A First Local Family Intervention Programme for Mitigating the Risks of Online Drug Trafficking: A Pilot Study

By:

Aim: This study aims to examine the practicability and efficacy of a newly developed local family intervention programme that attempts to mitigate the risks of online drug trafficking among adolescents. Methods: Thirty secondary school adolescents (all in Form Three) parents of the adolescents (n=24) participated in a two-day and one-night programme. In the programme, both parents and adolescents received the same five modules which are knowledge about drugs, self, family, social media and the internet, and law. Participants completed two sets of questionnaires developed to assess participants’ level of understanding of online drug trafficking before and after attending the programme. Participants’ level of satisfaction toward the programme was also assessed. Key findings: (1) Overall understanding of both parents and adolescents increased after attending the programme. (2) Analysis by modules showed that only the family module demonstrated significant difference in understanding after the programme for the parents. Conversely, for adolescents, two modules which are self and social media and the internet demonstrated significant increase in understanding after the intervention. (3) Both parents and adolescents reported high satisfaction toward the programme. Practical Implications: The modules can be used to both parents and adolescents to mitigate risks of online drug trafficking and facilitators ought to be trained in order to generate effective intervention outcomes.