Program Goals

Health Behavior and Health Education at UT Austin is an interdisciplinary program that prepares students for academic, research, and applied careers in health promotion. The programs emphasize a multidisciplinary, bio-behavioral, and developmental approach to health promotion. Our program bridges theory and research from behavioral medicine, psychology, public health, education, and other social sciences. Health Behavior and Health Education graduate programs include options for the non-thesis M.Ed., the M.S. with thesis, and the Ph.D.

Students admitted to the graduate programs conduct theory-driven research utilizing a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods and participate in research and applied opportunities within and outside the university. Content areas include research on tobacco prevention, HIV risk reduction, alcohol and drug abuse prevention, successful aging, coping with chronic illness, aggression prevention, "best practices" of prevention activities in medical care settings, women's health, wellness and resiliency, child and adolescent health, worksite health promotion and delivery of school-based interventions.

Graduates of the Health Behavior and Health Education master's degree programs (M.S. and M.Ed.) enjoy a variety of job opportunities at health departments, worksite health promotion programs, government agencies, voluntary health agencies, health care organizations, and other settings. Credentialing became available for health education in 1990 and health education is now listed on the federal government's list of health occupations, further opening the field. For more information on credentialing, see: http://www.nchec.org/. Graduates of the Health Behavior and Health Education Ph.D. program are prepared for academic and research careers.