Integrating Health Literacy into a Theory-Based Drug-Use Prevention Program: A Quasi-Experimental Study Among Junior High Students in Taiwan.

BackgroundIn Taiwan, illegal drug use is a critical health problem during adolescence. Schools play a vital role in preventing students’ illegal drug use. Accordingly, we developed and evaluated a school-based, drug-use prevention program integrating the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and health literacy for junior high school students.MethodsWe recruited 648 junior high school students from 14 selected schools: N= 323 in the experimental group, N= 325 in the comparison group. The experimental group received ten 45-minute sessions of a theory-based drug-use prevention program. The comparison group received traditional didactic teaching and drug refusal skill training. We used a generalized estimating equation (GEE) to analyze data.ResultsResults of paired t-tests indicated that drug-use health literacy and TPB-related variables improved in the experimental group. The GEE analyses indicated that participants in the experimental group also demonstrated significantly improved health literacy (p < 0.001) compared to the comparison group, especially for functional (p< 0.001) and critical health literacy (p = 0.017). The experimental group also showed significant post-intervention improvement in terms of subjective norm scores (p = 0.024). ConclusionStudy results demonstrated the effectiveness of a drug-use prevention program on health literacy and subjective norm by integrating the TPB and health literacy. These results could support the future implementation of drug-use prevention programs for junior high school students on a larger scale.

Perspectives Emerged from Students and Supervisory Staff Interaction in Drug Use Prevention: A Q Methodology Investigation

This study aims to identify and describe the patterns of shared perspectives of students and supervisory staff associated with their interaction in drug use prevention. We applied the Q methodology to cluster participants into groups according to the similarities of their Q sorts. A total of 31 pairs of students and their supervisory staff participated in the study to rank the designed Q statements. The Q factor analysis for supervisory staff revealed a five-factor solution that accounted for 58% of the total variance. Another five-factor solution for the students explained 49% of the total variance. One similarity between the groups was the need to enhance the involvement of significant others to help the students quit drugs. A major identified difference between the groups was that whereas the students highlighted the importance of health consequences of drug use in helping them stop use, the supervisory staff did not. The elucidation of similarities and differences between supervisory staff and students could offer more insightful strategies of preventing the drug use.

Comparison between the Mentoring Interaction Perspectives of Mentors and Mentees in Illegal Drug Use Prevention: A Q methodology investigation (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Only limited empirical research has compared the different perspectives of mentors and mentees regarding mentoring interactions in drug use prevention. Perspective comparisons between these groups will provide a beneficial understanding of how mentoring can be improved. Using online self-assessment to understand perspectives was an innovative approach to uncover the similarities and differences between mentors and mentees. OBJECTIVE This study aims to identify and compare the patterns of shared perspectives of mentors and mentees associated with their experiences in preventing illegal drug use during the mentoring process. METHODS In this study, we applied the Q methodology to cluster participants into groups according to the similarities of their Q sorts through online self-assessment. Accordingly, 39 Q statements were developed by integrating published literature and expert opinions. Further, a total of 31 pairs of mentors and mentees participated in the study to rank the designed Q statements by using a Q sort. Subsequently, we applied PQ Method 2.35 software to perform Q factor analysis on the Q sort data from mentors and mentees. Each resulting final factor represented a group of participants with similar perspectives. RESULTS This study included separate Q factor analyses for mentors and mentees. The analyses provided a five-factor solution for the mentors that accounted for 58% of the total variance. Another five-factor solution for the mentees explained 49% of the total variance. One similarity between the groups was the need to enhance the involvement of significant others to help mentees quit drugs. Further, a major identified difference between the groups was that whereas the mentees highlighted the importance of health consequences of drug misuse in helping them stop use, the mentors did not. CONCLUSIONS The adoption of the Q methodology enabled a direct comparison of the perspectives of mentors and mentees regarding illegal drug use prevention. The elucidation of more similarities and differences between mentors and mentees could offer a more insightful understanding of preventing the drug use by mentees.

Pengaruh Dukungan Teman Dan Keluarga Terhadap Perilaku Pencegahan Penggunaan Napza Remaja

Drug abuse in Surabaya is one of the problems that is quite high. These problems often occur at the age of 10-19 years which is the age groups of student. Drug abuse prevalence in Surabaya city is 0,012%. Teenagers who use drugs abuse in 2013 were 29 students, it was 37 students in 2014 and increase up to 51 students in 2015. Factors that cause adolescents to use abuse drugs are family and friends. Family are factors that have great influence in the child’s learning process. This is because children interact more with their family than with people at schoool. While for friends, interaction between oneself and peer is direct that occurs between individuals and individuals with groups. The contact involve children who have similar characteristics and at the same age level. The purpose of this research was to determina the effect of friend and family support on the behavior of drug use prevention of adolescents in Surabaya. This article is based on the results of research that conducted on junior high school students in Surabaya. The study used a quantitative approach method with observasional types. Sampling in this research use a total sampling technique that is as many as 77 adolescent respondents. Independent variables from this research are family and friend support. While the dependent variable is the behavior of drug use prevention. The results of this research are an influence between family support for drug use prevention (p= 0,031). While for friend support has an influence on the behavior of drug use prevention by (p=0,012). The conclusion in this research is that the characteristics of respondents are dominated by female gender. Respondents have a dominant age that is 13 years old. Research on respondents stated that both variables have an influence on drug use behavior for adolescents.