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Developing a theory of change – the importance of rich process data and authors’ insights into context, implementation and mechanisms

Burchett, Helen Elizabeth Denise; French, Rebecca S; Griffin, Sally; de Melo, Málica; Picardo, Joelma Joaquim; Kneale, Dylan; (2024) Developing a theory of change – the importance of rich process data and authors’ insights into context, implementation and mechanisms. Global Health Promotion , Article 1232387. 10.1177/17579759241232387. (In press). Green open access

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Abstract

Background: Theories of change explaining how interventions work are increasingly important, yet the methods/data to develop these are less advanced than for evaluating effects.// Methods: We conducted a systematic evidence synthesis to develop a theory of change for structural adolescent contraception interventions. We reflect on the utility of the information provided in evaluation reports.// Findings/discussion: Few of the included evaluations presented their theory of change, or included rich, qualitative process data. Authors’ descriptions of context and implementation, typically in introduction and discussion sections, were very useful. These helped to understand the intervention’s context, how it was experienced and why or how it had the effect that it did. We recommend incorporating rich process evaluations into studies, and reporting contextual insights into the intervention’s development, implementation and experience. We also recommend including these data and insights within syntheses that aim to develop theories of change.

Type: Article
Title: Developing a theory of change – the importance of rich process data and authors’ insights into context, implementation and mechanisms
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1177/17579759241232387
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1177/17579759241232387
Language: English
Additional information: © The Author(s) 2024. Creative Commons License (CC BY 4.0) This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages
Keywords: adolescent, contraception, evaluation, evidence synthesis, process evaluation
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10189209
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