Developing theory‐driven narrative messages with personal stories: A step‐by‐step guide

Abstract

Objective: Narratives are commonly utilized in health promotion and behavior change interventions due to their efficacy over didactic or expository interventions.While grounding narratives in behavioral theory may render them more effective, balancing the integration of theoretical and creative aspects of the narrative development process while maintaining authenticity is challenging. Thus, this manuscript describes a rigorous process through which researchers can intentionally integrate theory and personal stories for health interventions. Methods:The process for creating theory-driven narratives involves the following steps: (1) defining the purpose of the narratives, (2) selecting a guiding theory, (3) collecting personal testimonials, (4) immersing self into testimonials, (5) identifying central narratives and important variations, (6) considering additional theories, (7) piecing quotes into cohesive stories, (8) filling in the gaps, and (9) checking for resonance. Results:To exemplify this step-by-step process, we provide a case study from our research involving the development of a psychoeducational intervention to model information seeking strategies for managing cancer-related uncertainty among women who have recently tested positive for pathogenic genetic variants that increase risk for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. Conclusions:We discuss special considerations for developing theory-driven narrative interventions and reflect on how this rigorous step-by-step process can be adapted by other researchers.

The Development and Evaluation of Novel Patient Educational Material for a Variant of Uncertain Significance (VUS) Result in Hereditary Cancer Genes

“…Third, as alluded to above, we included patients’ experiences with sharing VUS results, as well as sharing their family history of cancer. Integrating patient narratives such as quotes provides psychosocial information that resonates with patients, helping them to process and manage information [ 44 ] and may motivate them to adopt certain health behaviors [ 45 ]. Specific quotes that illustrate different coping responses can demonstrate appropriate cancer risk management decisions and forecast possible reactions that family members may have if patients share information [ 46 , 49 ].…”

“…Specific quotes that illustrate different coping responses can demonstrate appropriate cancer risk management decisions and forecast possible reactions that family members may have if patients share information [ 46 , 49 ]. A novel aspect of this section in our intervention is the use of real patients’ quotes from extant research [ 44 ], as well as interviews from our prior study. Importantly, our participants who evaluated the educational materials reported that the patients’ quotes resonated with their personal experiences when sharing their VUS result and/or family history of cancer with family members.…”

“…• Integrating patient narratives provides psychosocial information that resonates with patients, helping them process and manage informatio [44] and may motivate them to adopt certain health behaviors [45].…”

“…Integrating patient narratives provides psychosocial information that resonates with patients, helping them process and manage information [ 44 ] and may motivate them to adopt certain health behaviors [ 45 ]. [ Quotes that illustrated coping responses have the potential to positively influence individuals and can demonstrate appropriate actions to take .]…”