Padir Fatemeh, Farokhzadian Jamileh, Foroughameri Golnaz, Alidousti Katayoun
Nursing Research Center, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
Physiology Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran.
J Educ Health Promot. 2025 Apr 30;14:158. doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_1806_23. eCollection 2025.
Streets are homes for millions of homeless children and adolescents who are exposed to a lot of social harms such as substance abuse. Education to prevent social problems and familiarity with the consequences of these problems are necessary to improve the knowledge and attitudes of these children toward health. Due to the importance of drug prevention education for children, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of drug abuse prevention education on the knowledge and attitudes of street children.
The present quasi-experimental study was conducted on 54 street children under the Welfare Support Center in Kerman City in southeastern Iran. Children were randomly divided into two groups: intervention and control (27 participants in each group). Educational program to prevent drug abuse was conducted in three modules for a total of 120 minutes using a virtual electronic learning method (11 movies and animations) for the intervention group. One month after the program, the knowledge and attitude of both groups were re-evaluated by the Iranian Drug Abuse Assessment Questionnaire.
In the post-test stage, the knowledge scores of street children in the intervention group (28.14 ± 1.09) were significantly higher than those in the pre-test stage (21.11 ± 6.65) and control group (22.18 ± 1.27) ( = 0.001). In the post-test stage, the participants' attitude scores (toward substance abuse significantly changed in the intervention group (25.18 ± 2.86) compared to the pre-test (36.94 ± 3.76) and ( = 0.001), but these scores were not significantly different from the control group (25.71 ± 2.84) ( = 0.90).
Considering that drug abuse prevention education had a significant effect on improving the knowledge and attitude of street children, authorities of the street children protection centers and educators specializing in this field are recommended to hold such educational programs for street children. Furthermore, the street children protection centers should implement the required instructions and regulations to conduct these educational programs.
街道是数百万无家可归儿童和青少年的栖身之所，他们面临诸多社会危害，如药物滥用。开展预防社会问题的教育并让他们了解这些问题的后果，对于提高这些儿童的健康知识和态度十分必要。鉴于药物预防教育对儿童的重要性，本研究旨在调查药物滥用预防教育对街头儿童知识和态度的影响。
本项准实验研究在伊朗东南部克尔曼市福利支持中心的54名街头儿童中开展。儿童被随机分为两组：干预组和对照组（每组27名参与者）。采用虚拟电子学习方法（11部影片和动画），为干预组开展了共120分钟、分三个模块的药物滥用预防教育项目。项目结束一个月后，通过伊朗药物滥用评估问卷对两组儿童的知识和态度进行重新评估。
在测试后阶段，干预组街头儿童的知识得分（28.14±1.09）显著高于测试前阶段（21.11±6.65）和对照组（22.18±1.27）（P = 0.001）。在测试后阶段，干预组参与者对药物滥用的态度得分（25.18±2.86）与测试前（36.94±3.76）相比有显著变化（P = 0.001），但这些得分与对照组（25.71±2.84）无显著差异（P = 0.90）。
鉴于药物滥用预防教育对提高街头儿童的知识和态度有显著效果，建议街头儿童保护中心的管理部门和该领域的教育工作者为街头儿童举办此类教育项目。此外，街头儿童保护中心应执行开展这些教育项目所需的指示和规定。
