior change as one exampl e of how social diffusion theory can benefit from this conceptual and strategic reformulation. We then further illustrate the use of peer me diators of change in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and cancer pre vention intervention studies with both interventions training peer med iators to diffuse information, norms, and risk reduction strategies. A lthough the results of these studies showed reductions in high-risk be haviors across population segments, more closely following the framewo rk discussed in this article should further increase the behavior chan ge potential of future interventions based on social diffusion theory.