Pre-conference workshops – 15th October 2014

Please click here for more information. Workshops will run concurrently from 0930-1600. Registration from 0900.

1. Optimising behavioural interventions – the MOST model and understanding effective prevention programme components. Convened by Prof Linda Collins and Prof Fabrizio Faggiano. Room: Aula 1

2. Economic analysis and the cost effectiveness of prevention – Introduction to Economic Evaluation of Health Care Interventions. Convened by Dr Claire McKenna and Ms Rita Faria. Room: Aula 2

A complimentary lunch and coffee breaks will be provided to workshop delegates.

Conference Day 1 – 16th October 2014

EUSPR Members’ Meeting

09:30 – 10:30 Board Elections

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break and networking

11:00 – 12:15 Members Meeting

12.30 – 13.00 Conference Registration (for Members’ Meeting attendees only)

13:00 – 13:45 Complimentary lunch for Members’ Meeting attendees only.

Conference start

13:00 – 14:00 Registration

14:00 – 15:00 Opening and salutations

• Hble. Sr. Martí Sansaloni (Conseller de Salut del Govern de les Illes Balears, ES)
• Sr. Antoni Aguiló (Vicerector de Campus, Cooperació i Universitat Saludable, UIB, ES)
• Sra. Sonia Moncada (Jefa del Área de Prevención de la Delegación del Gobierno para el Plan Nacional sobre Drogas, ES)
• Prof Harry Sumnall (EUSPR Board President)
• Dr Amador Calafat (President of IREFREA, ES)

15:00 – 16:30 Plenary Session 1
Chair: Rosaria Galanti; Room: Main hall

1.1 The economic and social value of prevention in policy development – Professor Kevin Fenton (Public Health England, UK)

1.2 The economics of prevention – Dr Franco Sassi (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, FR)

16:30 – 17:30 Parallel Session 1 and complimentary drinks reception

Structured poster session and complimentary drinks reception.

Room: Exhibition hall

17:30 – 18:15 Special session 1

WSIPP/Investing in Children economic model – Nick Axford; Stephanie Lee; Gretchen Bjornstad

Room: Main hall

Conference Day 2 – 17th October 2014

09:30 – 10:30 Scientific Round Table: Strategies to compare the costs and benefits of prevention? 

Main Speaker: Stephanie Lee (Washington State Institute for Public Policy, USA) and expert responses

Chair: Fabrizio Faggiano; Room: Main hall

10:30 – 11:00 Coffee break and networking

11:00 – 12:45 Parallel Sessions 2

Session 2.1: The Strengthening Families Program in the USA and EU (Room: Main hall)
Session 2.2: Cost effectiveness and economic decision making (Room: Aula 1)
Session 2.3: Methodological challenges in prevention research (Room: Aula 2)

12.45 – 14:15 Lunch.

14:15 – 16:00 Parallel Sessions 3: Society and community

Session 3.1: Families and education in prevention (Room: Main hall)
Session 3.2: Exploring Universal and Family prevention (Room: Aula 1)
Session 3.3: Understanding and responding to risk behaviours (Room: Aula 2)

16:00 – 16:30 Coffee break and networking

16:30 – 17:15 Plenary Session 2

2.1 The role of economic interests in the development of European prevention policy – Professor Peter Anderson (Maastricht University, ND)

Chair: Gregor Burkhart; Room: Main hall

17:15 – 18:15 Special session 2

Communities that Care (CTC) in Europe. Community Diagnosis and Prevention Programmes – Frederick Groeger-Roth; Harrie Jonkman; Nick Axford

Room: Main hall

20.30 Conference dinner at Restaurant Pesquero (Must be booked separately, €35, not included in conference fee). Please click here for more information.

Conference Day 3 – 18th October

10:00 – 11:45 Parallel Sessions 4

Session 4.1: Open theme – health and wellbeing interventions (Room: Main hall)
Session 4.2: Supporting the use of prevention evidence in practice and policy making (Room: Aula 1)
Session 4.3: Post graduate and early career parallel session (Room: Aula 2)

11:45 – 12:15 Coffee break and networking

12:15 – 13:00 Plenary Session 3

3.1 Acceptability of Population Level Interventions – Professor Theresa Marteau (University of Cambridge, UK)

Chair: David Foxcroft; Room: Main hall

13:00 – 13:20 Poster Prize Giving, Welcome to the new EUSPR President, & Conference Close

Prof Harry Sumnall (EUSPR President, and Liverpool John Moores University, UK); Professor David Foxcroft (EUSPR President Elect, and Oxford Brookes University, UK)

The transportability of evidence-based programmes: conceptual issues and empirical examples

Dr Nick Axford, Dr Vashti Berry, Prof Frances Gardner

Most rigorous trials of evidence-based programmes are undertaken in a few high-income countries – mostly the US. Policy makers across Europe are increasingly interested in importing such programmes. This is unsurprising: arguably it is not feasible for each country to (re-)invent its own programmes. However, there have been several failures to replicate across countries. Programmes that worked in the US have not been as effective in Europe. Why is this, and what can be done about it?

This symposium involves four papers. The first outlines the main issues, drawing on a systematic review of the transportability of evidence-based parenting interventions for reducing child problem behaviour. It examines various factors that could potentially affect transportability, including: the nature/quality of the intervention; the fidelity of implementation; the degree of programme developer involvement; the design/execution of the study; the nature of the comparison group; cultural congruence; and the policy/practice context.

The next two papers examine these issues in relation to discrete programmes. One looks at a case of successful transportability, namely the implementation and evaluation by randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the Incredible Years programme in Wales and Birmingham. The other concerns an example of apparent unsuccessful transportability, namely the implementation and RCT evaluation of the PATHS social-emotional learning programme in Birmingham.

The final paper considers the ongoing implementation and RCT evaluation of the Finnish KiVa bullying prevention programme in Wales, focusing on the steps taken to learn from previous examples – like those discussed above – and increase the likelihood of successful transportability.

Testing Mediating Mechanisms and Moderating Factors in Prevention Work

Aim:

In recent decades, there have been major advances in the design of studies to evaluate efficacy and effectiveness of preventive interventions.  These advancements contributed to the quality of evaluation studies and the confidence in the findings.  Most evaluation studies still focus only one of the most fundamental questions: Is the program effective? Relatively few research focus on other critical questions such as why, how, and when is a prevention program effective? Nevertheless, addressing these questions often requires complex statistical modeling, and some of these techniques are not commonly available to research community yet.

The goal of this workshop is introducing the new conceptual developments and statistical techniques that can be applied to testing mediating mechanisms and moderating factors of program effect.  The audience will be provided with conceptual arguments about mediation and moderation effects and recent developments in modeling mediating mechanisms and moderating factors in prevention research.

Learning the theoretical underpinnings and application of these techniques may provide researcher with opportunities to address intriguing research questions such as: How does a program influence targeted outcomes? Does the program work consistent with the program theory? Which components of the program do account for the program effect? What factors do boost or hinder effectiveness of programs? Do the effect of a program vary across different socioeconomic conditions? Are the processes that explain the program effect generalizable across different groups? Answering these questions is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the prevention programs. This understanding may also contribute to translation of research findings into practice. For example, understanding the effect of program components may guide decisions regarding program modification.  Similarly, understanding the factors that may influence program outcomes may guide decisions regarding program adoption.

Outline:

09:30 – 10:00    Introduction – Fabrizio Faggiano

10:00 – 11:00    Conceptual overview of mediation, moderation, moderated mediation

11:00 – 11:15    Break

11:15 – 13:00    New methods for testing mediating processes

13:00 – 14:00    Lunch

14:00 – 15:15    Examples

Example 1: Which components of the UNPLUGGED  explain reductions in youth risk outcomes? (An example of multiple-mediator model)

Example 2: Does the Örebro Prevention Program work consistent with the program theory? (An example using Latent Growth Curve Modeling)

15:15 – 15:30    Break

15:30 – 16:00    Group group exercise

Aim: Giving participants an opportunity to apply the information they were presented in the workshop in evaluating the design and statistical analyses of published work.

Procedure: The participants will be given 2 published studies, and a number of questions regarding how these studies modeled and tested program effect.

16:00 – 16:30    Reflections on the “group exercise”

16:30 – 17:00    General discussion, questions, reflections

Instructor: Metin Özdemir, Ph.D.

Metin Özdemir  received his doctoral degree in Community and Applied Social Psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in 2009.  He is currently affiliated with the Center for Developmental Research, Örebro University (Sweden), where he coordinates a Master’s program in prevention science. His research focuses on youth adjustment in normative populations and testing effectiveness of preventive interventions for youths and families. He has been teaching courses on prevention science theory and methods including advanced level courses on testing program effectiveness.

Co-instructor: Fabrizia Giannotta, Ph.D.

Fabrizia Giannotta has received her doctoral degree in Social and Developmental Psychology at University of Torino (Italy). She is currently affiliated with the Center for Developmental Research, Örebro University (Sweden), where she holds a lecturer position. Her research interests focus on the study of protective and risk factors in adolescence and the cross cultural adaptation of prevention programs to combat risk behaviors in adolescence.  She has been teaching courses on program development and evaluation and on research methods to evaluate programs effectiveness, in the Master program in prevention science at Örebro University.

“Prevention of problematic and addictive use of screen media – a call for action”

The first part of the workshop will give a comprehensive and critical introduction into the topic and give positive examples from new German and Spanish interventions.

• Paula Bleckmann, Hanover, Germany “Current state of media effects research – first evidence of its neglect in preventive practise due to conflict of interest”
• Michael Seidel; Bonn, Germany:– “Supporting parents to limit children´s problematic media use. Results and lessons learned from MEDIA PROTECT”
• Daniel Lloret Irles, Spain: “Teens and their parents as targets in an intervention to reduce problematic use of screen media”

The second half of the workshop will serve as discussion forum and possible kickoff meeting for a new EUSPR working group “eHealth/screen-related prevention” with three possible aims:

First, to serve as a starting point for a network of researchers and practitioners based on a widened and balanced understanding of “eHealth”: working to reduce problematic use of screen media and using new media for health promotion purposes where appropriate;

Second, to avoid the errors made in the past of prevention science, e.g. trusting economic stakeholders (in this case: media industry) to develop concepts for prevention;

Third, to discuss possibilities fo a joint European intervention design for prevention of problematic use of screen media that could be proposed to future EU funding streams.

Travel

Paris is easily accessible from all over the world. As travel options are so numerous we recommend that you visit the official Paris tourism website for specific guidance. The conference is located at Le Centquatre, 5 Rue Curial, 75019 Paris, France. (MAP) The nearest Metro stop is Stalingrad (19th Arr.)

Hotels

Please note that as we are expecting a wide variety of delegates with different budgets and accomodation expectations we do not make any specific recommendations for hotels. We therefore recommend that you use a website such as TripAdvisor to research and select your hotel.

However, our colleagues at Formule Magique (French conference organizing company) have provided us with a list of some hotels at different price ranges near to the conference venue. These are primarily hostels, and 2* to 3* hotels. Please click here to view the list (PDF). The list also provides local transport directions between the hotel and the conference venue.