Social Validity of the Strengthening Families Program in Northeastern Brazil: the Voices of Parents, Adolescents, and Facilitators.

In 2013, Brazil's Ministry of Health adopted the Strengthening Families Program (SFP 10-14), developed internationally for preventing drug abuse by enhancing family bonds. The social validity of the objectives, procedures, and perceived impacts of the program were investigated for participants and facilitators in northeastern Brazil. Focus groups with parents/guardians (N = 199), adolescents (N = 111), and facilitators (N = 100) were implemented. Content analysis revealed that the program's objectives were considered socially relevant and that there was a positive short-term perceived impact on family cohesion, authoritative parenting style, adolescent life skills, and the facilitators' professional capacity. The parents/guardians and adolescents presented a positive perception of the appropriateness of the program's methodology, while facilitators indicated the need to adapt it to vulnerable families and improve its implementation conditions. Future studies may benefit from these findings when developing similarly viable and scalable interventions in low-resource settings. Brazilian Trial Register RBR-7q9xh5. Registered 5 August 2017, http://www.ensaiosclinicos.gov.br/rg/RBR-7q9xh5/.

Barriers and Facilitators in the Strengthening Families Program (SFP 10-14) Implementation Process in Northeast Brazil: A Retrospective Qualitative Study.

This study analyzed contextual barriers and facilitators in the implementation of Strengthening Families Program (SFP 10-14), Brazilian version, a family-based preventive program focused on the prevention of risk behaviors for adolescent health. SFP 10-14 was implemented between 2016 and 2017 for socioeconomically vulnerable families in four Northeast Brazilian states as a tool of the National Drug Policy. A retrospective qualitative study was carried out in which 26 implementation agents participated. Data from 16 individual interviews and two group interviews were analyzed through content analysis. The most recurrent barriers were the group facilitators' working conditions, weak municipal administration, precarious infrastructure, inadequate group facilitator training methodologies, low adherence of managers and professionals, and funding scarcity. The conditions highlighted as favorable to the implementation were proper intersectoral coordination, engagement of involved actors, awareness of public agency administrators, municipal management efficacy, and efficient family recruitment strategies. Favorable political contexts, engagement of implementation agents, and intersectoral implementation strategies were identified as central to the success of the implementation of SFP 10-14, especially in the adoption of the intervention, community mobilization, and intervention delivery stages. Further studies should combine contexts, mechanisms, and results for a broad understanding of the effectiveness of this intervention in the public sector.