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The present study examined parenting style dimensions (demandingness and responsiveness) as predictors of adolescent drug use and also evaluated whether parenting styles dimensions moderate the effects of the implemented prevention program. 6.391 students in the 7th and 8th grades at 72 Brazilian public schools participated in a three-wave randomized controlled trial to evaluate a school drug-use prevention program. We used structural equation modeling to test if baseline parenting style dimensions (demandingness and responsiveness) would predict the use of drugs (alcohol, binge drinking, cannabis, inhalants, and tobacco) after 21 months. Additionally, we evaluated an interaction version of the above-described model to test if the effect of the prevention program would be moderated by either or both parenting style dimensions. Higher levels of parent demandingness predicted lower chances of adolescent drug use (e.g., Cigarette use OR 0.76, 95% CI 0.64–0.89); responsiveness on the five outcomes showed p value superior to 0.01. The effect of the #Tamojunto intervention is unlikely to be conditioned to either parenting style dimensions on the assessed outcomes. Clinical trial registration Brazilian Register of Clinical Trials (REBEC): #RBR-4mnv5g (https://www.ensaiosclinicos.gov.br/rg/?q=tamojunto). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Social and cultural differences between countries stress the need for adapting existent instruments for adequately comparing epidemiological results. However, there are controversies in literature on how to carry out this process. Objectives: This study aimed to describe the process of cultural adaptation and evaluation of the Brazilian Portuguese language of the European Drug Addiction Prevention Trial (EU-Dap) questionnaire to identify alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use among adolescents. Methods: The cross-sectional study took place in 16 public schools in three Brazilian cities during the year 2013 in a sample of 2,969 adolescents between the ages of 11 and 16. Operating steps involved analysis of qualitative data collected through student's focus group and field notes by interviewers and quantitative data from test–retest evaluation and nonresponse to item. Results: The results revealed moderate reliability for the primary outcomes and high levels of nonresponse, mainly in the 2/3 final questions. Focus group provided high-quality information about misconception for the semantic and structure of the questionnaire. Participatory observation helped researchers to tap into the main difficulties of the application context. Conclusions: Sociocultural issues related to Brazilian students, the application context, and the structure of the original questionnaire contributed to the unsatisfactory results of the transcultural adaptation process. The results further highlighted the challenge of adapt questionnaires investigating sensitive issues in an age group particularly influenced by educational factors, especially when the countries have different standards of achievement in education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The European school-based drug addiction prevention program Unplugged was adapted to the Brazilian context by the Ministry of Health and renamed #Tamojunto. Its first implementations, in the form of a public policy in Brazil, showed contradictory and different effects from those observed in Europe. Adaptations were made to #Tamojunto in 2018 to reintroduce the essential content of the original program.Methods: A parallel, two-arm, randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the new version of the school-based government program #Tamojunto2.0 for the prevention of drug use among 8th grade middle school students from 70 public schools in three Brazilian cities, totaling approximately 6.300 participating students distributed in 210 classes. For intervention, the experimental group will receive the 12 lessons of the #Tamojunto2.0 program under the supervision of a Brazilian Ministry of Health team. The control group will not receive any intervention. Information will be collected from the students at three time points: preintervention and 9 and 18 months postintervention. Multilevel analyses will be performed using the Gllamm Stata program to assess simultaneous differences in prevalence, in time and among groups for the outcomes of interest. Structural equation modeling will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention in changing the behavioral patterns of the adolescents through latent transition analysis. The effect of the mediators involved in the program effectiveness outcomes will also be analyzed. The program doses applied in all classes of the intervention group will be collected using a form completed by the teacher at the end of each lesson, indicating the activities taught and not taught in each lesson.Discussion: This study will show whether the #Tamojunto2.0 program can be expanded as a public policy for all schools with the aim of preventing drug use among Brazilian students.Trial Registration: Brazilian Clinical Trials Registry (RBR-8cnkwq) under the name "Avaliação do Efeito do Programa de Prevenção Escolar ao Uso de Drogas #Tamojunto2.0, Versão 2018", on August 30th, 2018 ( http://www.ensaiosclinicos.gov.br/rg/RBR-8cnkwq/ ). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]