Abstract

DE VINCENZI, Ariana  and  BAREILLES, Gustavo. Promoting Health and Drug-Use Prevention at Schools in Socially Vulnerable Areas. educ.educ. [online]. 2011, vol.14, n.3, pp.577-600. ISSN 0123-1294.

The article presents the results of a program developed between 2002 and 2009 to promote healthy and sustainable lifestyles and to prevent drug use at primary schools in vulnerable communities in two Argentine provinces (Buenos Aires and Santa Fe). The objective was to study a group of primary school students ages six to 14 so as to identify changes in what they know about themselves, about health care and about social skills. This was accomplished though the implementation of a health care and drug prevention program. The strategy involved comparative case studies on a non-probability sample comprised 634 youngsters. The methodological approach was based on a longitudinal, descriptive-analytical research design of a quasi-experimental nature; specifically, community trials. Among the conclusions, it was found the program tends to bring about a significant improvement in mastery of the areas in question; that is, students knowledge about themselves (53% demonstrated signs of improvement), health care (73%) and life skills (74%). A breakdown by gender shows females derive more benefit with respect to knowledge about themselves, while males do better in health care and life skills.

Keywords : Health promotion; educational action-research; teaching-learning; social responsibility; Argentina.

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