Child maltreatment—a serious public health problem—is a global phenomenon. Parenting programs are considered effective approaches to preventing child maltreatment; however, comprehensive understanding is still lacking of the effectiveness of such programs in all areas of outcomes and the way parenting programs work. This thesis consists of two parts: a quantitative synthesis of high-level evidence about program effects and a qualitative integration of program process. The thesis employs two research methods: meta-analytic review and systematic review. I searched 11 electronic databases to identify studies published between 2000 and 2012. Forty-two studies meeting the eligibility criteria were included in the systematic review, and 21 of these were included in the meta-analysis. The total random effect size was 0.338. The research found that parenting programs successfully reduced substantiated child maltreatment reports. The programs also reduced risk factors and enhanced protective factors associated with child maltreatment. However, program effects began to decrease in the first year after program completion. Parenting programs function by remediating parental cognition, thus changing parenting behaviors and enhancing parent-child relationships. The successful program components include teaching child-rearing knowledge, improving parenting skills and changing parents’ inappropriate attitudes towards children. Parenting programs are demonstrated to be effective public health approaches to avoiding child maltreatment. Parenting programs could produce positive effects in both low- and middle-income countries, as well as high-income countries. The study recommends a longer-term intervention beginning prenatally or at an early age of the children and involving more male caregivers. The evidence-based service of parenting programs could be widely adopted in future practices. The research also indicates that parenting programs could be applicable within the Chinese context, where such programs have not been widely used to date. / published_or_final_version / Social Work and Social Administration / Master / Master of Philosophy

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In this study, the researcher investigated the effectiveness of the strategies put in place by both the school and the community to control drug abuse by secondary school learners. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the strategies and identify whether there were any successes in controlling drug abuse by learners. This study was conducted during school time when learners were expected to be fully engaged with school work in the Libode-Mega district of education. The researcher had decided on the study with the feeling that there are strategies put in place by the relevant stakeholders but it might happen that the abusers were not cautioned on the seriousness of such measures. The researcher involved the schools, the community representatives and the health representatives in the study so that the information obtained would give a clear picture of what is happening in the area. The researcher used both qualitative and quantitative research designs whereby the questionnaires were distributed to learner respondents to answer while there were interview schedules drawn up for the teachers, the ward representative and health officials to respond to. The findings showed that there were strategies put in place at school and by the community and also the learner respondents who were the focal point in the study seemed to understand the bad behavior by abusers but it was noticed by the researcher that there was not unity in implementation of the strategies which might lead to little achievement. The researcher also noted that drug was prevalent in a number of communities especially in social gatherings. It is through that drug prevalence that both old and young people carelessly misused drugs while enjoying themselves in public places. A further research was suggested in order to improve relationships between the school and the communities in an attempt to control substance abuse.

published_or_final_version / Nursing Studies / Master / Master of Nursing

<p>Since the anecdotal assumption is that GPs do not effectively diagnose and manage problem drinking amongst their patients, this study investigated the role of GPs in addressing problem drinking in Cape Town as well as the prevalence of problem drinking amongst their patients.</p>

Background This paper provides an updated review of the literature on drug prevention programmes (from 2001 to July2011) and reports the findings from these previous studies on the effectiveness and nature of present drug prevention practices. Relevant data on the effectiveness of drug prevention intervention among adolescents has been summarised and examined. In addition, this paper identifies various essential elements that have the potential for creating and providing effective drug prevention strategies, whether to prevent substance misuse or to minimise the harm caused. Different prevention strategies will also be discussed, including: social influence approach, refusal skill training, and motivational interviewing. Design The paper will conduct a review of the previous literature. Aims This literature review proposes to: 1. Review all of the published evidence from research which was conducted between 2001and 2011 on the effectiveness of drug prevention programmes for adolescents. 2. Identify findings and recommendations regarding the content, approaches, format, theoretical bases, and methods associated with an effective drug prevention program. 3. Discuss any potential or proved effective components on a drug prevention program in tackling such drug abuse problems. Methods Two searching engines (i.e. PubMed and Medline) were used to find the relevant papers and journals which have been published within the past ten years (i.e. 2001 to 2011). Studies about the evaluation of the effectiveness of drug education and prevention strategies, targeting the most vulnerable group (i.e. aged between 12 and 25) were included. Results Twenty four studies met the criteria and were reviewed in depth. Thirteen of them evaluated the effectiveness of school-based interventions, including the school-based drug testing program. The remaining papers evaluated the effectiveness of non-school based prevention interventions in different approaches such as social influence, parental cooperation, refusal skills education, and life skills training. Conclusions Social influence approaches were evidenced as the most effective intervention to prevent drug abuse. Interventions that are conducted interactively (e.g. simulated scenario and role-playing) are more effective than providing normative information. Gender differences were found in some of the interventions. However, it is recommended that further research should be conducted to evaluate these results. / published_or_final_version / Public Health / Master / Master of Public Health

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<p>Since the anecdotal assumption is that GPs do not effectively diagnose and manage problem drinking amongst their patients, this study investigated the role of GPs in addressing problem drinking in Cape Town as well as the prevalence of problem drinking amongst their patients.</p>

Afrikaans: Substansafhanklikheid is 'n universele verskynsel wat nie diskrimineer tussen ouderdom, geslag, status en beroep nie. Substansafhanklikheid ontsien geen beroepsgroep nie en ook nie die mediese beroep, met spesifieke verwysing na geneeshere nie. In Suid-Afrika is daar nog geen navorsing oor die substansafhanklike geneesheer gedoen nie. Internasionale navorsing oor substansafhanklikheid onder geneeshere is egter beskikbaar. 'n Behoefte aan beter begrip en kennis van die substansafhanklike geneesheer is 'n onderwerp wat aandag behoort te geniet met die oog op meer effektiewe dienslewering aan die teikengroep. Uit die literatuur blyk duidelik dat die substansafhanklike geneesheer unieke problematiek ervaar wat verband hou met sy beroep. Die doelstelling van hierdie navorsing was om die profiel van die substansafhanklike geneesheer saam te stel met die oog op die formulering van behandelings- en voorkomingsriglyne vanuit 'n maatskaplikewerkperspektief. In hierdie ondersoek is nie 'n hipotese geformuleer nie aangesien 'n verkennende ondersoek van 'n relatief onbekende terrein onderneem is. 'n Navorsingsvraag is wel gestel wat rigtinggewend vir die navorsing was. Hierdie ondersoek bestaan uit 'n Iiteratuurstudie en 'n empiriese ondersoek. Die doelwitte vir die ondersoek was om deur middel van 'n literatuurstudie inligting in te samel oor substansafhanklikheid as verskynsel by geneeshere, die profiel, psigososiale implikasies en belewenis van die substansafhanklike geneesheer en ook behandelings- en voorkomingsriglyne. 'n Verder doelwit was om deur middel van empiriese navorsing die profiel van die substansafhanklike geneesheer saam te stel, asook die psigososiale implikasies van substansafhanklikheid by die substansafhanklike geneesheer te ondersoek. Aan die hand van die ingesamelde data is aanbevelings vir behandeling en voorkoming geformuleer. Die literatuurstudie sluit in die etiologie en ontwikkeling van substansafhanklikheid, die omvang en wetgewing betreffende substansafhanklikheid en die substansafhanklike geneesheer. Ten slotte word die dinamika van die substansafhanklike geneesheer, behandelingsfasiliteite, behandelingsbenaderings en die behandelingsproses vir die substansafhanklike geneesheer bespreek. Die Iiteratuurstudie het as raamwerk gedien waarbinne die empiriese ondersoek gedoen is. In die empiriese ondersoek is 'n gekombineerde kwantitatiewe en kwalitatiewe benadering gevolg, naamlik die dominante-minder-dominanteontwerp van Creswell. In die ondersoek is van toegepaste navorsing gebruik gemaak, wat fokus op die verkryging van nuwe kennis en spreek onmiddellike problematiek aan wat in die praktyk ondervind word. In die ondersoek is daar verder van die verkennende en beskrywende navorsingsontwerp gebruik gemaak. Die navorsingsprosedure wat ten opsigte van die kwantitatiewe benadering gevolg is, is die opnameprosedure wat die administrering van vraelyste as data insamelingsmetode behels het. Die navorsingsprosedure ten opsigte van die kwalitatiewe benadering was die voer van semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude met behulp van 'n semi-gestruktureerde onderhoudskedule. Die vertrouenswaardigheid van die kwalitatiewe deel van die navorsing is aan die hand van Guba se model geevalueer. Daar is by beide benaderings in die ondersoek gebruik gemaak van doelgerigte steekproefneming. Die kwantitatiewe en kwalitatiewe bevindinge van die ondersoek was aanvullend tot mekaar en het wedersyds bevindinge bevestig. Vanuit die bevindinge wat verkry is, is die navorsingsdoelstelling en navorsingsvraag beantwoord en is sekere aanbevelings vir voorkoming- en behandeling van substansafhanklikheid by die substansafhanklike geneesheer geformuleer. Verdere navorsing ten opsigte die ontwikkeling van 'n behandelingsprogram spesifiek vir geneeshere word aanbeveel. English: Substance dependency is a common phenomenon. Substance dependency does not discriminate against age, sex, status or occupation. Substance dependency occurs regardless the occupation of a person, not even the medical profession and the medical doctor are excluded from substance dependency. Research in South Africa about the substance dependant doctor is unknown and unavailable. International research does exist about this specific subject. It is important to gain knowledge and understanding about the phenomenon of the substance dependant doctor to formulate specific guidelines for treatment and preventative services. The substance dependant doctor experiences unique problems regarding their specific occupation. The purpose of this research is the composition of the profile of the substance dependant doctor from a social work perspective. Specific recommendations could be drawn from the conclusions and be implemented in the treatment of and prevention of substance dependency among doctors. The nature of this research was to explore an unknown phenomenon, therefore no hypothesis was formulated. A research question was formulated which gave specific direction to the research. This research comprises two divisions, namely a literature study and an empirical research. The research goals included a literature study to gain information about the phenomenon of substance dependency among doctors, a profile, psychosocial implications, experiences of substance dependant doctors and treatment and preventative guidelines. The empirical research comprised the composition of the profile of the substance dependant doctor, and explored the psychosocial implications of substance dependency among doctors. Based on the profile of the substance dependant doctor that was compiled from the processed data, recommendations were made for the treatment and prevention of substance dependency among doctors. The literature study included the aetiology and development of substance dependency, the extent of and regulations regarding substance dependency and substance dependency among doctors. In conclusion the literature study includes the dynamics of the substance dependant doctor, treatment facility's, treatment perspectives and the treatment process of the substance dependant doctor. The empirical research was conducted within a framework of a literature study. The empirical research included a combination of a quantitative and qualitative approach, namely the dominant-less-dominant model of Creswell. The type of research that was used in this study is applied research, which aimed to utilise new knowledge and to address problems in everyday practice. The explorative and descriptive research designs were used. The procedures that were used regarding the quantitative approach of the research, was the survey procedure. Data gathering with reference to the quantitative approach was conducted by using questionnaires that were administered by the researcher. The procedures that were used regarding the qualitative approach were semi-structured face-to-face-interviews with the aid of a semi-structured interview schedule. The trustworthiness of the qualitative research was assessed according the model of Guba. Purposive sampling was used in both approaches. The quantitative and qualitative data were complementary and mutually confirmed the findings of the data. Based on the findings of the processed data the research goals and research question were answered. Recommendations were made for the treatment and prevention of substance dependence among doctors. Further research on development of a treatment program specifically for doctors is recommended. / Thesis (DPhil (Social Work))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Social Work and Criminology / unrestricted

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