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The purpose of this paper is to describe the adaptation and programme development of the Strengthening Families Programme to a Swedish setting.

A descriptive approach was employed with a focus on the cultural adaptation and programme development. This included meetings with two reference groups, a telephone interview with parents, translation of materials and production of videos and manuals. A pilot study was conducted which included course evaluations by students and parents, meetings with teachers and group leaders and a focus group interview with parents.

The programme format was altered in the Swedish version so that the youth sessions were held earlier during the day and the parent sessions later in the evening. Instead of having one family session at every meeting, the Swedish version included two family sessions in all. In the Swedish version, the booster sessions were incorporated as a regular part of the programme. In addition, more emphasis on alcohol and other drugs was added as well as an extra session. Following the evaluation of the pilot study, the materials were revised, with the inclusion of a “milder” vocabulary concerning disciplinary matters.

It seems to be possible to disseminate the core elements in family programmes between different cultures, especially if care is taken to make adjustments to local conditions.

This paper makes a contribution to the research on how to culturally adapt prevention programmes.

This paper aims to report findings from an evaluation of the Strengthening Families Programme 10‐14 (UK) (SFP 10‐14 UK), focusing on the strategies used to recruit families into a universal prevention intervention, the approach taken to group composition, and the experiences of participating families.

Methods comprised interviews with programme coordinating team members, a focus group with programme facilitators, focus groups with parents and young people, observation of programme sessions and coordinator visits to families, and analysis of programme questionnaires.

Paying attention to group composition and the needs of families with challenges holds promise in terms of reach and acceptability, delivery fidelity, enabling intended psycho‐social programme processes and promoting positive changes in parenting and family communication.

First, the paper examines the development of strategies for recruiting participants, which has been identified as a key implementation challenge. Second, it explores approaches for managing group composition and dynamics in family‐based programmes. While much has been written about the development of group norms and peer learning processes in interventions for young people, less has been written about how group dynamics work in programmes involving both parents and young people and the implications for implementation fidelity.

The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the potential of technology transfer in prevention interventions. It argues that contextual factors are more identifiable and more malleable than the cliché of “culture” as a barrier to implementation might suggest. The key question is how various contextual factors impact on programme implementation and effectiveness in the different cultures of a multifaceted continent such as Europe, and how successful programmes adapt to various contexts.

Using a questionnaire survey, input was collected from people involved in the adaptation and implementation of the Strengthening Families Programme (SFP) in several European countries.

The publications and experiences of the SFP implementers and evaluators in most of the European countries where it was introduced suggest that the programme is both feasible and effective (where outcomes are available). To achieve this, however, the implementers spent a considerable amount of time and effort to prepare, pre-test and consult with their target populations in order to adjust SFP to culture and context. This paper suggests restricting the use of “culture” to a set of norms and values, and to distinguish this from “context” which describes social and political organisation. Even though both condition each other, it is helpful to address culture and context separately when adapting prevention programmes.

Outcome data were not available for all implementations of SFP and some very recent ones in Austria, France and Italy could not be included in the questionnaire survey.

An examination of social capital might help implementers to anticipate resistance from the target population that seems to emanate from history, culture and context. The level of trust of others and institutions and the willingness to co-operate with them can heavily influence the readiness of drug prevention service planners, commissioners and providers, as well as the target population, to adopt interventions and other behaviours. Programmes seem to have key principles that make them effective and that should not be modified in an adaptation: a particular example is the programme protocol. Other aspects, such as wording, pictures and the content of examples used to illustrate some issues do have to be modified and are essential for an intervention to be well-accepted and understood. In some programmes, the effective principles – so-called “kernels” – are identifiable although, overall, prevention research still strives to identify them.

Implementing complex programmes that require the cooperation of many stakeholders might increase social capital in the communities involved.

The paper examines the common belief among many European prevention professionals that programmes from abroad, particularly from North America, cannot be implemented in Europe.

Most studies of adherence use a single global measure to examine the relation of adherence to outcomes. These studies inform us about effects of overall implementation but not about importance of specific program elements. Previous research on the Strengthening Families Program 10‐14 has shown that outcomes were unrelated to global adherence. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether adherence to specific components of SFP was related to outcomes, even though global adherence was not.

The authors micro‐coded data from an observational study of 11 instances of SFP (N=47 facilitators, 151 participants) into specific process and content components. Using multilevel analysis, they examined the relation of each component to program outcomes, accounting for individual‐ and program‐level variables.

Most associations of adherence with outcome were negligible for European‐Americans but significant for minority participants.

Global assessments of implementation are insufficient for complex, multi‐component prevention programs and may obscure relations of implementation to outcomes. Additionally, program components may function differently based on participant characteristics.

Facilitators would benefit from understanding the function of individual program components, particularly when programs are delivered to diverse audiences. Program developers should provide detailed logic models of program theory to guide facilitators’ decisions about adaptation.

This is one of only a few studies to examine the relation of adherence to specific intervention components to outcomes in a real‐world setting. Results show the utility of component analysis and the importance of considering individual characteristics for implementation assessment.

Evidence on implementing effective adolescent mental health promotion and prevention interventions in the European context is underdeveloped. The purpose of this paper is to identify evidence-based mental health promotion and prevention interventions for adolescents that have been developed and/or implemented across the school, community and digital settings in Europe. This review also sought to identify the relevant implementation processes in relation to what works, for whom and under what circumstances.

A narrative synthesis of the evidence was conducted which included two stages: a systematic search of studies assessing adolescent mental health promotion and prevention interventions; and a selection of interventions with the most robust evidence base, using pre-defined criteria, that have been either developed and/or implemented in Europe.

A total of 16 interventions met the inclusion criteria. The majority of interventions were school-based programmes. The review findings support the delivery of interventions aimed at enhancing young people’s social and emotional learning (SEL) and preventing behavioural problems. Results indicate that the effective delivery of SEL interventions on a school-wide basis could provide an important platform on which other universal interventions such as anxiety and bullying prevention, and targeted depression prevention could be developed in a multi-tiered fashion. There were a limited number of studies providing robust evidence on the effectiveness of suicide prevention, digital and community-based interventions.

This review identifies a number of robust evidence-based promotion and prevention interventions for promoting adolescent mental health. While the interventions have been implemented in Europe, the majority has not been evaluated rigorously and few included detailed information on the quality of programme implementation. Evidence of the effective cross-cultural transferability of these interventions needs to be strengthened, including more systematic research on their implementation across diverse country contexts.

Parenting programmes are seen as feasible and cost-effective in preventing early behavioural problems in children and adolescents. A number of studies have concluded that such programmes are effective in reducing child problem behaviours and improving the skills and well-being of parents. Nevertheless, less is known about long-term programme effects. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A non-meta-analytic discussion.

Long-term evaluations of parenting programmes suffer from a number of methodological weaknesses resulting in an inability to make robust causal inferences about child and parent outcomes in the longer term. The current evidence is favourable but is likely to be biased by methodological weaknesses. There is a need for more studies of greater methodological strength to obtain conclusive evidence that would guide empirical research, practice and policy.

The paper discusses weaknesses in long-term evaluations of parenting programmes and highlights concrete future directions towards improving the quality of study design, evaluation and data analysis.

Drawing on the experiences of healthcare professionals in one paediatric hospital, this paper explores the influence of context and organisational behaviour on the implementation of a person-centred transition programme for adolescents and young adults (AYA) with long-term conditions.

A single embedded qualitative case study design informed by a realist evaluation framework, was used. Participants who had experience of implementing the transition programme were recruited from across seven individual services within the healthcare organisation. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews (n = 20) and analysed using thematic analysis.

Implementation of the transition programme was influenced by the complex interaction of macro, meso and micro processes and contexts. Features of organisational behaviour including routines and habits, culture, organisational readiness for change and professional relationships shaped professional decision-making around programme implementation.

There exists a significant body of research relating to the role of context and its influence on the successful implementation of complex healthcare interventions. However, within the area of healthcare transition there is little published evidence on the role that organisational behaviour and contextual factors play in influencing transition programme implementation. This paper provides an in-depth understanding of how organisational behaviour and contextual factors affect transition programme implementation.

Adolescent problem behaviours (substance use, delinquency, school dropout, pregnancy, and violence) are costly not only for individuals, but for entire communities. Policy makers and practitioners that are interested in preventing these problem behaviours are faced with many programming options. The purpose of this review is to discuss two criteria for selecting relevant parenting programmes, and provide five examples of such programmes.

The first criterion for programme selection is theory based. Well-supported theories, such as the social development model, have laid out key family-based risk and protective factors for problem behaviour. Programmes that target these risk and protective factors are more likely to be effective. Second, programmes should have demonstrated efficacy; these interventions have been called “evidence-based programmes” (EBP). This review highlights the importance of evidence from rigorous research designs, such as randomised clinical trials, in order to establish programme efficacy.

Nurse-Family Partnership, The Incredible Years, the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P), Strengthening Families 10-14, and Staying Connected with Your Teen are examined. The unique features of each programme are briefly presented. Evidence showing impact on family risk and protective factors, as well as long-term problem behaviours, is reviewed. Finally, a measure of cost effectiveness of each programme is provided.

The paper proposes that not all programmes are of equal value, and suggests two simple criteria for selecting a parenting programme with a high likelihood for positive outcomes. Furthermore, although this review is not exhaustive, the five examples of EBPs offer a good start for policy makers and practitioners seeking to implement effective programmes in their communities. Thus, this paper offers practical suggestions for those grappling with investments in child and adolescent programmes on the ground.

The aims of this study were to determine (1) the degree to which an evidence‐based intervention (EBI) delivered outside the context of a research trial remained faithful to the content and design of the programme as intended and as reported in experimental trials of the same programme, and (2) whether implementation quality affected programme outcomes. We report results of an observational study of 11 sites involved in the statewide dissemination of a popular family‐focused prevention programme, the Strengthening Families Programme for Parents and Youth 10‐14. We found numerous differences between the community‐based implementations we observed and researcher‐driven implementations of the same programme, but variability in programme delivery and adherence to content were unrelated to programme outcomes. We conclude that short‐term outcomes of well‐designed EBIs delivered by well‐trained facilitators may be robust to minor changes in delivery and content. However, the effects of implementation quality on longer‐term outcomes are unknown.