NCEA Level 2 Health Education cheat sheet

NCEA Level 2 Health Education - Key Concepts and Decision Rules

• The socio-ecological model has five levels: individual, interpersonal (family/peers), organisational (school/workplace), community, and societal/public policy. A factor is placed at the level where change would be needed to remove it.

• The four dimensions of hauora are taha tinana (physical), taha hinengaro (mental/emotional), taha whānau (social/family) and taha wairua (spiritual). Each dimension can be described as strengthened or weakened by a determinant, and the four interact rather than sit independently.

• Determinants of health are grouped as personal (knowledge, attitudes, skills, genetics), social (family, peers, media, culture) and economic/environmental (income, housing, access to services, transport). A determinant is only valid if a specific pathway to the health outcome can be described.

• Resilience is the capacity to cope with and recover from adversity; protective factors (supportive relationships, belonging, self-efficacy, problem-solving skills) reduce risk, while risk factors increase the likelihood of a negative outcome. Risk plus protective factors together predict the outcome, not risk alone.

• Attitudes and values are described using the triad of thinking (what a person believes), feeling (emotional response) and behaviour (action taken). Consistency across all three indicates an internalised value; inconsistency signals competing values or social pressure.

• Health-enhancing decision-making steps: identify the decision and options, gather reliable information, consider consequences for self and others across hauora, check against personal values and the law, decide, act, then evaluate the outcome.

• A health issue is analysed by describing its nature and extent (who is affected, how many, trends over time, which groups are over-represented) and then explaining the determinants at each socio-ecological level rather than listing causes.

• Strategies are judged effective by whether they address an identified determinant, are accessible and culturally appropriate for the target group, are sustainable, and are evaluated against measurable outcomes rather than by popularity.