engleski

Key people in community prevention of risk behaviors of youths in Croatia

Understanding and assessment of readiness and capability of community is a key factor in organizing the community to invest efforts in the prevention of risk behaviors in children and youth. The most common way to measure community readiness includes the research of key informants. This presentation will show results of the research of key people from 4 wider local areas in Istria, Croatia. Research has applied a modified version of the Community Key Leader Survey (Western Region Center for Application of Prevention Technology, USA) through the three time points (2004 - N = 151, 2007/2008 - N = 110, 2009 - N = 69). The aim was to consider the possibilities for mobilizing the community through the willingness of key people. Mentioned research is a part of the project Communities that care that is being conducted in Croatia, Region of Istria. Through the results of the 38 variables it is possible to follow 5 areas (results of factors analyses) of key people readiness: (1) general attitude about prevention in the community, (2) knowledge about prevention program and interest in improving that knowledge, (3) their organization's readiness for various forms of assistance for the prevention and cooperation with others, (4) the assessment of the investment efforts of their organizations and cooperation with others, (5) estimates of investment in various forms of assistance for prevention in the last 12 months. Paper will display descriptive data and the differences between key people readiness throughout the observed period (three points). Analysis of variance and robust discrimination analysis will also be conducted (particularly for gender, age, education, institutions of key people). Described results represent a contribution to further increase of the level of readiness, and in monitoring the state of readiness and mobilization of key people. Adequate readiness that can be estimated through the contribution of key people and through professional public/stakeholders as advocates of prevention and risk behaviors of youth will ensure greater effectiveness of preventive strategies implemented in local communities.

Community; prevention; key people

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