Riscos & desafios: validation of an additive behaviours and dependencies preventive programme among students in higher education

It is evident and scientifically proven the need to invest in prevention of Psychoactive Substances use in the context of higher education, particularly among students attending the first year. The present study’s goal is to validate a comprehensive program to prevent addictions and addictive behaviours targeting this group. The Riscos & Desafios Program addresses psychoactive substance use behaviours and a wide range of specific risk and protective factors in this population. The sample consisted of 228 first year students from the University of Minho in Portugal. This study included an experimental design, with experimental and control groups, with pre, post-test and follow-up measurements. In addition to collecting socio-demographic and psychoactive substance use data, the instruments used were: AUDIT (Babor et al, 1989), Self-Control Scale (Wills et al., 2007), Sensation Seeking Scale version V (Zuckerman, 1979), Academic Experience Questionnaire (Almeida and Ferreira, 1997), Rosenberg Global Self-esteem Scale (Rosenberg, 1965) and Beck Depression Inventory (Vaz Serra & Pio Abreu, 1973). Our results show that the Risks & Challenges Program had significant preventive effects in the intervention group when compared to the control group in students’self-reported consumption and in risk or protecting factors for psychoactive substance use. Specifically, there were significant differences between the groups in students’ self-reported alcohol consumption, in depression level and in personal and interpersonal dimensions of academic experiences. In addition, there were evident gains in the intervention group over time in: expectations/motivations for alcohol and cannabis consumption, tension and anger, personal and interpersonal dimensions of academic experiences, self-esteem and depression. On the other hand, students in the control group showed na increased perception of availability of substances between baseline and follow-up evaluations, a situation that did not occur in the intervention group, suggesting that the experience of the program had a protective effect also at this level. In sum, the results found validated the Riscos & Desafios Program in the extent to which it was verified in the experimental group the reduction of alcohol consumption, the reduction of risk factors and the promotion of protection factors for psychoactive substances use.