Results of the EPOPS project:  adaptation, implementation and evaluation of a programme empowering parents organisations for alcohol prevention in Spain and Portugal

Background: Evidence suggests that when families and the community are engaged, alcohol prevention is more efficient. However, this collaborative work requires organizational skills, networking, and a participative culture that in some places, such as Spain and Portugal, has been found to be limited. Over a three year-period, FERYA, a trial intervention programme for empowering Parents Associations Leaders (PALs) in carrying out effective actions towards preventing and/or reducing alcohol use in their communities was implemented in three regions in Spain. During this time, promising results regarding parent involvement in preventive actions were achieved and collaboration networks successfully created. The EPOPS Project (Empowering Parents’ Organizations to Prevent Substance use) was instituted to further develop and adapt FERYA for implementation in Spain and Portugal.

Aim: To implement EPOPS in two countries and measure impact of PAL’s intentions to carry out actions towards alcohol use prevention in communities and on self-efficacy (empowerment).

Methods: The design is a pre-/post-pilot intervention study, in which both qualitative and quantitative data were collected. This abstract focuses on the quantitative data and pretest scores. It will be also presented post-test scores if the data is available at the time of the Congress. The current sample is composed of Spanish (n= 45; n=22 experimental group; n=23 control group) and Portuguese parents (n=65; n=47 experimental; n=18 control group) who attended the FERYA program workshops. Based on established instruments, a questionnaire to the following was designed for this study: general self-efficacy intention to act, intra-, inter- and extra-organizational empowerment as well as social norms in communities. The internal consistency of the several scales ranges from 0.83 to 0.97.

Findings and conclusions: Our presentation will provide preliminary results of the study and implications of the implementation of the EPOPS project in different regions in Spain and Portugal. We expect that participation in EPOPS will be associated with increased empowerment for initiating and maintaining actions and programs for alcohol prevention, both at the individual and organizational level.