Health literacy (HL) is recognized as an important health construct that is correlated with various health-related outcomes, but outside of the United States there is limited HL research available, particularly among youth. This study looked at the HL and harmful health behavior (i.e., substance use) of 210 youth across 10 schools in Guatemala City. Based on results from the Newest Vital Sign (NVS) HL assessment, fewer than one third of youth sampled had adequate HL. Training/education to improve adolescent HL is needed in Guatemala City, and the unique skillset of social workers could be an idea method of reaching at-risk youth.
This article describes a test in Guatemala City of Mantente REAL, a linguistically adapted version of the keepin' it REAL universal substance use prevention curriculum for early adolescents that teaches culturally grounded drug resistance, risk assessment and decision making skills. Academic researchers collaborated with a local non-profit to recruit and randomize 12 elementary schools in Guatemala City to intervention and comparison conditions. Regular classroom teachers were trained to deliver the ten-lesson Mantente REAL (MR) manualized curriculum to sixth grade students. Parents provided passive consent and students gave active assent for data collection, which occurred between February 2013 and September 2014. Two academic year cohorts of students participated (n=676; 53% male; M age=12.2). All students completed a pretest questionnaire before the curriculum lessons began in intervention schools and a posttest (87% matched) four months later, one month after the final lesson. We assessed the MR intervention with paired t tests, effect sizes (Cohen's d), and general linear models adjusted for baseline, attrition, non-linear distributions, and school-level clustering. Results indicated that MR can be an effective school-based prevention approach in Guatemala. The MR participants reported pretestto-posttest changes in desirable directions on substance use behaviors, attitudinal antecedents of substance use, and acquisition of drug resistance skills. The comparison group generally changed in undesirable directions. In linear models the MR participants, relative to the comparison group, reported less cigarette and marijuana use, less positive drug use expectancies, and greater use of drug resistance skills. Intervention effect sizes were between .2 and .3.
We evaluated how right- and the left-temporal lobe activation of first (1(st) LR), second (2(nd)LR), and third (3(rd)LR) level readers (N = 60; Age = 6-9 years) varied with reading level, word characteristics, and cognitive abilities by using electroencephalogram measurements while the children read high-frequency/high-imageability, high-frequency/low-imageability, and nonsense words. The ANOVA showed significant interaction effects: 1(st)LR had greater right-hemispheric activation than 3(rd)LR, who had greater left-hemispheric activation; for nonsense words, 1(st)LR had lower left-hemisphere activation than that of 2(nd)LR and 3(rd)LR. The electroencephalogram (EEG) measure of hemispheric asymmetry indicated a developmental effect on lateralized activity in the temporal lobes of beginning readers during word reading.
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