Based on science, there are important periods of one’s life in which prevention can be more influential and crucial to forestalling drug consumption. One of these is middle childhood.
During this stage (about 6-10 years), children learn to be more independent. They attend school, build friendships and develop their own interests. With this in mind, it is key to favor the best possible environment for children before they reach adolescence and potentially come in contact with substances for the first time.
Talking about the science behind substance prevention holds a lot more weight than simply speaking about avoiding the consumption of substances. Prevention’s main purpose for youth is and should always be healthy and safe development. Knowing that, a question that we can ask ourselves is, “how can I successfully prevent people in my community from using substances?” We believe the answer lies in embracing the protective factors.
But what is a protective factor? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), protective factors enhance the likelihood of positive outcomes and lessen the possibility of negative consequences from risk exposure. Put simply, protective factors are the strengths that help to buffer and support families.
The reassuring truth about substance prevention is that it is science-based. This not only means that many studies have been done in this field and are peer-reviewed. This also means that there is information and material that is easy to access and understand for anyone interested in learning about it.
Do Social Skills Make a Difference?
Socialization is a process of transferring culturally acceptable attitudes, norms, beliefs and behaviours and responding to such cues appropriately.1 The idea of social skills education in teaching in an efficient way to face difficult situations that occur daily without putting a person’s health at risk. The idea of social skills education is to teach in an efficient, way that models how to face difficult situations that occur in everyday life without endangering a person’s well-being. A good way to put this into practice is by getting used to asking and answering questions and always being honest about our feelings while allowing others to share theirs as well.
Let’s suppose a 10 year old person is willing to go out with his friends by themselves for the first time. As a result of the request, the parents shut him down and simply say “no”. If this person grows up with this kind of restriction happening regularly, they may develop difficulties with socialization and communication. Instead of that, it is advisable to sit and talk, ask about their feelings and thoughts, and be receptive to them. During this process, a crucial step is to be equally fair in sharing thoughts and reasoning behind them. Finding a middle ground for both parties in a healthy way will help mend the differences they might face, and create a trusting bond that is necessary for substance protection, and for providing a healthy home environment essential for the development of every child.
Opportunities for some success at school and recognition of achievement.
Growing up is not easy. Nobody is born knowing how to navigate life or create their perfect future, but being applauded for our little and big triumphs becomes a significant element for healthy development through childhood to adolescence. Recognizing one’s achievement may contribute to identifying personal passions.While at the same time, this may help increase our chances of succeeding in a variety of settings, such as school, or sports, or community groups.
This protective factor will also aid in taking the initiative and inducing creativity, helping to learn how to accept criticism and other’s opinions. For example, a teacher or a mentor, can promote this by planning enjoyable activities and offering awards to the participants. A parent can make an effort to acknowledge tasks that may be big challenges for a child and praise their efforts. Taking the role of a motivating individual is ideal.
How can we help our communities?
Another crucial protective factor in middle childhood is establishing strong support networks. A support network refers to all the people in one’s life that help achieving personal and professional goals. It is important to note that a good support network builds up and assists an individual both formally and informally. A support network should be diverse and be present in many different parts of one’s life. In relevance to middle childhood, a good support network might consist of family, friends, teachers, coaches and role models alike. These positive connections are significant to building self-esteem and learn about self-advocacy, as well as having people to rely on in different environments and circumstances.
Creating and implementing good support networks could include simple and sustainable efforts. For example, a parent or guardian may make it a regular occurrence to do weekly bonding activity with their child that allows them to strengthen the relationship. Coaches may host team bonding activities within practice that connect and bond teammates as well as the entire team.
Being a good friend can be as simple as checking on them at school, work, or even online. Teachers may recommend opportunities to students that will help them be successful inside and outside of school. These are just some examples of many possibilities for building healthy support networks. One positive factor of a good support network is to elevate success and promote professional and personal well-being.
Positive school climate
According to the NSCC School climate refers to the quality and character of school life. School climate is based on patterns of students’, parents’ and school personnel’s experience of school life and reflects norms, goals, values, interpersonal relationships, teaching and learning practices, and organizational structures. “A positive school climate is a positive factor that can deter bullying, school failure, participation in negative peer group influences as well as disinterest or poor attachment to school. It is very important that schools are positive and safe places for youth to develop their social skills as they interact with peers, as well as develop personal interests and pursue their education.” A positive school climate should promote cultural competence, inclusivity, respect, and pride in school achievement as well as fair and benevolent behavior.
Contributing to a positive school climate can be done by anyone involved in the school including faculty, parents, students and even the community. On a faculty level it can be promoting positive attitudes in the workspace including classrooms, and acknowledging and rewarding favourable work and behaviour with co-workers. Parents and the community can contribute by volunteering and assisting teachers with student related events and programs. Students may strengthen a positive school climate by being inclusive and kind to their peers as well as respectful to teachers and other faculty. A school climate involves so many different aspects and people; because of this we can infer that there are so many different ways to improve and promote a positive school climate. Thus there are many ways to reinforce protective factors, and efficient methods are not limited to specific resources.
Taking action
Finally, there are lots of efficient and simple ways to intervene and strengthen protective factors. Although sometimes it may seem difficult and impossible, there are approaches to reduce and prevent substance use in communities. We need to take advantage of the resources and knowledge we have on hand to reduce the risk of substance use, and increase the protective factors as we move forward in our communities. We must continue to utilize scientifically proven methods backed by evidence; as well as to unlearn practices that may be contradictory to current data and science. While these measures take consistent efforts and patience, with steady ambition, achieving sustainable change is within our reach.
Through the studies and data conducted by influential agents of change such as Hawkins and Catalano, we can stride forward taking action for the betterment of youth towards fulfilling their utmost potential. Our drive inspired by building safe and healthy communities will carry our efforts forward and with that our mark will be made. The goals we implement should start in the simplest of manners; they should be to collectively give our best efforts to those who are at risk, and to be committed to the action we take.
1 NSCC. (n.d.). school climate. schoolclimate.org. Retrieved 5 25, 2021, from https://www.schoolclimate.org/school-climate
2 UNODC. (2021). Evidence based prevention [evidence based prevention].
3 Int. Standards. UNODC. Retrieved 5 25, 2021.
UNODC. (2021). Int. Standards [vulnerability to substance]. In youth forum 2021. UNODC. Retrieved 5 25, 2021, from https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/prevention/prevention-standards.html.
