Design of study without drugs--a Surinamese school-based drug-prevention program for adolescents.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to design the content and accompanying materials for a school-based program--Study without Drugs--for adolescents in junior secondary schools in Suriname based on the starting points and tasks of the fourth step of the Intervention Mapping protocol (which consists of six steps). A program based on this protocol should include a combination of theory, empirical evidence, and qualitative and quantitative research. METHODS: Two surveys were conducted when designing the program. In Survey I, teachers and students were asked to complete a questionnaire to determine which school year they thought would be most appropriate for implementing a drug-prevention program for adolescents (we completed a similar survey as part of previous research). An attempt was made to identify suitable culturally sensitive elements to include in the program. In Survey II, the same teachers were asked to complete a questionnaire to determine the programs' scope, sequence, structure, and topics as well as the general didactic principles to serve as a basis for program design. After outlining the program plan, lessons, and materials, we conducted a formative pretest evaluation among teachers, students, and parents. That evaluation included measures related to the program's attractiveness, comprehensibility, and usefulness. The resulting lessons were presented to the teachers for assessment. RESULTS: The drug-prevention program we developed comprises 10 activities and lasts 2-2.5 months in an actual school setting. The activities take place during Dutch, biology, physical education, art, religion, and social studies lessons. We based the structure of the lessons in the program on McGuire's Persuasion Communication Model, which takes into account important didactic principles. Evaluations of the program materials and lesson plans by students, teachers, and parents were mostly positive. CONCLUSION: We believe that using the fourth step of the Intervention Mapping protocol to develop a drug-prevention intervention for adolescents has a produced promising, feasible program.

Test implementation of a school-oriented drug prevention program "Study without Drugs": pre- and post-testing for effectiveness.

BACKGROUND: In this article, the test implementation of a school-oriented drug prevention program "Study without Drugs" is discussed. The aims of this study were to determine the results of the process evaluation and to determine whether the proposed school-oriented drug prevention program during a pilot project was effective for the participating pupils. METHODS: Sixty second-grade pupils at a junior high school in Paramaribo, Suriname participated in the test implementation. They were divided into two classes. For the process evaluation the students completed a structured questionnaire focusing on content and teaching method after every lesson. Lessons were qualified with a score from 0-10. The process was also evaluated by the teachers through structured interviews. Attention was paid to reach, dose delivered, dose received, fidelity, connection, achieved effects/observed behaviors, areas for improvement, and lesson strengths. The effect evaluation was conducted by using the General Liniair Model (repeated measure). The research (-design) was a pre-experimental design with pre-and post-test. RESULTS: No class or sex differences were detected among the pupils with regard to the assessment of content, methodology, and qualification of the lessons. Post-testing showed that participating pupils obtained an increased knowledge of drugs, their drug-resisting skills were enhanced, and behavior determinants (attitude, subjective norm, self-efficacy, and intention) became more negative towards drugs. CONCLUSIONS: From the results of the test implementation can be cautiously concluded that the program "Study without Drugs" may yield positive results when applied in schools). Thus, this pilot program can be considered a step towards the development and implementation of an evidence-based school-oriented program for pupils in Suriname.

South African-ness Among Adolescents: The Emergence of a Collective Identity within the Birth to Twenty Cohort Study.

We assessed the emergence of a South African identity among Black, Colored (mixed ancestral origin), White (predominantly English speaking), and Indian adolescents participating in a birth cohort study called "Birth to Twenty" in Johannesburg, South Africa. We examined young people's certainty of their self-categorization as South African, the centrality of their personal, racial and linguistic, and South African identities in their self-definition, and their perceptions of South African life and society today. These results reflect a historical opportunity for full citizenship and national enfranchisement that the end of Apartheid heralded for Black and Colored individuals. Black and Colored youth tend to be more certain about their South African-ness, have a more collective identity, and have a more positive perception around South Africa. In contrast, White and Indian youth are less certain about their South African-ness, have a more individualistic identity, and have a less positive perception about South Africa today.

Respiratory variability and psychological well-being in schoolchildren.

Among the relations between respiration and psychological state, associations with respiratory variability have been contradictory. In this study, respiration was measured noninvasively in 162 children with a mean age of 11 years (from 9 to 13). They completed a battery of psychological tests. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM or LISREL) revealed a model that fit the data well (chi 2 = 88.201, df = 79, p = .224). In this model, respiratory variability was positively related to anger-in and negatively to negative fear of failure and neurotic complaints. Respiration rate was positively related to positive fear of failure, and duty cycle was positively related to the latent variable of negative affect. Variability in resting time components of respiration was higher among children with less fear of failure and fewer complaints. Therefore, respiratory variability need not necessarily be a sign of psychological dysfunctions, and interventions should not always impose a fixed breathing pattern.