|
Background
In
most European junior and senior high schools,
interventions take place to protect against using
alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. Most of these
programmes, however, have never been adequately
evaluated through a rigorous scientific methodology.
In
the absence of drug use prevention programmes with
solid evidence of effectiveness, there is a need
to evaluate programmes, especially in European
countries. The EU-Dap project aims to fill this
gap in knowledge.
The EU-Dap project aims
to provide European schools and health authorities
with useful information to implement effective
interventions for the prevention of drug use, and
with methods to evaluate the effectiveness of such
school-based interventions.
The programme
tested was specifically designed for European
schools, using principles and methods deemed as
most useful in preventing drug use.
Evaluation
results of phase I demonstrated
that the EU-Dap programme was effective in
reducing the onset of smoking, alcohol
intoxication and use of other drugs.
Unplugged – the School
Programme Tested
The
programme curriculum named "Unplugged" which was
evaluated in phase I was created by a team of
European public health practitioners and
researchers known as the EU-Dap Intervention Planning
Group. The
programme is based on the Comprehensive Social
Influence Model* and aims for universal
prevention**.
*
Comprehensive Social Influence programmes combine
life skills education with normative education and
knowledge acquisition on
substances
** universal
prevention refers to activities aiming to avoid or
delay the use of substances by all youths,
irrespective of their background risk profile. The
assumption of universal prevention is that it is
important to reduce the whole bulk of new
users.
During the evaluation in
phase I, the "Unplugged" programme was
administered in randomly selected intervention
schools, while control schools proceeded without
the programme.
Intervention schools also
combined parental involvement or leadership of
class peers.
Three
combinations were implemented in three groups of
intervention schools:
- Basic
curriculum: "Unplugged" programme led by
teachers to students;
- Parent
component: "Unplugged" programme plus the
involvement of parents;
- Class-Peer
component: "Unplugged" programme plus the
involvement of peers.
The "Unplugged" curriculum
consists in 12 one-hour lessons, administered by
school teachers, trained in a specific 2.5 day
training session.
The curriculum and full descriptions of the lessons are available for free.
Study
Procedure
The implementation and
evaluation of the EU-Dap programme was developed
by researchers and practitioners of the Study Design
Group.
Nine
centres in seven
countries coordinated the study in respective
regions.
A
minimum of 15 schools were recruited by each
centre whereas the centres in Stockholm and Turin
engaged twice as many schools. The characteristics
of the participating schools were defined by the
Search
Coordinating Group (SCG)
and
are described in the Study Protocol.
Random
Assignment of Schools
The
three intervention combinations were compared to a
control group. The assignment of schools to the
intervention or control conditions was done at
random by the study
coordinating
centre. Within
each school, at least two classes participated.
The intervention schools followed the "Unplugged"
programme and the control schools followed, if
anything, the usual health education
programme.
Evaluation
of Results
The
programme aimed to reduce the use of alcohol,
tobacco, cannabis and other drugs. The research
team examined the differences in initial use and
regular use between youth in the intervention and
control schools by way of a self-completed
questionnaire.
The
questionnaire was administered to students of both
intervention and control schools during the first
month of the 2004-2005 school year to collect
baseline information on:
·
social
environment;
·
one's
own substance use;
·
knowledge
and opinions about substances;
·
substance
use in the immediate environment;
·
family
and social environment;
·
school
environment and school climate;
·
problems and skills.
Using
the same questionnaire, a second assessment took
place three months after completing the
“Unplugged” programme (May-June 2005). A
subsequent follow-up took place one year after the
first follow-up (September-October 2006) in order
to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of the
"Unplugged" programme.
To protect the identity of the youth and
the confidentiality of their responses, the
questionnaires were identified by a code that was independently
generated by each participant. A total of 150
schools and over 7000 students participated in the
EU-Dap Trial.
The
implementation of the "Unplugged"
programme
The "Unplugged" curriculum
(12 school-hours) was led by trained teachers in
the intervention classes. These teachers
participated in a 2.5 day training session prior
to the start of the programme where they received
the "Unplugged" teaching manual.
The Parent component included three evening
seminars led by an expert outside the school who
was appointed by the local EU-Dap
coordinator.
The Class-Peer component was
carried out by designated students in each class
with minimal supervision by the teachers.
The “Unplugged” lessons were taught during the 2004-2005 school year. The total class time required to teach the lessons is shown in the following table:
(click to see the table)
The project overview with timeline is outlined in the following table:
(click to see the table)
The
implementation of the programme, the difficulties
experienced by the teachers in implementing the
Units, and possible suggestions for improvements
were investigated and registered through specific
monitoring forms all along the implementation
phase.
What
are the results?
The
"Unplugged" programme was found to be effective in
preventing the onset of alcohol, tobacco and other
drug use. The parental and peer components did not
add any additional effectiveness to the
"Unplugged" programme. However, anecdotal feedback
from parents and teachers indicate that the
parental component adds value to the
programme.
More
details can be found in the EU-Dap Final
Report
EU-Dap
has been funded for a second phase which started 1
May 2006. The project team aims to spread the
programme and research methods and results in new
regions and countries. Centres in the Prague,
Czech Republic and Poznan, Poland have joined the
EU-Dap Consortium.
The
activities in Phase II include revising the
“Unplugged” Teaching Manual, producing a
dissemination guide for teachers, principals and
decision-makers, and evaluating the uptake of
comprehensive social influence
programmes.
Revised
version of “Unplugged”
Revisions
were based on teacher feedback and barriers
identified during EU-Dap phase I, and were made by
the Intervention
Review Group.
The revised version of
“Unplugged” includes:
-
A
new lesson order
-
A
student workbook
-
Shorter
lessons for easier
implementation
-
Innovative activities
According to the new
structure, the 12 lessons are:
1.
Opening
Unplugged
2.
To
be or not to be in a group
3.
Choices
– Alcohol, Risk and Protection
4.
Your
beliefs, norms and information – do they reflect
reality?
5.
Smoking
the cigarette drug – Inform yourself
6.
Express
yourself
7.
Get
up, stand up
8.
Party
tiger
9.
Drugs
- Get informed
10.
Coping
competences
11.
Problem
solving and decision making
12.
Goal
setting
The
student’s workbook, newly developed, is intended
as a personal workbook of the student, and
contains activities that students are to work
through during the Unplugged units.
Apart
from the revision of the Unplugged materials, a
new appealing graphic version was developed, and
the new program, together with the student
workbook and the cards, is freely
available. | 
