"Because This Is an Evidence-Based Program": The Learning Experience of Croatia with the Lions Quest Skills for Adolescence, Implemented In-Person and Online.

Background: The Lions Quest Skills for Adolescence (LQSFA) is an evidence-based social and emotional learning program for school students. It is implemented as a teacher-led extracurricular activity for children aged 10-15 years. From 2019 to 2022, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, in collaboration with Lions Clubs International Foundation, implemented the LQSFA in 41 schools in Croatia. Due to the COVID-19 lockdown measures, the intervention was adjusted into a hybrid modality (in-class and online). We evaluated the experience that the teachers had with the LQSFA in a hybrid modality. Methods: We used a focus-group discussion approach to evaluate the experience of five LQSFA teachers. Results: Three themes emerged: (1) the appreciation of evidence-based programs by the teachers, (2) the benefit of the LQSFA on the parents, and (3) the length of the online version of the questionnaire tool that was used to assess pre- and post-LQSFA experiences among students was too long. These results indicate that the LQSFA is undergoing a scaling on a national level in Croatia, even when implemented in a hybrid setting. Conclusions: Using an evidence-based program such as the LQSFA was rewarding for teachers, despite the challenges in the administrative adjustments regarding the online and in-person class teaching. LQSFA filled an important gap during COVID19-related stress.

Caring for Your Child during COVID-19-Utilizing a Light-Touch Parenting Resource during Lockdown in Indonesia.

To tackle the spread of COVID-19 globally, countries around the world have responded by implementing measures such as lockdowns, social distance maintenance, temporary school closures, and remote working and learning. COVID-19 social isolation has been found to increase stress, and potentially have long term harmful effects on both mental and physical health. Stress and compromised parenting often place children at risk of violence and abuse. In parallel, times of hardship might also provide an opportunity to build stronger relationships with our children. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) joined many other agencies and international organizations in recognizing the threat the pandemic might have on individual and family wellbeing, and has thus availed a number of light-touch parenting resources. One such tool is the 'Caring for your child in response to the COVID-19 lockdown' booklet, developed to enhance parenting skills, and to build family harmony as challenged by the COVID-19 context. This short communication reflects on a feasibility study that took place in Indonesia during the implementation of this booklet with 30 parents in five cities. Thematic analysis identified challenges in parenting during COVID-19, as well as reported positive experiences of engaging in the parenting resource. The findings are discussed with regard to the usefulness of light-touch parenting information, adding to the context of the feasibility and global scalability of reaching families. The implications pave the way to the engagement and implication of more intensive parenting information interventions in high-stress contexts. Despite the challenge, there is promising news for families globally, as agencies and policy-makers begin to recognize the importance of supporting families with the appropriate skills to navigate extreme stress contexts with effective strategies.

Scaling the Children Immunization App (CIMA) to Support Child Refugees and Parents in the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Social Capital Approach to Scale a Smartphone Application in Zaatari Camp, Jordan.

BACKGROUND: Children vaccination is a key intervention for their survival, especially among refugees. Yet, children vaccination registration is done manually in refugees camps and there is no possibility to send reminders to parents to come back on time. We aimed to boost the parental registration of children's vaccination records on a Children Immunization app (CIMA) while also availing the parents with useful parenting skills under COVID-19-related stress. METHODS: We incorporated United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Parenting Skills under COVID-19 information material, through CIMA in Arabic and English languages. We recruited 1100 children in February-March 2021, through a community health promotion dissemination approach. A team of two nurses from the local population and two volunteers (one trained nurse and one trained social worker), from the camp, was formed. They promoted the CIMA app at two clinics and through households visits in Zaatari refugee camp. Qualitative data on impressions and observations of the interactions with the Zaatari camp community were also collected. RESULTS: A total of 1100 children, up to 15 months of age, eligible for vaccination were enrolled in CIMA, whereby the staff explained the content of the app in terms of vaccination schedule, health promotion materials for vaccination and parenting skills to their caregivers. During the household visits, the volunteers identified a total of 70 children that have incomplete history of vaccination records (n = 42/70 girls, 60%). Also, opportunities and challenges for scaling the app were documented. CONCLUSION: The scaling of CIMA as an innovative means of dissemination of risk and health information in challenging context such as refugee camps was feasible. In the context of vaccination needs for children, in refugee settings, such a need is more eminent, particularly in the context of COVID-19.

Enhancing Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT) with Parenting Skills: RCT of TRT + Parenting with Trauma-Affected Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Utilising Remote Training with Implications for Insecure Contexts and COVID-19.

Child psychosocial recovery interventions in humanitarian contexts often overlook the significant effect that caregivers can have on improving children's future trajectory. We enhanced the well-established, evidenced-based child trauma recovery programme Teaching Recovery Techniques (TRT) intervention with parenting sessions, i.e., TRT + Parenting (TRT + P), which aims to improve parent mental health and their ability to support their children's mental health. We describe the findings of a three-arm randomised controlled trial comparing enhanced TRT + P vs. TRT and waitlist. The primary aim was to test if children in the enhanced arm of the programme show improved child and caregiver mental health. We recruited 119 Syrian refugee children and one of their caregivers in Beqaa Valley in Lebanon. They were randomised to the TRT, TRT + P, or waitlist control group. Data were collected at baseline and 2 weeks and 12 weeks post intervention. Training of facilitators was via remote training from the United Kingdom. Results showed a highly consistent pattern, with children in the enhanced TRT + P group showing the greatest levels of improvement in behavioural and emotional difficulties compared to children in the TRT or waitlist control groups. Caregivers in the TRT + P group also reported significant reductions in depression, anxiety, and stress. Findings indicate that the addition of the evidence-based parenting skills components has the potential to enhance the effects of interventions designed to improve children's mental health in contexts of trauma, conflict, and displacement. Implications for COVID-19 remote learning are also discussed.

Lions Quest Skills for Adolescence implementation during COVID-19 challenges in Croatia.

Globally, the Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic situation has affected the education system, forcing students to start distance learning. Consequently, education of students reverted to online platforms or TV station broadcasts. Extracurricular programs have also experienced a setback given the natural prioritization of mandatory school subjects. Meanwhile, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) was implementing a teacher-led extracurricular activity for children of age 10-15 years to prevent substance use and other negative life and social consequences (Lions Quest Skills for Adolescence [LQSFA]). Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, LQSFA was difficult to sustain, partly as it was considered extracurricular and partly given its interactive requirement that was difficult to apply through distance learning. Nevertheless, schools' facilitators managed to adapt the program information sharing and communication strategies with the student groups and identified essential sessions allowing continuity of program implementation and utilization of critical program skills during COVID-19 pandemic. The practical implication of the facilitators' assessment of the relevance, value, motivation and feasibility of the implementation of the LQSFA program within the current COVID-19 circumstances calls for the eminent need for adaptation of its implementation modality to meet the current educational delivery circumstances. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).