Dictionary of Public Health Promotion and Education
Terms and Concepts
Chapter One
A
Abstinence
Refraining from the use of drugs, alcohol, tobacco, and other substances or
habits that tend to harm the body. May also refer to refusing to engage in
sex behaviors that may put individuals at risk for early pregnancy or diseases
such as HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs).
Abstinence Violation Effect (AVE)
Part of Marlatt and Gordon's 1985 model of the relapse process involving a
cognitive-emotional reaction that includes (a) guilt from relapsing and engaging
an undesired behavior (e.g., smoking) after quitting smoking or changing
the behavior (e.g., smoking cessation), which is discrepant from the new
self-image (e.g., a nonsmoker); and (b) an attribution that the relapse episode
was due to personal weakness. This usually results in perceptions of decreased
self-efficacy in considering readopting a desired health behavior (Cor ... read full excerpt from Dictionary of Public Health Promotion and Education: Terms and Concepts ebook
