Weight management in young adults: Development and application of a theory-driven social marketing approach
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Rundle-Thiele, Sharyn
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Pang, Bo
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Abstract
This PhD thesis contributes to social marketing research and practice in five main ways. First, this thesis provides a state-of-the-art review on eHealth weight management interventions targeting young adults identifying limitations of the current evidence base, namely a lack of optimal theory application. Second, this thesis illuminates a lack of and/or underreporting of theory in social marketing more broadly, and reveals a fundamental flaw in the discipline's assessment of theory use when reviewing the evidence base. Third, the TITE theory application process developed offers a procedural contribution to social marketing research and practice that can be applied to improve theory application and reporting in future interventions, and in so doing, advance the cumulative knowledge base. Fourth, this thesis takes a considerable step forward by applying elements of the TITE theory application process to an audience research study designed to inform the future development of a weight management intervention targeting young adults. Finally, this thesis shifts social marketing research and practice beyond the pre-dominant individual (downstream) focus with an empirical validation of the COM-B model across two different, but related, behavioural contexts (physical activity and healthy eating). Taken together, this research demonstrates how a theory-driven social marketing approach can deliver a fine-grained understanding of the active drivers of weight-related behaviours in young adults, thereby informing the future design of an intervention that is both evidence-based and theory-driven.
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Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
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Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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Dept of Marketing
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The author owns the copyright in this thesis, unless stated otherwise.
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Subject
weight management
social marketing
TITE
COM-B
young adults