Health Education Research Advance Access originally published online on July 20, 2006
Health Education Research 2007 22(2):177-191; doi:10.1093/her/cyl061
Parenting programmes for preventing tobacco, alcohol or drugs misuse in children <18: a systematic review
1 Parenting Coordinator, Dacorum Primary Health Care Trust, Tring Clinic, Station Road, Tring, Hertfordshire, HP23 5NF, UK
2 Centre for Research in Primary and Community Care, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, UK
3 School of Nursing and Midwifery, University of Hertfordshire, College Lane, Hatfield, AL10 9AB, UK
* Correspondence to: F. Bunn. E-mail: f.bunn{at}herts.ac.uk
We conducted a systematic review of controlled studies of parenting programmes to prevent tobacco, alcohol or drug abuse in children <18. We searched Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, specialized Register of Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group, Pub Med, psych INFO, CINALH and SIGLE. Two reviewers independently screened studies, extracted data and assessed study quality. Data were collected on actual or intended use of tobacco, alcohol or drugs by child, and associated risk or antecedent behaviours. Due to heterogeneity we did not pool studies in a meta-analysis and instead present a narrative summary of the findings. Twenty studies met our inclusion criteria. Statistically significant self-reported reductions of alcohol use were found in six of 14 studies, of drugs in five of nine studies and tobacco in nine out of 13 studies. Three interventions reported increases of tobacco, drug and alcohol use. We concluded that parenting programmes can be effective in reducing or preventing substance use. The most effective appeared to be those that shared an emphasis on active parental involvement and on developing skills in social competence, self-regulation and parenting. However, more work is needed to investigate further the change processes involved in such interventions and their long-term effectiveness.
Received on July 6, 2005; accepted on June 5, 2006