PREVENTION OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: EVIDENCE BASED PRACTICE APPROACH

Adolescence is developmental period during which, most commonly, use of substances begins. Thus majority of preventive initiatives target child population and youngsters. With regards that many traditional and widely utilized preventive programs turned out to be ineffective, scientists have put much effort into development of much more efficacious, contemporary approaches in evidence based prevention during the last decades. Although the number of available evidence based preventive programs significantly raised during the past several years, there are still obstacles in recognition of importance in their implementation, as well as obscurities about what that term actually stands for. This paper provides a review of most important scientific insights about substance abuse in population of youngsters, which are foundation of good practice in the field of prevention, as well as more specific definition of programs that bear “evidence based” label. Key traits of efficacious substance abuse preventive programs targeting family, school and community are presented, as well as examples of good practice. Keywords: substance abuse in children and adolescents, preventive programs, evidence based approaches