الفهرس 
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Abstract
Drug use is a major public health problem that impacts society on multiple levels;
community, family and individuals (MOHP, 2004). It affects young people within their
productive years and leads to many problems (El-Akabawi, 2001).
Dusenburg in his study in 1990 pointed out that the initiation and early stages of
substance use have their roots in adolescence and those who experiment with substances at a
young age are more likely to use drugs later in life (Tarter, 2006).
Adolescent substance use has serious physical and mental health consequences,
besides, poor academic performance and increased delinquency (Mayo Clinic Staff, 2007).
An alarming DROP in the age of initiation of drug use with a consequent rise in
adolescents addicts have occurred in Egypt (Amer et al., 1986).
Therefore, an effective drug use prevention program that targets Egyptian adolescents
in the hope to curb this problem.
The school based social influence program is one of the most promising strategy for
primary and early prevention prevention of drug use among adolescents (DHHS, 1994;
UNICRI, 2003; Malmberg et al., 2010).
Therefore, the current study aimed to test the feasibility of implementation of one of
such programs named the Unplugged, which was implemented and shown to be effective in
schools of some Europian countries.
The study was conducted in two preparatory schools, Elias Language School for Boys
and Sainte Mary Language School for Girls in Helwan Educational District, Cairo
governorate and Cairo University Secondary Nursing School for Girls, faculty of medicine,
two arms community trial approach was adopted in which the intervention arm received an
abridged form of the basic curriculum of the unplugged program, conducted by one of the
private school staff or by the researcher in the nursing school while the control arm did not
receive any intervention, 248 pupils from the first and second preparatory grades in the
private schools and the first secondary grade in the nursing school were included in the study
according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria, they are allocated to the test arms using
cluster purposive sampling technique for the private schools as they had two classes in each
grade; the pupils in one class of each grade were assigned as intervention group while the
other class pupils were assigned as the control group, however, 2 stages systematic random
sampling was used for the nursing school using their alphabetical name list as there is no
class distinction.
The use of cigarettes, alcohol and illicit drugs, adolescents’ knowledge and opinions
about substances, as well as social and personal skills were investigated through an assisted
self- completed anonymous questionnaire administered by both the intervention and the
control groups at enrolment then it was repeated immediately after the intervention in a
summarized form focusing on the given lessons.
Moreover, data concerning monitoring and evaluation of the program was obtained
from the conductors, the researcher and the pupils through in depth interview with the
conductors and filling lessons monitoring forms and pupils’ comments forms prior to and
following the intervention.
Analysis included firstly the analysis of the quantitative study data which was obtained
from the questionnaire form and was based on comparison of the intervention to the control
group in each school separately as well as comparison of the pretest to the posttest for the
different groups. Secondly, the qualitative study components which were obtained from the
monitoring and evaluation forms. This part presented in three sections; a) pupils’ comments
before and after the intervention including their comments on the questionnaire, b)
conductors’ comments on the lessons and c) The overall researcher comments.
The study results showed improvement of the pupils’ beliefs on consequences of
cigarettes use among boys’ intervention only, however no change was found in the pupils’
beliefs on the consequences of alcohol use
Evidenced by the pupils argument and inquiries about many items in the questionnaire
form during the pretest, the religion aspect is an important issue in health education in the
Egyptian culture, besides, the questionnaire form was too long and incomprehensible;
besides, some items were improperly translated or adapted to the Egyptian context.
Therefore, it is believed to be the cause of the inconsistent results as in case of the ability of
the pupils of saying no or calling for help.
Improvement of the beliefs on consequences of cigarettes use among boys’
intervention group and the great desire among pupils and conductors to learn more provide
evidence for the potential success of the Unplugged program when fully implemented
provided that, the questionnaire will be reviewed carefully.