An evaluation of the 4-H Health Rocks program: implications for program improvement

Youth Substance Use Prevention Using Disciplinary Literacy Strategies: A Pilot Study

Effective health education programs for adolescent substance use prevention need to be developed. However, the evidence supporting the use of specific instructional strategies for youth substance use prevention programs is insufficient. The purpose of this study was to develop and implement a community-based program aiming for smoking, alcohol, and substance use prevention based on multiple disciplinary literacy strategies. A one-group pretest-and-posttest comparison design was used to test the feasibility of the new substance use prevention program. Thirty-two adolescents, most from families with minority and low-socioeconomic status backgrounds, participated. The group met for a 1-hour session once a week for 10 weeks. The program was implemented in a suburban setting in a southeastern state in the United States. Pretests and posttests were administered to assess the program's effectiveness in improving participants' knowledge, skills, and assets regarding substance use. Overall, the participants were satisfied with the program and reported significant growth in their knowledge, skills, assets, and perceptions of benefits. These findings suggest that disciplinary literacy strategies may promote adolescents' perceptions of and knowledge regarding substance use.

[Prevention of substance use disorders]

Prevention of substance use disorders Abstract. Introduction: Adolescence is a vulnerable period for the development of Substance Use Disorders and preventive intervention is a public health priority. In this article, we summarize the available evidence for behavioral preventive action for Substance Use Disorders and related dysregulated behaviors during adolescence in various settings. Results: Current meta-analytic evidence is available mainly for the school and family settings and increasingly also for internet-based prevention. The literature is dominated by US-studies that focus on universal school-based approaches for legal substances in middle adolescence. Only few German studies are published. Taken together the results indicate that developmentally sensitive substance use prevention is effective across different settings with consistent small-to-middle sized effects. Differential effectiveness analyses for schoolbased prevention suggest that younger adolescents benefit most from universal prevention, while for older adolescents targeted approaches are more effective. Conclusions: Across the relevant settings, effective preventive measures are available. However, the results could be improved. There is a need for translational research on effective and more individualized approaches to prevention and differential effects of intervention modules. Moreover, there is a need for research on the implementation of evidence-based programs and especially in Germany, coordinated approaches on community levels are lacking.

What's New in Addiction Prevention in Young People: A Literature Review of the Last Years of Research

Rationale: Addiction prevention is a major public health problem, particularly concerning young people. Despite the consensus that primary prevention is essential, the evaluation of its impact is questioned.

Objective: The objective of this paper is to assess the latest knowledge of addiction prevention programs for young people.

Method: Review a collection of research articles using a keyword-based search on three databases: Pubmed, Eric, and PsycInfo. The research was carried out using three groups of keywords and the eligibility study was completed using two criteria: articles published between 2010 and 2017, and articles in refereed journals.

Results: Of a total of 13,720 articles in the three databases, 32 studies were included in the review and listed in a grid with five themes: authors, type of population, total population, addictive behavior, and results. Four categories were created based on the objective of the studies: the evaluation of prevention strategies, the study of risk factors for consumption, the prevalence study and other subjects studied. The analysis of the corpus was used to establish a list of risk factors to be taken into consideration in future interventions and research. A list of key elements for performing effective interventions and future research is also proposed.

Conclusion: The understanding of the prevention strategies implementation process is discussed as a central element for future research, which will combine stakeholders and researchers. The complexity of the situations and the multifactorial aspects of addiction prevention in young people require a multidisciplinary approach involving the various stakeholders and researchers.

Perceptions of the Role of West Virginia's Cooperative Extension Service in Tobacco Control Coalitions

Despite the fact that the consequences of tobacco use are well identified and known, it remains the single most preventable cause of disease and death in the United States. In West Virginia alone, the adult prevalence of cigarette smoking is 26.8%. This study researches the perceptions of the Cooperative Extension Service’s involvement and role in county-level coalitions that address tobacco use in West Virginia. The research findings provide practical areas to increase the role of the Extension Service in these vital efforts to save lives, reduce economic hardships on families, and reduce the health-care burden on the state government.