A conceptual framework and exploratory model for health and social intervention acceptability among African adolescents and youth

Intervention acceptability has become an increasingly key consideration in the development, evaluation and implementation of health and social interventions. However, to date this area of investigation has been constrained by the absence of a consistent definition of acceptability, comprehensive conceptual frameworks disaggregating its components, and few reliable assessment measures. This paper aims to contribute to this gap, by proposing a conceptual framework and exploratory model for acceptability with a specific priority population for health and developmental interventions: adolescents and youth in Africa. We document our multi-staged approach to model development, comprising both inductive and deductive components, and both systematic and interpretative review methods. This included thematic analyses of respective acceptability definitions and findings, from 55 studies assessing acceptability of 60 interventions conducted with young people aged 10–24 in (mainly Southern and Eastern) Africa over a decade; a consideration of these findings in relation to Sekhon et al.‘s Theoretical Framework of Acceptability (TFA); a cross-disciplinary review of acceptability definitions and models; a review of key health behavioural change models; and expert consultation with interdisciplinary researchers. Our proposed framework incorporates nine component constructs: affective attitude, intervention understanding, perceived positive effects, relevance, perceived social acceptability, burden, ethicality, perceived negative effects and self-efficacy. We discuss the rationale for the inclusion and definition of each component, highlighting key behavioural models that adopt similar constructs. We then extend this framework to develop an exploratory model for acceptability with young people, that links the framework components to each other and to intervention engagement. Acceptability is represented as an emergent property of a complex, adaptive system of interacting components, which can influence user engagement directly and indirectly, and in turn be influenced by user engagement. We discuss opportunities for applying and further refining or developing these models, and their value as a point of reference for the development of acceptability assessment tools.