keepin' it REAL /Mantente REAL Cultural Adaptation for España
Students in secondary/middle public schools in the province of Sevilla from low socio-economic neighborhoods with a heavy concentration of Roma (Gypsy) families and high levels of recent immigration.
Flavio F. Marsiglia, PhD (Principal Investigator), David Alarcón Rubio, PhD (Principal Investigator), Cristina Villalba Quesada, PhD; Isotta Mac Fadden, PhD; Stephen S. Kulis, PhD
In collaboration with the University Pablo de Olavide of Seville, Spain, GCAHR culturally adapted the keepin’ it REAL curriculum for implementation in southern Spain.
Prevention of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use by early adolescents
Mixed methods: qualitative (student focus groups) and quantitative (survey) approaches were employed to provide a profile of substance use exposure, existing strategies for resisting substance use, and prevention needs. This information was employed to culturally adapt the keepin' it REAL (Mantente REAL) program to the social context. New videos for the program were scripted and enacted by local students, under the direction of a professional videographer. In a pilot test of the program, students in four schools ((N = 290) were randomly assigned by school to experimental (implementing) or control (comparison) conditions.
Findings highlighted fundamental cultural elements in the prevention of substance use and other risk behaviors in adolescents in Seville, pointed to the need for cultural adaptation in several areas:
•Present messages through situations and contexts of risk close to that of the adolescents;
•Present messages through videos based on scripts made by the teens themselves;
•Take into account their perceptions of risks, their language, and prevention messages from their different perspectives;
•Use examples representing the actual lives of teens.
Read a full report about preliminary findings, project activities, and other interesting project details here: