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Homophobic name-calling is one of the most common forms of gender-based violence that occurs among young people at school. Yet students are reluctant to seek teacher help when homophobic bullying occurs. We investigated what enables bystanders to seek help from teachers when they witness the homophobic harassment of a peer who may be unwilling to seek help for themselves. Respondents were a sample of 2119 secondary students from 11 Australian schools. Data analysed using generalised mixed linear modelling demonstrated that student connectedness to teachers at the individual and school level were the strongest predictors of the likelihood of reporting the homophobic harassment of a peer. Findings suggest that above and beyond the effects of student relationships with teachers, a culture of teacher care at the school level is crucial in enabling students who witness homophobic bullying to seek teacher help.

Evaluation studies often use stand-alone and summative assessment strategies to examine the impacts of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) and Gender-based Violence (GBV) prevention education programs. However, implementation research is yet to offer an integrative framework that can be used to investigate the implementation drivers that lead to the uptake of programs that pursue SEL and GBV prevention agendas. We address this gap in research by presenting a framework developed to investigate factors affecting the implementation of the Resilience, Rights and Respectful Relationships program, an SEL and GBV prevention education program developed for primary and secondary schools in the state of Victoria, Australia. Drawing upon and advancing a conceptual framework for implementation fidelity proposed by Carroll and colleagues we discuss the iterative process designed to investigate the individual, school and system level factors within the wider political and ideological setting(s) of the program that impact on its implementation. Within this iterative process, we highlight the need to focus on 'the ecology of relations' that exists between various implementation elements, and their possible mediating impact on program delivery, uptake and outcomes.

In this paper, we examine teacher beliefs and advocacy intentions in relation to provision of social and emotional learning (SEL) and gender and respectful relationships (G&RR) education. Using multivariate binary logistic regression analysis, we examine the impacts of gender, teaching experience and school setting on (1) teachers' beliefs about the significance of teaching for SEL and G&RR, and (2) their intentions to advocate for program implementation in their schools. Data were collected from a survey of 293 Australian teachers (137 primary and 156 secondary teachers) at exit from 13 two-day professional learning workshops aimed to foster readiness to teach a SEL and G&RR education program. The findings show significant differences remain post-training in beliefs and advocacy intentions on the basis of teacher gender, experience and location in a primary or secondary school setting. Females, teachers with 10 or more years of experience, and those teaching in primary schools demonstrate stronger beliefs in and greater intention to advocate for the implementation of SEL and G&RR education. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to developing a deeper understanding of the ways in which gender and institutional norms might work to constrain or enable provision of SEL and G&RR education.

Teaching about gender-based violence involves dealing with a form of difficult knowledge and as such calls for substantial emotional, political and pedagogical labour on the part of educators. In this paper, we discuss how we have drawn on theoretical perspectives offered by Judith Butler, along with the Deleuzian notion of affective assemblages to inform the design of professional learning for teachers. We trace the ways in which a combination of naturalistic and non-naturalistic role-play activities was used to structure embodied encounters with difficult knowledge and to evoke the possibility of being and doing differently. We discuss methods used to de-individualise experiences of violence, evoke compassion for others, and foster the capacity to translate caring into action. In doing so we add to knowledge about the use of collective, embodied, critical and creative methods to explore the affects and discourses that inform professional norms and practices.

Little has been written about how to bring feminist theory to pedagogical design, such that school students can engage with concepts such as power relations, governmentality, performativity, intersectionality, or affective assemblage. However, these concepts provide powerful thinking frames for activating insight into the shaping nature of gender norms. The challenge for the classroom teacher is fashion learning activities which will foster critical and compassionate thinking about the social conditions which normalize gender inequity. To progress the interests of those seeking to develop robust gender education programmes, I discuss my use of feminist theory to inform learning activities for primary and secondary school students. I foreground the ways in which I have used metaphors to carry complex concepts, and methods used to invite embodied, playful, critical and collaborative engagement with these concepts.

In this paper I analyse the influence of drama-based learning activities in an education encounter exploring an instance of gendered violence. I use data stories to chart the multiple material, social, and historical influences that emanated within a role-played act of violence by a father upon his daughter following her transgression of the standards of pre-marital sexual purity held within a strongly religious community. I call upon Butler's argument, that to understand an act of violence, one must engage with the conditions which permit the act, rather than just the act itself. I use the construct of the assemblage as offered by Deleuze and Guattari to trace the affective forces produced within the learning activities used to examine this enactment. I find that the drama-based activities were productive in opening conditions of possibility when they shifted the genre rules that had limited what it was permissible to feel, say and do as a recognisable masculine subject, and when they offered alternative modalities through which to articulate the multiplicity of possible desires, beliefs, fears and hopes at work within the Father-Daughter relationship.

The use of psychometric tools to investigate the impact of school-based wellbeing programs raises a number of ethical issues around students' rights, confidentiality and protection. Researchers have explicit ethical obligations to protect participants from potential psychological harms, but guidance is needed for effectively navigating disclosure of identifiable confidential information that indicates signs of psychological distress. Drawing on a large-scale study examining student, school, and system-based factors that impact the implementation of a school-based social and emotional learning program, we describe patterns of distress attained from quantitative and qualitative questions and describe the process that we evolved to monitor and disclose sensitive mental health information, providing one example of how researchers might effectively address the responsibilities that emerge when collecting sensitive information from students within an education system. The patterns and processes that emerged illustrate that the inclusion of mental distress information can elicit important insights, but also brings responsibilities for minimising risks and maximising benefits.

Poor sleep quality has been linked to both poor psychological and physical well-being. Mood and anxiety levels are affected by poor quality sleep, and the relationship between these variables appears to be mediated by a tendency to depersonalize or not. This study examines these relationships in 112 Adults (Female = 82, Male = 30), via an online study. The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Patient Health Questionnaire4, Cambridge Depersonalization Scale-9, and Patient Health Questionnaire-15 were administered using the Gorilla platform. The following variables were analyzed using correlation statistics, and mediation analyses: sleep quality, anxiety, depression, somatic pain, and depersonalization. Poor sleep quality was associated with higher levels of all psychological variables. As predicted, depersonalization mediated the relationship between sleep quality and anxiety, depression and somatic concerns. The findings indicate that sleep quality and the mediating effect of depersonalization have a significant impact on psychological well-being in adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores whether secondary school English teachers can contribute to consent education in Australia. A scoping study involved reviewing research on consent education, examining both commonly taught and contemporary adolescent literature for themes of sexual consent, and conducting focus groups with English teachers. The textual analysis found frequent sexual consent themes in literature, often linked to interpersonal and intersectional violence. Focus groups revealed that teachers often avoid discussing consent or sexual assault due to concerns about triggering upset or backlash and a lack of frameworks and professional development. The study concludes that further research is needed to identify effective teaching practices when dealing with literary texts that include themes of sexual victimization or assault. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we use the Deleuzian notion of assemblage as an analytico-methodological framework to examine different types of 'labour' that teachers are called upon to perform when they implement a programme that teaches about gender-based violence. Drawing on interview data gathered from 129 teachers from primary and secondary schools in the Australian context, we trace the affective forces which interact to both drive and constrain teacher action. We examine the forms of emotional, political and pedagogical labour that teachers exert when required to open silenced topics in the face of resistance to gender equity initiatives, and concerns about evoking distress among affected parties. Our analysis highlights the importance of a providing an assemblage of institutional and relational support that can help create the conditions of possibility needed for teachers to open classroom conversations on sensitive matters relating to gender-based violence.

Little is known about the conditions that enable teachers to educate others about the troubling issue of gender-based violence. This paper discusses the centrality of "structures for care" for fostering the willingness and capacity of primary school teachers to initiate classroom talk about this sensitive and silenced issue. Drawing on interviews conducted over 3 years with five teachers and two leaders in a primary school in a culturally and religiously diverse community in Melbourne, Australia, barriers to teaching about gender diversity, gender-based violence and family violence are discussed. This includes teachers' and leaders' anxiety about triggering distress and fears about parental backlash. School-level structures that enabled action in the face of challenge are identified, including committed leadership, collaborative organisational culture, ongoing in-house professional learning, compassionate collegial relationships and proactive programme provision. We discuss the implications for those supporting school-wide interventions.

Purpose: The consequences of problematic alcohol consumption fall heavily on Australian adolescents, with this population at increased risk of death, serious injury and other harm. Research regarding whether gender, socioeconomic status (SES) or locality play a role in young people's alcohol consumption and related harm is limited in Australia. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether Victorian students' patterns of alcohol uptake, consumption and related harm differed between gender, SES and locality. Design/methodology/approach: The study involved secondary analysis of student data from the Drug Education in Victorian Schools harm minimisation drug education programme, undertaken in 21 Victorian government schools over three years The initial cohort of 1,752 students was followed during Years 8, 9 and 10, when their average age would have, respectively, been 13, 14 and 15 years. Findings: There were no gender differences in drinking uptake, consumption or harm. Students with low SES were more likely to have consumed a full drink of alcohol and also experienced more alcohol-related harm. Students living in a regional/rural area were more likely to have engaged in high alcohol consumption. Originality/value: The findings of this study highlighted that different student demographics have an impact on patterns of alcohol consumption, vulnerability and harm. Students with low SES, living in a regional/rural area, are more at risk than students with higher SES living in a fringe metro/major regional or metro area. Future school harm minimisation drug education programmes should consider the needs of students with demographics that make them more susceptible to higher consumption and harm.

Aims: The Drug Education in Victorian Schools (DEVS) programme taught about licit and illicit drugs over two years (2010-2011), with follow up in the third year (2012). It focussed on minimising harm and employed participatory, critical-thinking and skill-focussed pedagogy. This study evaluated the programme's residual effectiveness at follow up in reducing alcohol-related risk and harm. Methods: A cluster-randomised, controlled trial was conducted with a student cohort during years eight (13-14 years old), nine (14-15 years old) and 10 (15-16 years old). Schools were randomly allocated to the DEVS programme (14 schools, n = 1163), or their usual drug education (7 schools, n = 589). Multi-level models were fitted to the data, which were analysed on an intent-to-treat basis. Statistically significant findings: Over the 3 years, there was a greater increase in intervention students' knowledge about drugs, including alcohol. Their alcohol consumption did not increase as much as controls. Their alcohol-related harms decreased, while increasing for controls. There were fewer intervention group risky drinkers, and they reduced their consumption compared to controls. Similarly, harms decreased for intervention group risky drinkers, while increasing for controls. Conclusions: Skill-focussed, harm minimisation drug education can remain effective, subsequent to programme completion, in reducing students' alcohol consumption and harm, even with risky drinkers.

Objective: This pilot study sought to better understand what can be achieved by an evidence-based classroom social and emotional education programme. Design and Methods: A 10-lesson, classroom-based programme that taught about emotional literacy, personal strengths, coping and problem-solving strategies, stress management, emotional regulation and support seeking was provided to 56 students in Years 7 (13 years) and 8 (14 years) in an Australian middle school. Teachers were trained to deliver the programme, with participatory modelling of each activity. Before and after delivery of the programme, students were surveyed for their social and emotional wellbeing using the Kessler 10 (K10) instrument for non-specific psychological distress; the "Internal Assets, School Resources" and "Cooperation and Communication" questions from the Resilience and Youth Development Module (RYDM) of the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS); and questions developed for this study on class connectedness and social and emotional skills. Subsequent to programme completion, focus groups were conducted with teachers and participating students to gauge programme fidelity, utility and engagement. Results: There was an improvement in psychological distress that approached significance (t = 2, df = 42, p = 0.053), although the symptomatic score remained in the range indicative of medium-level distress. Cooperation and communication improved significantly (t = -2.34, df = 42, p = 0.024) as did class connectedness (t = -2.46, df = 43, p = 0.018). There was no change in individual resilience factors, school protective factors, or social and emotional skills. The focus groups were generally positive about the programme, but indicated fidelity was compromised, mainly because the lesson periods were too short. Conclusion: While this small-scale pilot study has a number of limitations, it does indicate the need to improve the psychological wellbeing of middle school students. The findings also provide evidence that brief social and emotional education programmes can have some positive effects.

Abstract Background There are growing worldwide concerns about the ability of primary health care systems to manage the major burden of illness in young people. Over two thirds of premature adult deaths result from risks that manifest in adolescence, including injury, neuropsychiatric problems and consequences of risky behaviours. One policy response is to better reorientate primary health services towards prevention and early intervention. Currently, however, there is insufficient evidence to support this recommendation for young people. This paper describes the design and implementation of a trial testing an intervention to promote psychosocial risk screening of all young people attending general practice and to respond to identified risks using motivational interviewing. Main outcomes: clinicians’ detection of risk-taking and emotional distress, young people’s intention to change and reduction of risk taking. Secondary outcomes: pathways to care, trust in the clinician and likelihood of returning for future visits. The design of the economic and process evaluation are not detailed in this protocol. Methods PARTY is a cluster randomised trial recruiting 42 general practices in Victoria, Australia. Baseline measures include: youth friendly practice characteristics; practice staff’s self-perceived competency in young people’s care and clinicians’ detection and response to risk taking behaviours and emotional distress in 14–24 year olds, attending the practice. Practices are then stratified by a social disadvantage index and billing methods and randomised. Intervention practices receive: nine hours of training and tools; feedback of their baseline data and two practice visits over six weeks. Comparison practices receive a three hour seminar in youth friendly practice only. Six weeks post-intervention, 30 consecutive young people are interviewed post-consultation from each practice and followed-up for self-reported risk taking behaviour and emotional distress three and 12 months post consultation. Discussion The PARTY trial is the first to examine the effectiveness and efficiency of a psychosocial risk screening and counselling intervention for young people attending primary care. It will provide important data on health risk profiles of young people attending general practice and on the effects of the intervention on engagement with primary care and health outcomes over 12 months. Trial registration ISRCTN16059206

The development of gendered identities during early childhood and youth occurs in a context of "body culture" and the hyper-visibility of "perfect" bodies, which align with traditional gender ideals. Embodied methods can assist to make complexity more visible, and to allow participants to see fluidity, shifts, and becoming. Whilst there has been significant theoretical development, further methodological innovations are needed to enable children and youth to articulate their perceptions of the way multiple influences shape their relations with their own bodies. Informed by "new materialist" feminist theory this article will examine the work of Australian educators exploring use of creative and embodied drama-based play. The chapter advances methodologies to support pedagogical engagement with young children and youth about gender, identity and social change. The authors explore how embodied creative play can be used across ages to support children and young people to articulate the ways social norms and expectations influence their desires, imaginings, fears and actions and their perceptions of what is possible, desirable or appropriate in relation to performances of gender in their everyday worlds.

This article reports on an innovative pedagogical approach within the "Learning Partnerships" program in which school students help to "teach the teachers" within pre-service teacher education. Classes of school students join with classes of pre-service teachers to provide input on how teachers can enhance school students' engagement and wellbeing. The article draws on data collected from 125 students (aged 13-16) and 120 pre-service teachers in these workshops. Findings generated from a mixed methods study combining pre-workshop focus groups (n = Students: 38, Teachers: 33) and post-workshop focus groups (n = Students: 69, Teachers: 15) and post-workshop surveys (n = Students: 96; Teachers: 101) demonstrated that the workshops were mutually beneficial for both students and pre-service teachers. Participants found that workshopping together enhanced their belief in the possibility of positive student--teacher relationships. The pre-service teachers reported greater confidence in communicating with young people about the issues that affect student engagement and wellbeing. The school students reported that they were more willing to use teachers as a source of help. Implications include the need for increased attention to a "third space" for learning in teacher development which provides opportunity for learning with and from young people about how to foster their engagement and wellbeing.

Objective: Participatory learning strategies are integral to the effectiveness of school-based health education programmes; however, use of such methods is not the norm in teaching. The omission of participatory learning strategies is a common form of programme breakdown leading to erosion of positive learning and behavioural outcomes. Based on a survey of 75 Australian high school health education teachers, the study's objective is to examine teachers' perspectives on the factors that influence their use of participatory learning strategies. Results: Whilst it is often presumed that training is the most significant factor, this study found that teachers identify understanding the educational rationale for the approach, student engagement, confidence in class control, and having positive relationships with the students, along with practicalities such as having time to adequately prepare a class, as the most significant influences on their pedagogical choices. Conclusion: The study concludes that a better understanding of the reasons why teachers make particular choices in their delivery of programmes gives valuable insight into what teachers need in order to support uptake or maintenance of such approaches. This understanding may in turn contribute to health education programmes being delivered with a higher fidelity and better outcomes for students.

The Drug Education in Victorian Schools program provided integrated education about licit and illicit drugs, employed a harm minimization approach that incorporated participatory, critical thinking and skill-based teaching methods, and engaged parental influence through home activities. A cluster-randomized, controlled trial of the program was conducted with a student cohort during Year 8 (13 years) and Year 9 (14 years). Twenty-one secondary schools in Victoria, Australia, were randomly allocated to the Drug Education in Victorian Schools program (14 schools, n?=?1,163) or their usual drug education program (7 schools, n?=?589). This study reports program effects for alcohol. There was a greater increase in the intervention students' knowledge about drugs, including alcohol; there was a greater increase in communication with parents about alcohol; they recalled receiving more alcohol education; their alcohol consumption increased less; and they experienced a lesser increase in alcohol-related harms. Among intervention group risky drinkers, consumption and harm increased less. There were no differences between study groups in attitudes toward alcohol or in the proportion of drinkers or risky drinkers. While the program did not stop students taking up drinking, it did reduce their consumption and harm.

When applied theatre is used in service of a health promotion or rights agenda, particular responsibilities come into play. The artist must be able to articulate their theory of change and translate it into action. In this article, I trouble the borderline between an ethical and an exploitative use of story when working to provide opportunities for "youth voice". I use a reflective practitioner method, working between theoretical argument and case story involving a project conducted in Thailand with a group of young drug users who were commissioned to make the "youth voice" plenary presentation at "Response Beyond Borders: The Second Asian Consultation on the Prevention of HIV-related to Drug Use" (Bangkok, January 2010). I discuss some of the key decisions I made as the arts-based practitioner leading a group of young people who identified neither as actors nor as advocates. I discuss the challenges I encountered in working between the ethics and the aesthetics of the "performance of the self". I draw upon poststructuralist theory to highlight the way in which the positioning of the participants influences the types of knowledge that we can create through our stories. I discuss the way in which the re-telling of victim-deviant stories can work to perpetuate limiting storylines and work against the possibility of social change. I challenge the epistemological assumption that rehearsal for change is of itself sufficient as a liberation strategy and draw attention to the need to position both players and audiences inside a sense of the possibility and desirability of change. I propose key principles to orient my use of "enquiry theatre" for social change.

This article discusses research which explored the impact of the Learning Partnerships program on young people's attitudes to help-seeking. The Learning Partnerships program brings classes of high school students into universities to teach pre-service teachers and doctors how to communicate effectively with adolescents about sensitive issues such as bullying, sex, drugs and mental health. The research aimed to contribute to growing knowledge about the barriers which discourage young people from seeking help from teachers and doctors and whether they may be shifted or addressed through the pedagogical approach used in Learning Partnerships. Focus groups and surveys with young people found Learning Partnerships workshops had a significant positive impact on the way in which high school students appraised the possibility that teachers and doctors could be a useful source of help. Students said workshops gave them a greater understanding and trust of both doctors and teachers, and as a result were more likely to seek help for problems affecting their own or their friend's mental, sexual or physical health. These findings have implications for the methodologies that may be useful in further addressing the barriers to help-seeking.

Aim: This pilot study investigated what alcohol prevention benefits could be achieved by a harm reduction focused school drug education intervention that addressed all drug use, both licit and illicit. Method: The study population comprised a cohort of 225 students in three intervention secondary schools and 93 students in a matched control school in Victoria, Australia. A classroom drug education programme, derived from evidence of effective practice and designed to reduce alcohol and other drug harm, was provided to the intervention students during years eight (13-14 year olds) and nine (14-15 year olds) by teachers trained in its delivery. The control students received the drug education programme normally provided by their school. Findings: The students, who received the intervention, were more knowledgeable about drug use issues, communicated more with their parents about alcohol, drank less, got drunk less, and experienced fewer alcohol related harms. They also remembered receiving more alcohol lessons. They were, however, no less likely to have tried alcohol. Conclusions: The findings are consistent with other studies that have demonstrated school alcohol education that focuses on harm reduction can be effective in reducing consumption, risk and harm. In this study, this was achieved even though the students were not persuaded against taking up drinking, and the intervention did not focus solely on alcohol. These findings have implications for both the goals and coverage of future school drug education programmes. (Contains 6 tables and 2 figures.)

This study describes Australian year eight students' (13-14 years old) experiences with alcohol in terms of communication with parents, initiation into drinking, patterns of consumption, context of use, and harms experienced. The sample comprised 521 year eight students from four state government secondary schools in the state of Victoria. Three of the schools are in Melbourne, the capital of Victoria; the fourth is in a rural center. Female and rural students were more likely to talk to parents about alcohol, but this was not associated with safer drinking. Initiation into drinking was higher among rural students. Rural students also drank more, were more likely to drink without adult supervision, to drink to get drunk, and drink more than planned. Student drinkers experienced just over four alcohol-related harms on average in 12 months, with some indication of greater harm among rural students. Higher levels of drinking by rural students, accompanied by more risky patterns of consumption and the possibility of greater harm, supports prioritizing interventions in rural schools. (Contains 6 tables.)

Foucault's "technologies of the self" provides a frame through which to review the way in which different drama conventions work to govern the knowledge of the self that can be represented through the drama. The "Learning Partnerships" workshops provide the field site for the study. These workshops position high school drama students as coaches and key informants contributing to the education of pre-service teachers. Teachers and students participate in drama workshops in which they explore issues relating to equity and inclusion in schooling. A range of drama conventions is used to assist participants to work beyond the stereotypical image of an opposition between teacher and students and to identify the more complex hopes and anxieties that can direct school-based behaviour. Post-structuralist theory is used to posit the way in which the selection of form might place a governance on the meaning that is created in the drama. Reflective practitioner case stories are used to examine the relationship between the conventions used and the construction of knowledge. Interview data gathered from teachers and students identifies the importance of a methodology which permits them to work together in a space of equals and to cross the divides associated with their institutionalised roles. Conclusions are drawn about the way in which different conventions can be understood as "technologies of the self" which in turn assist participants to detect and re-work dominant stories.

Drama is often used as a tool to investigate experience and to assist people to rehearse for change. Dramatic portrayals, however, can reinforce rather than challenge limiting stereotypes, and there is the potential for a positivist approach to research through drama to contribute to a pathologising of the subject and to limit the possibility of change. Assumptions are commonly made about the protective nature of the divide offered by the drama, but within the naturalistic tradition, a certain rule-play may confine the role-play, with actors replicating social norms and dominant storylines in order to create a level of believability or verisimilitude. For change to occur one must rupture the assumed and re-imagine what is possible. The paper discusses the way in which poststructuralist approaches to drama can be used to enable participants to grapple with the limiting positions and categories provided in the dominant discourses and to re-imagine their futures. Examples are drawn from a HIV prevention project with the Women's Union in Vietnam. The project aims to equip women and girls to talk openly about sex within a culture in which this is not the norm. Theory is developed which identifies that the selection of genre influences the knowledge that can be represented through the drama, and consequently the possibilities for change that can be fashioned. Multifarious and poly-vocal accounts of the self are needed to re-fashion the shared and gendered identity absorbed as part of culture and to create new storylines within which to enact change.

Abstract Background This study seeks to extend earlier Australian school drug education research by developing and measuring the effectiveness of a comprehensive, evidence-based, harm reduction focused school drug education program for junior secondary students aged 13 to 15 years. The intervention draws on the recent literature as to the common elements in effective school curriculum. It seeks to incorporate the social influence of parents through home activities. It also emphasises the use of appropriate pedagogy in the delivery of classroom lessons. Methods/Design A cluster randomised school drug education trial will be conducted with 1746 junior high school students in 21 Victorian secondary schools over a period of three years. Both the schools and students have actively consented to participate in the study. The education program comprises ten lessons in year eight (13-14 year olds) and eight in year nine (14-15 year olds) that address issues around the use of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and other illicit drugs. Control students will receive the drug education normally provided in their schools. Students will be tested at baseline, at the end of each intervention year and also at the end of year ten. A self completion questionnaire will be used to collect information on knowledge, patterns and context of use, attitudes and harms experienced in relation to alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and other illicit drug use. Multi-level modelling will be the method of analysis because it can best accommodate hierarchically structured data. All analyses will be conducted on an Intent-to-Treat basis. In addition, focus groups will be conducted with teachers and students in five of the 14 intervention schools, subsequent to delivery of the year eight and nine programs. This will provide qualitative data about the effectiveness of the lessons and the relevance of the materials. Discussion The benefits of this drug education study derive both from the knowledge gained by trialling an optimum combination of innovative, harm reduction approaches with a large, student sample, and the resultant product. The research will provide better understanding of what benefits can be achieved by harm reduction education. It will also produce an intervention, dealing with both licit and illicit drug use that has been thoroughly evaluated in terms of its efficacy, and informed by teacher and student feedback. This makes available to schools a comprehensive drug education package with prevention characteristics and useability that are well understood. Trial registration Australia and New Zealand Clinical Trials Register (ANZCTR): ACTRN12612000079842

Young adults' use of individualized explanations for conditions that are structural in origin is well documented. However, recent scholarship has contended that young adults are often more aware of the macro-scale forces that shape their life chances than has previously been acknowledged. We build upon this work by drawing on findings from focus groups conducted with 19 Australian young adults aged 27–28 in which they were called upon to discuss issues and experiences relevant to both their own lives and those of their age cohort more broadly. We find that although the participants co-constructed explanatory narratives that positioned their cohort within a specific socio-historical context, they nevertheless drew chiefly upon individualized explanations and coping strategies to understand these structural changes when the conversation moved to micro-level experiences. We contend that this disjuncture is attributable not to a lack of knowledge or reflexivity but to a perceived lack of social recognition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we use an ecocultural framework to understand young people's experiences of the care provided by a specialist children's hospital. This framework conceptualizes hospital culture as situated and embodied rather than separate from people and practices. Young people's responses, gathered during a one-day forum at the hospital, suggest ways in which a hospital can respond to them not just as individual bodies but also as members of the families and peer groups who form their broader web of care. Their input highlights the importance of consulting young people about the operations of health services themselves, not just about the patient-medico relationships that they experience whilst using a service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With alcohol misuse one of the leading causes of disability among young Australians, determination of potential predictors of risky drinking trajectories of young people is crucial. This study aimed to identify risky drinking trajectories from early to mid-adolescence and to determine if membership of a harm minimization intervention, alcohol knowledge, attitudes towards alcohol and prevalence of alcohol harms would predict trajectory group membership. Longitudinal data from 1746 students were used to identify alcohol consumption trajectory groups for both intervention and control students. Higher baseline knowledge predicted a higher, increasing, consumption trajectory for controls, whereas, safer attitudes at baseline were not associated with a higher, increasing trajectory. All other alcohol harms at baseline were strongly associated with higher consumption trajectories. The intervention group had fewer increasing trajectories and a lower level of consumption at the end of the programme, suggesting the drug education programme reduced the number of students who substantially increased their consumption over time, while at the same time reducing their level of consumption in relative terms. The consistency of better intervention student outcomes across all trajectories provides evidence that the drug education programme was influential with all types of student drinkers and is suitable for universal delivery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article addresses one of the areas of global concern for Southern youth: HIV rates amongst young people from key communities. In the Asia-Pacific region 95% of all new infections occur amongst those under 25. Furthermore, in this region the nature of the epidemic is concentrated, chiefly affecting people from certain sub-groups such as those who inject drugs, sell sex, participate in male-to-male sex and people who are transgender. In this article we discuss an innovative peer-led leadership and advocacy program for youth which uses post-structural theoretical frames and concepts in an effort to steer against the dominant medicalised and individualising storylines which tend to inform approaches to HIV prevention. We draw on examples and data collected from the NewGen Asia Leadership training program to illustrate the ways post-structural concepts can be used to inform program design as well as analysis and critique of the impact of change efforts. Rather than the traditional focus on transmission of knowledge, skills, and attitudes in prevention efforts, we aim to show how the concepts of positioning, platform, and possibility may be mobilised in strategies used to address the challenge of HIV prevention amongst key youth populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study investigated the impact of the Drug Education in Victorian Schools (DEVS) program on tobacco smoking. The program taught about licit and illicit drugs in an integrated manner over 2 years, with follow up in the third year. It focused on minimizing harm, rather than achieving abstinence, and employed participatory, critical-thinking and skill-based teaching methods.Methods: A cluster-randomized, controlled trial of the program was conducted with a student cohort during years 8 (13 years), 9 (14 years), and 10 (15 years). Twenty-one schools were randomly allocated to the DEVS program (14 schools,n= 1163), or their usual drug education program (7 schools,n= 589). One intervention school withdrew in year two.Results: There was a greater increase in the intervention students' knowledge about drugs, including tobacco, in all 3 years. Intervention students talked more with their parents about smoking at the end of the 3-year program. They recalled receiving more education on smoking in all 3 years. Their consumption of cigarettes had not increased to the same extent as controls at the end of the program. Their change in smoking harms, relative to controls, was positive in all 3 years. There was no difference between groups in the proportionate increase of smokers, or in attitudes towards smoking, at any time.Conclusions: These findings indicate that a school program that teaches about all drugs in an integrated fashion, and focuses on minimizing harm, does not increase initiation into smoking, while providing strategies for reducing consumption and harm to those who choose to smoke. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]