Speaker
Description
Background: Culturally adapted EBPs offer a cost-effective way to prevent substance use and mental health issues in adolescents. Therefore, understanding how to leverage and adapt EBPs is vital to ensure their effectiveness, relevance, and sustainability in real-world settings. This research, employing a community-based approach, examines the cultural adaptation process of prevention programs for adolescent substance use and common mental health issues, identifying key steps in real-world settings and offering valuable insights to bridge the gap between research and practice.
Methods: A qualitative analysis was conducted using content analysis on 22 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders from the quadruple helix model, including academia, NGOs, and public administration across multiple countries. These stakeholders had expertise in substance use prevention and treatment, mental health promotion services, and funding prevention programs focused on these issues. Participants were recruited through snowball and convenience sampling. Common adaptation steps were categorized using a combination of inductive and deductive coding.Ethical approval was obtained, and all participants provided informed consent.
Results: The study identified 12 key steps in the cultural adaptation process, including building synergies, local needs assessment, program selection, initial cultural adaptation, advisory group consultation, staff training, piloting, implementation, monitoring and evaluation, and dissemination. Notably, the findings reveal that not all stakeholders consistently followed these steps, nor did they apply them in the same manner. Furthermore, the use of cultural adaptation models to guide the adaptation process is exclusive to academics.
Discussion: The results emphasize the importance of translating scientific knowledge into real-world contexts. Strong collaboration among quadruple helix stakeholders and the active participation of the target population are crucial for maintaining cultural relevance and program effectiveness. Despite advancements, this study highlights the lack of a systematic approach to adaptation processes in non-academic settings, providing a foundation for developing a more systematic cultural adaptation of EBPs.
| Conflict of interest | The authors have no competing interests to declare |
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