Youth Substance Abuse Prevention Kit for Teachers and Peer Leaders

1. DEVELOPMENT OF PREVENTION EDUCATIONAL MATERIALS FOR TEACHERS AND PEER LEADERS ORIENTED ON YOUTH PROBLEMS AND VALUES • Tatiana Andreeva, MD, PhD, • Konstantin Krasovsky, PhD • Kazan Public Foundation Choice, Russian Federation • Alcohol and Drug Information Center, Ukraine

2. The project goal To create instruments, which will let teachers and peer leaders to address intoxicants-related problems in young people’s lives and to deal with the situation where substances of abuse are seen as a means to solve psychological problems and to meet natural needs of teenagers – training materials which could be used in work with teenagers to show them other ways to satisfy their needs and to solve their problems instead of intoxicants.

3. The project objectives are: • To reveal and analyze intoxicants-related youth problems. • To develop the instrument to address these problems in youth relevant way. • To train teachers to use the prepared kit in class.

4. Short description of the method

5. The preconditions of the approach (1) 1. Active participation of the teenager in discussion is more effective, than his passive listening to a lecture. Role playing is one of the most productive ways to develop life skills and behavioral strategies.

6. The preconditions of the approach (2) 2. The game is familiar to everybody since early childhood, comparing to such activity, as the analysis and understanding of the complex text. The game entertains, easily attracts and keeps attention. The approach therefore is applicable and is recommended for rather young participants, does not impose special requirements to the audience.

7. The preconditions of the approach(3) 3. Participating in a situation, the teenager brings in his own senses, attitudes, values, which he subsequently discusses. The offered typical situations are stimulus for projections, enable to look at stereotyped behavior from aside, as at the play. The developed situations are very close to realities of teenagers life, they are not imposed by the adults, the discussions concern the most essential problems of the teenagers.

8. The preconditions of the approach (4) 4. Individuals act as social and cultural norms dictate, because it seems "self-evident". To realize stereotyped behavioral patterns and ways to solve problems is the possibility to be released from their compulsion. The formation of drug free (tobacco free and especially alcohol free) lifestyle is very closely connected to change of cultural norms and systems of symbols.

9. The preconditions of the approach (5) 5. The problem of smoking, drinking and drug taking is frequently not perceived as a problem itself. It is rather a way to solve other important and vital issues - conflicts in family, relations with a peer group. Paying attention to these emotionally significant relations, we get an opportunity to realize the place of legal and illegal drugs in this issues, to show their symbolical, rather than chemical value.

10. Target group of life situations method • Main target group • Teenagers from 12 to 15 years old • Intermediary target group • Peer leaders – older teenagers, students, young adults • Mediated target group • Other teenagers • Parents and other family members

11. Course structure • Invitation • Sessions • Creation of peer leaders team • Peer leaders work supervision

12. Forms of use of life situations approach to substance abuse prevention • Single session form • Series of sessions form

13. Components of one session. • Preparations and expectations. • Acquaintance and contact • Schedule. Mutual plans determination • Topic and situation choice • Funnel questions. Invitation to the play • Story. Roles • Scenery. Performance • Role exit • Discussion: questions and answers • Summary

14. Single session • Advantages • Requires less time and preparation • Possibility to work with more teenager groups or school classes • Possibility not to continue sessions in case of a failure • Disadvantages • Limited possibility to influence the behavior of the group • Impossibility to train youth leaders • The arousing questions stay without answers • Impossibility to evaluate effectiveness

15. Tasks to be solved in series of sessions. • Testing of the method • Use as a scheduled school discipline • Creation of a system of prevention in an educational setting • Use of the method in a teenager club

16. A sequence of topics in a series of sessions • Tobacco • Alcohol • Illegal drugs

17. A sequence of topics in a series of sessions. • First most safe situations are to be proposed with not much requirement to role playing, just some questions-answers and discussion. • Several situations with obvious social conflict connected with tobacco, alcohol or illegal drugs which cause emotional response but do not need much psychological elaboration. • When group dynamics come to the stage of conflicts in the group special story “Prevention” is proposed. • If the conflict is successfully overcome then several stories on peer relations and family relations are proposed.

18. Series of sessions. Advantages. • Atmosphere of trust and stable psychological contact between trainer and the group is possible • More effective than a single session • Possibility to divide one topic into several sessions • More personal experience can be involved and worked through • Possibility to see behavioral changes and to correct negative trends • Possibility of feedback and corrections

19. Series of sessions. Disadvantages. • Higher requirements for the trainer • Require regular time and efforts • When the session is announced it should be conducted despite of desire of the group • Regular sessions can be perceived as imposed from outside both by the trainer and the group

20. Further activities • Tobacco ads critical analysis • Anti-tobacco posters competitions • Population surveys • Parents meetings • Participation of the teenagers in the amateur editions • Creation of your own approaches

21. Evaluation. Formative evaluation. • Group characteristics • Percentage of boys and girls • Smoking status, other drugs use experience • Subgroups, their relations • Special problems • Experience of preventive programs • Evaluation of a single session

22. Evaluation of a single session. • What did you learn through the session? • What did you like and what you didn’t like? • Would you like to participate in more sessions like this? • What would you like to change in the following sessions? • What would you like to discuss during the next session? • What would you like to do before the following session?

23. Process evaluation • Quality of contact • Teenagers attitude to the session and role playing • Progression of discussion • Desire to meet again

24. Outcome evaluation • Conclusions by the audience • Teenagers’ desire to participate actively and to change intoxicants use situation around them • Surveys results shifts

25. Advantages. Prevention point of view. • The maximal mastering of the information • Active involvement of all the participants of the target group • Stereotypes comprehension • Long-term effect • Safety • Adjustment for a certain target group

26. Advantages. Adolescent point of view. • Dialogue on equal • Opportunity to display own individuality • Non-authoritarian style

27. Advantages. Trainer’s point of view. • Cost-effectiveness • Compactness • Multi-alternativeness • Opportunity to involve various pedagogical personnel • Opportunity to involve peer leaders • Opportunity of use in the advanced audience

28. Disadvantages of the method. • Special requirements to the trainer’s motivation and attitude • Non applicability with numerous groups