title: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hunghom, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China ; Centre for Innovative Programmes for Adolescents and Families, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China ; Department of Social Work, East China Normal University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China ; Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau, Macao, People's Republic of China ; University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Lexington, KY USA.
authors.forename: Daniel T L
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Shek
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hunghom, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Lu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hunghom, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Hildie
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Leung
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hunghom, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Florence K Y
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Social Sciences, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hunghom, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Moon Y M
authors.initials: MY
authors.lastname: Law
keywords: Addiction prevention; Chinese adolescents; Positive youth development; Primary school students; Program evaluation; Psychosocial competence