The effectiveness of a school-based parent education program in the promotion of adolescent health: a randomised trial

Funded Activity Summary

Youth mental health and behaviour problems such as depression, suicidal behaviour, tobacco use, alcohol abuse and illicit drug use are currently priority issues within Australian national and state public health policies. This project has been designed to contribute to knowledge on the effectiveness of interventions that can be used to prevent youth mental health and behaviour problems. Until recent years the development of programs to support families through the transition into adolescence has been neglected. This is remiss, as there is evidence that a range of youth mental health and behaviour problems may be preventable through interventions through this transition. The overall objective of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of a multi-level, family intervention designed to promote adolescent health within secondary schools. The intervention will be implemented over the first two years of high school and incorporates both universal components (for all families) and selected components (for families with particular difficulties). The intervention elements have been developed and partially evaluated in work undertaken by the applicant and collaborators over the past five years. To evaluate this intervention a representative sample of 12 Victorian secondary schools will be randomly assigned to intervention and compared to 12 control schools with prior matching on school demographics and student behaviour variables. Intervention processes will be closely monitored and evaluated for impacts on relevant risk and protective factors. Effectiveness will be evaluated by testing whether reductions in youth mental health and behaviour problems were greater for intervention families compared to controls. The evaluation has been designed to test the theory that improvement across the whole secondary school environment can be encouraged by preventing the negative peer influences that can emerge within families experiencing adolescent adjustment problems

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2003

End Date: 01-01-2005

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $422,900.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Family Care

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Adolescent behaviour | Child development | Early intervention | Family risk factors | Family therapy | Health Promotion | Parent management strategies | Parnet-child relations | Prevention | Social environment

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