Perceptions of school-based alcohol education by educational and health stakeholders: “Education as usual” compared to a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

The present study sought the views of stakeholders, including school leaders and statutory stakeholders, on the content and evaluation of a classroom-based alcohol education intervention in a Randomised Controlled Trial in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Purposive sampling was used to ensure that schools from both the Intervention and Control groups were equally represented, and to ensure that similar numbers and grades of stakeholders in both countries were represented. A total of 27 participants (Male = 13 (48%); Female = 14 (52%)) engaged in a semi-structured interview prior to the end of the trial. Results suggest that: schools generally design their own alcohol education programmes; that intervention schools thought highly of the particular intervention tested; and that both groups engaged meaningfully in the research. The threshold for acceptance of the intervention was lower than the successful outcome of the trial. More pragmatic considerations were considered equally important. From the point of view of the statutory stakeholders, funding of an intervention depends on a successful outcome evaluation, but that “success” may mean a positive impact on at-risk groups, and not necessarily at a universal level. School-based participants also focussed on ease of delivery and user friendliness as key determinants of programme utilisation.

Keywords:

• Randomised controlled trial
• stakeholders
• alcohol
• school context

Acknowledgments

This paper presents independent research funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

This research was conducted as part of the STAMPP trial which is funded by the National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research (NIHR PHR) Programme (project grant number 10/3002/09).