Intervention Research ― A Practical Guide for Developing Evidence-based School Prevention Programmes

This book offers a step-by-step guide to intervention research, including the methods and techniques that researchers, higher degree research students and others can use when pursuing intervention research in schools and other settings. Guided by the Intervention Research Framework, it also provides practical information on a linking a program developed using a comprehensive, evidence-based approach, to research and evaluation processes. The handbook also illustrates how to select an appropriate research sample for research; how to develop valid and reliable instruments for measuring change, including how to devise appropriate measures for assessing behavioural change; how to recruit and negotiate with schools (and other settings) for research involving young people; how to measure and incorporate measures of fidelity of implementation to understand dose response and behavior change; and how to optimize data collection and dissemination. The development and longitudinal assessment of the multi award-winning School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project (SHAHRP) – the first alcohol harm reduction study to assess the impact of a school-based classroom intervention on alcohol use, alcohol-related behaviors and alcohol-related harm using a harm reduction paradigm – provides a practical example of the intervention research processes described in this handbook.

Nyanda McBride has nearly 20 years’ experience as an intervention researcher in education, health promotion and drug education fields. Prior to this, she was a health teacher in secondary schools, struggling to deliver meaningful health and drug education to her students. These combined experiences have provided Nyanda with the opportunity to develop insights into effective program development, delivery and evaluation. ?She is the Principal Investigator in one of the most important studies to change the field of school-based alcohol education in recent years, with the development and longitudinal assessment of the multi award winning School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project (SHAHRP). The SHAHRP study has been replicated several times, and has a highly significant and global, translational impact on policy and practice.