Örebro Prevention Program

COUNTRY: SWEDEN

REGION: EUROPE

Implementer: The Center for Developmental Research, Örebro University

Partners: Swedish National Institute of Public Health, the Swedish Research Council, and the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation

Program Overview: The Örebro Prevention Program is a 2.5 year intervention (5 semesters) which aims to reduce teen alcohol consumption by targeting their parents' attitudes toward drinking. 

Program Design: The intervention primarily consists of information delivered to parents in school. This information is delivered during information meetings, which are held at the start of each semester in Sweden. Over the course of five semesters, project workers attend one parent meeting each semester at which they advise parents to pursue a no-tolerance policy toward youth drinking and to communicate clear rules to their children. Project workers also ask parents to draft an agreement about their positions concerning youth drinking while at the meeting. These agreements are then mailed to parents. Additionally, parents receive at least three mailings each semester that concern parents' roles in reducing youth drinking and in promoting leisure activities.

Evaluation: The program's participants comprised a total of 900 students entering junior high school and their parents living in inner city, public housing, and small town areas. Control schools were then selected based on similarities in community type, school size, and rates of alcohol use and delinquency. After the intervention, the program's efficacy was assessed using questionnaires given to both control and intervention groups of students and parents. The questionnaires were given once per year for three years and assessed the following measures:

• Parents' attitudes toward drinking (lenient vs. strict)
• Students' participation in organized group activities
• Student drunkenness
• Delinquency
• Parent's education
• Parental ethnicity

Key findings: The evaluation revealed the following effects:

• Parents in the intervention group kept strict attitudes toward drinking over time while parents in the control group became more permissive
• Incidence of student drunkenness increased in both groups over time, but this increase was significantly less for the intervention group
• Delinquency increased in both groups over time, but was significantly less for the intervention group. 

References:

1. Koutakis, N., Stattin, H., & Kerr, M. (2008). Reducing youth alcohol drinking through a parent-targeted intervention: the Örebro Prevention Program. Addiction, 103(10), 1629-1637.

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