Development, implementation, and evaluation of a multi-addiction prevention program for primary school students in Hong Kong: the B.E.S.T. Teen Program

Abstract

Based on the evaluation findings of the B.E.S.T. Teen Program which aimed at promoting behavioral, emotional, social, and thinking competencies in primary school students, it is argued in this paper that promotion of psychosocial competence to prevent addiction in primary school students is a promising strategy. A total of 382 Primary 5 (Grade 5) and 297 Primary 6 (Grade 6) students from five primary schools in Hong Kong participated in the program. Different evaluation strategies were adopted to evaluate the program. First, objective outcome evaluation adopting a non-equivalent group pretest–posttest experimental-control group design was conducted to examine change in the students. Second, to gauge students’ perceptions of the program, subjective outcome evaluation was conducted. The evaluation findings basically converged to tentatively suggest that young adolescents benefited from participating in the program. Implications on the development, implementation, and evaluation of addiction prevention programs for teenagers are discussed.

Evaluation of “Colorful Life”: A Multi-Addiction Expressive Arts Intervention Program for Adolescents of Addicted Parents and Parents with Addiction

“…Qualitative evaluation via focus group interviews was also conducted and the related findings will be published elsewhere. This research design has been extensively used for measuring the effectiveness of positive youth development programs as well as addiction prevention and intervention programs in Hong Kong (Shek and Sun 2013 ; Shek et al 2016 ).…”

“…Two objective outcome evaluation forms (for adolescent and parent, respectively) were developed based on the existing objective outcome assessments (e.g., Shek and Lam 2008 ; Shek et al 2016 ; Young 1999 ) widely used in the positive youth development and multi-addiction prevention programs, literature review, and intended outcomes of the respective sessions of the present program. Experienced researchers and practitioners in the relevant fields were invited to review the items of the questionnaires and to comment on its relevance to the learning outcomes and clarity of the items.…”

Social Self-Efficacy and its Relationship to Loneliness and Internet Addiction among Hashemite University Students

“…In recent years, many clinical trails have been published of psychological therapies for internet addiction, and many preventive programmers have been suggested. The programmer counteract internet addiction aim to enhance mental, emotional, social and behavioural efficacies of school students (Shek, Yu, Leung, Wu, & Law, 2016). Some studies have shown that an increase in family conflicts and decrease in household functioning can increased the danger of teenagers' internet addiction (Yen, Ko, Yen, Chang, & Cheng, 2009).…”

Development and validation of the Parents’ Perceived Self-Efficacy to Manage Children’s Internet Use Scale for parents of adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder

“…The B.E.S.T. Teen Program aimed at promoting behavioral, emotional, social, and thinking competencies in primary school students to reduce the risk of Internet addiction ( Shek, Yu, Leung, Wu, & Law, 2016 ). The Project P.A.T.H.S.…”