Prevention, Day 2, Track 1, 11:00-12:30

Prevention in a Changing Marijuana Landscape - Amy Ronshausen and Carlton Hall
Research protocol of the Family Competence Program-Programa de Competencia Familiar PCF-AFECT 12-16 - Carmen Orte, Ph.D.
A Systematic Investigation of Preventive Interventions for Youth Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Use in Latin America and the Caribbean - Eric C. Brown, Ph.D.
The Good Behavior Game (GBG) For Reducing Aggressive Behavior as Contributing Factors for Drugs Abuse in Middle Childhood - Gidien Ryaan Amri

Abstracts:

Prevention in a Changing Marijuana Landscape - Amy Ronshausen and Carlton Hall

Prevention in a Changing Marijuana Landscape is a deep dive into the current changing marijuana policies in the United States and impact of those policies on public health. The presentation will give examples of current marijuana products, such as edibles, wax, and ice, as well as examples of marketing practices. There will be a review of data from recent surveys on how these practices impact youth perceptions regarding risks. The session will include an overview of current research on the impacts of youth marijuana use including the impact to mental health. Prevention strategies are challenging in this ever changing policy landscape but not impossible. The session will highlight the importance of youth prevention efforts and how to navigate strategies of educate youth and adults.

Research protocol of the Family Competence Program-Programa de Competencia Familiar PCF-AFECT 12-16 - Carmen Orte, Ph.D.

Evidence-based family prevention programs have proven to be effective in preventing substance abuse and other risk behaviors. The Spanish Family Competence Program, based on the Strengthening Families Program, pursues: the development of protective factors, the improvement of healthy habits and the prevention of behaviors risk characteristics of adolescence. The objectives are: i) study and incorporation of new contents of sexual affective education, with special attention to emotions, affections, equality and sexuality; ii) increase of the contents on addictive behaviors in a specific and transversal way in the program contents. Regarding the methodology, to validate the improved program, a quasi-experimental test of the program will be carried out with 18 secondary school groups and a total of 180 families and 402 people (experimental group and control group). Regarding results, validated instruments will be deployed to measure changes in positive family performance, changes in parental and children's abilities, changes in adolescents' sexual affective attitudes, changes in attitudes towards addictive behaviors of adolescents, validation of a system of evaluation of healthy habits, performance of the motivational interview, evaluation of trainers and training of trainers, effective techniques of family engagement (activities at home and APP), and analysis of the satisfaction of the participants.

A Systematic Investigation of Preventive Interventions for Youth Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Use in Latin America and the Caribbean - Eric C. Brown, Ph.D.

Objective: In collaboration with the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission of the Organization of American States (CICAD-OAS), a systemic investigation was conducted to identify preventive interventions in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) that address youth alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use.

Methods: A scoping review of published articles that met comprehensive search criteria was conducted. The literature review was supplemented by key informant interviews with ATOD prevention experts throughout LAC.

Results: Despite many articles that met the initial search criteria, only 57 articles contained information on youth ATOD preventive interventions, with 39 unique interventions being identified. Results of interviews with 47 key informants identified an additional 38 youth ATOD preventive interventions across 29 LAC countries for a total of 77 unique interventions.

Conclusions: The growing development and diffusion of preventive interventions for youth ATOD use in LAC countries calls for a standardized approach to collect, disseminate, and use information on these interventions for informed prevention planning. This investigation is the first of its kind to comprehensively review these interventions and thus provides an important step forward towards a science-based approach to reducing youth ATOD use in the region.

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) For Reducing Aggressive Behavior as Contributing Factors for Drugs Abuse in Middle Childhood - Gidien Ryaan Amri

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) For Reducing Aggressive Behavior as Contributing Factors for Drugs Abuse in Middle Childhood implemented by KAPETA Foundation from November 2018 to June 2019, with support and assistance from the United Nations on Drugs and Crime. GBG is an evidence-based practice, works by positive peer pressure amongst pupils consist of 2-5 groups in a classroom. It consists sets of rules developed by teachers and pupils on appropriate behaviors and prominent rewards for winners. Groups of pupils with lower rates of disturbing, disruptive, destructive, or inattentive behaviors win the game. This approach aimed to improve self-regulation, peer-regulation, and pro-social behavior among pupils in a classroom. After GBG intervention, the Teacher Observation Instrument for Class Adaptation - Checklist (TOCA-C), showed improvement results across both genders: before intervention, an average of 2.3 declined to 1.9 after intervention; disruptive behaviors were slightly reduced from 1.5 to 1.4 and pro-social behaviors reduced from 1.8 to 1.6 (meaning less anti-social behavior). Significant improvement is seen in male pupils in regards to concentration difficulty, which reduced by 19.5%, whereas disruptive behavior reduced by 7.0%. Overall, the project had a positive impact on pupils, improvement towards pro-social behavior, as well as improved classroom management.

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