SEYLE

Saving and Empowering Young Lives in Europe: Promote health through prevention of risk-taking and self-destructive behaviors

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'Promoting healthy behaviors is multi-faceted and no health is possible without mental health. The ultimate outcome of unhealthy and risk-taking behaviors is suicide. Risk-taking and suicidal behavior can be prevented. A pilot intervention study will be implemented to assess the effects of three different health promoting / suicide prevention programs in 11000 students across 11 European countries: 1. TeenScreen - screening by professionals of at-risk students through a questionnaire. 2. QPR (Question, Persuade & Refer) – a gatekeepers’ program, training all adult staff at schools (teachers, counselors, nurses etc.) and parents on how to recognize & refer a student at-risk of suicide or suffering from mental illness to mental-health help resources; 3. A general health promotion program targeting students’ awareness on healthy/unhealthy behaviors; Objectives of the research program are: I. Gather information on health and well-being in adolescents - Produce an epidemiological database for adolescents in Europe containing data on student's healthy and at-risk lifestyles and their relation with health measured by well-being, depression and suicidality. II. Perform interventions in adolescents leading to better health trough decreased risk-taking and suicidal behaviors III. Evaluate outcomes of interventions in adolescents from a multidisciplinary perspective including social, psychological and economical aspects IV. Recommend an effective trans-cultural model for promoting health for adolescents in Europe -Provide information for evidence-based prevention programs for adolescents in culturally diverse populations -Increase awareness and knowledge in policy makers, professionals and the public. -Disseminate results through a public website, media, health promotion conferences and through events focused on adolescents such as pop concerts or sport events.'

Introduzione (Teaser)

Mental health underpins all aspects of well-being. Therefore a comprehensive European project is currently under way to prevent risk-taking behaviour and suicide in an especially vulnerable group: adolescents.

Descrizione progetto (Article)

Funded partly by the EU, the SEYLE project is conducting an intervention study on adolescent behaviour and life styles. The project assesses the effects of three preventive/intervention programmes in a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) design.

A consortium of 11 European countries plus Israel has recruited more than 12 000 adolescents from a random sample of European high schools. The aim is to evaluate the outcomes of the preventive programmes and to recommend effective models for promoting positive adolescent health and behavior. The coordination centre is based in Sweden.

SEYLE researchers have produced an epidemiological database, containing information on both adolescent healthy and at-risk behaviours. Incidence of self-harm behavior, recklessness, substance and alcohol use and violence, for example, are being measured and will be compared with well-being and healthy lifestyles. Adolescent attitudes to healthy and risk-taking behaviours will also be assessed.

Three active interventions are being carried out in each country. These include gatekeeper training that instructs teachers about how to recognise students in need and where to find help; awareness training for adolescents; and screening for at-risk adolescents by health professionals.

Interventions were developed by a team of experts in the fields of child psychiatry, epidemiology, psychology, anthropology and suicidology. Thus far baseline data has been collected for 12395 adolescents. Three-month and 12-month follow-up data has been collected and is currently undergoing quality control. All SEYLE centers obtained the required ethical approval for the study.

All SEYLE assessment and intervention materials were originally developed in English and then translated (forward and backwards) into nine languages. The translated versions were subsequently evaluated for cultural appropriateness and revised as needed, in order to obtain comparable cross-national data.

Analysis of the data so far suggests that risky behaviour among European adolescents is higher than previously estimated. The results of SEYLE are expected to generate a much-needed improvement in our understanding of unhealthy adolescent behaviour and to provide information about cost-effective preventive interventions.