Improving Prevention Curricula: Lessons Learned Through Formative Research on the Youth Message Development Curriculum

Abstract

This article describes formative research (a pilot study, interviews, and focus groups) conducted as part of a feasibility test of 2 versions (Analysis vs. Planning) of a brief media literacy intervention titled Youth Message Development (YMD). The intervention targets high school student alcohol use with activities to understand persuasion strategies, increase counter-arguing, and then apply these new skills to ad analysis or a more engaging ad poster planning activity. Based on the theory of active involvement (Greene, 2013), the Planning curriculum is proposed to be more effective than the Analysis curriculum. Overall, results of the formative research indicated that students (N = 182) and mentors/teachers (N = 53) perceived the YMD Planning curriculum as more interesting, involving, and novel, and these ratings were associated with increased critical thinking about the impact of advertising, lower alcohol use intentions, and fewer positive expectations about the effects of alcohol use. Qualitative feedback indicated a need to supplement alcohol-focused ad stimuli with ads targeting other advertising images, use incentives and competition-based activities to further enhance student motivation, and provide flexibility to enhance the appropriateness of the curriculum to various settings. These concerns led to the development of a revised curriculum and plans for further study.

Children and young people’s participation in developing interventions in health and well-being: a scoping review

“…Furthermore, the included articles in this scoping review varied according to research settings. We categorised three broad settings, 13 were conducted in community settings [ 26 , 29 – 32 , 35 , 37 , 38 , 41 , 43 , 44 , 61 , 65 ], a further 11 in healthcare settings [ 25 , 28 , 42 , 46 , 49 , 52 , 53 , 55 , 57 – 59 ], and 17 in school settings [ 27 , 33 , 34 , 36 , 39 , 40 , 45 , 47 , 48 , 50 , 51 , 54 , 56 , 60 , 62 – 64 ].…”

“…However, both of these foci were supporting interventions concerning health and well-being. The main areas in 30 articles were supportive lifestyle interventions and concerned: a healthy diet and obesity [ 27 , 36 , 39 , 41 , 47 , 54 , 56 , 60 ], physical activity [ 26 , 36 , 38 , 39 , 41 , 45 , 48 , 54 ], substance abuse such as, alcohol, tobacco and drug use [ 29 , 34 , 40 , 43 , 44 , 51 , 61 , 62 , 65 ], sexual and reproductive health [ 29 , 31 , 42 , 43 , 50 , 64 ], violence [ 29 , 37 ], stress [ 33 ], social skills [ 63 ], health beliefs [ 30 ] and mental health promotion [ 35 ]. In addition to lifestyle issues, eleven of the articles considered issues that supported children and young people with their illness or disease.…”

“…Most of the studies included in the scoping review have used interviews as a data collection method to give a voice to the participants. Focus group interviews was the most common data collection method [ 26 , 27 , 29 – 34 , 37 , 39 , 41 , 44 , 45 , 47 – 56 , 59 – 64 ] while other studies have used individual interviews [ 25 , 28 , 30 , 34 , 36 , 42 , 46 , 48 , 49 , 57 , 58 , 64 ] with children and young people. However, seven of the studies reported including both interviews and surveys to involve the children and young people’s views in the development of the intervention [ 27 , 30 , 42 , 44 , 45 , 48 , 65 ].…”

“…The interventions were sometimes tested for feasibility and usability and a wide range of methods were used, including face validity [ 25 ] think-aloud methods [ 43 , 46 , 47 , 57 ], interviews [ 31 , 32 , 34 , 65 ] and observations [ 33 , 57 ]. Written feedback [ 27 , 31 , 34 , 54 ], workshops [ 52 , 59 , 65 ] and a mobile survey [ 65 ] were also used.…”

“…The vast majority, in total 28, of the included scoping-review articles, met the criteria for level 3 [ 25 – 29 , 32 – 34 , 36 – 41 , 43 – 45 , 47 – 49 , 53 – 56 , 61 , 62 , 64 , 65 ]. The distinction between this third level and the previous one was that the children and young people’s views were not only asked for and listened to, but their voice was also seriously taken into account with the aim of influencing the further process of the development of the intervention, and that this was explicitly expressed in the article.…”