
PMID- 42560649
OWN - NLM
STAT- Publisher
LR  - 20260806
IS  - 2731-5541 (Electronic)
IS  - 2731-5533 (Linking)
DP  - 2026 Aug 6
TI  - When Time Is Not Available: Rethinking Behaviour Change in Prevention.
LID - 10.1007/s10935-026-00943-5 [doi]
AB  - Behaviour change theories have substantially advanced understanding of the 
      mechanisms through which behaviours are initiated, maintained, and sustained. 
      However, less attention has been directed towards the temporal conditions under 
      which these mechanisms are able to operate consistently in everyday life. This 
      conceptual paper explores whether differences in temporal conditions may 
      contribute to the variability frequently observed in behaviour change 
      interventions. The paper proposes a complementary framework centred on the 
      concepts of tempo, interval, and behavioural consolidation. Rather than 
      introducing an alternative behaviour change theory, the framework considers how 
      environments differ in the temporal conditions they create for behavioural 
      processes to unfold. It suggests that these conditions may influence the extent 
      to which existing behaviour change mechanisms are able to operate effectively 
      over time. The framework is illustrated through conceptual applications to food 
      environments, learning environments, sleep, and clinical prevention, 
      demonstrating how temporal conditions may provide an additional perspective 
      across behavioural, cognitive, physiological, and professional domains. By making 
      temporal conditions explicit, this perspective complements existing behaviour 
      change models and generates new questions for prevention research and practice. 
      Rather than asking only how behaviour changes, it encourages consideration of 
      whether the temporal conditions required for behavioural consolidation are 
      present in the first place.
CI  - (c) 2026. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business 
      Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
FAU - Ives, Timothy Robert
AU  - Ives TR
AUID- ORCID: 0009-0007-3561-9267
AD  - Independent Researcher, Oakham, UK. timothy.ives@me.com.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20260806
PL  - Switzerland
TA  - J Prev (2022)
JT  - Journal of prevention (2022)
JID - 9918351283506676
SB  - IM
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Behaviour change
OT  - Environment
OT  - Health behaviour
OT  - Prevention
OT  - Systems perspective
OT  - Temporal structure
EDAT- 2026/08/06 12:37
MHDA- 2026/08/06 12:37
CRDT- 2026/08/06 11:20
PHST- 2026/05/06 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2026/07/26 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2026/08/06 12:37 [medline]
PHST- 2026/08/06 12:37 [pubmed]
PHST- 2026/08/06 11:20 [entrez]
AID - 10.1007/s10935-026-00943-5 [pii]
AID - 10.1007/s10935-026-00943-5 [doi]
PST - aheadofprint
SO  - J Prev (2022). 2026 Aug 6. doi: 10.1007/s10935-026-00943-5.
