Abstract

BERTEA, Francisco  and  CARDOZO, Griselda. Evaluation of the Implementation Process of a Program on Skills for Life in Public Schools in Cordoba (Argentina). Av. Psicol. Latinoam. [online]. 2022, vol.40, n.3, 7.  Epub July 05, 2023. ISSN 1794-4724.  https://doi.org/10.12804/revistas.urosario.edu.co/apl/a.9084.

Life skills programs are one of the most used strategies in the school environment for health prevention. Although implementation science indicates that implementation processes must be evaluated to ensure achievement of objectives, after more than thirty years of development of these programs in Latin America, there has been little progress in this area. This report presents an evaluation of the implementation process of a life skills program oriented towards the prevention of substance use -implemented in 2010-, documenting complex aspects to make recommendations for future applications. To perform the evaluation, 30 courses were selected. 60 teachers and 940 students participated. The students belonged to a medium-low socioeconomic level and were in public secondary schools in Córdoba city, Argentina. Qualitative data collection techniques -non-participant observation, records of productions of the activities, and semi-structured interviews- were used, selecting a qualitative and quantitative approach to this data. The results demonstrate the complexity of the implementation process, the contextual difficulties, and the need to increase knowledge of the relationships between school dynamics and the implementation of life skills programs to design effective strategies. This highlights the need to overcome the tension between the participatory pedagogical approaches of these programs and the traditional school logic.

Keywords : Qualitative evaluation; implementation science; life skills; health education; health promotion.

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