Family Together: Developing a Family Educational Program against Drug Abuse in Taipei County

Adolescent drug abuse has become a serious problem in Taiwan. Therefore, the main purpose of this research was to develop a program for the high-risk adolescents and their parents to prevent adolescent substance abuse in Taipei County, Taiwan. The program named ”Family Together” focused on emotional management, communication, and adolescent substance abuse prevention. The features of the research include Family-based program, Evaluation, Alliance, Science-based, and Training (FEAST). Fifty high-risk students and thirty-four parents from three junior high schools in Taipei County participated in the program. The program includes six steps which are draw-up, coordination, training, implementation, evaluation, and dissemination. The Family Together program had been found to be effective. The program could improve the attitudes toward and knowledge of communication and the knowledge and skills regarding prevention of adolescent substance abuse among the parents. In addition, the program could improve the knowledge of and attitudes toward emotional management and communication, knowledge of substance abuse, and willingness to use refusal skills among the adolescents. The future efforts might focus on strengthening seed-teacher training program and involving general community adolescents and their parents to participate the program. Furthermore, suggestions for government to promote family-based program are also provided.