Media release
23.03.09

Kiwi parenting professor advises United Nations on building stronger families as a frontline in drug abuse prevention

Parenting expert Professor Matthew Sanders and his researchers have contributed to a new strategy from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) that says building family skills is a key to the prevention of drug abuse.

The recent UNODC guideline says supportive families are essential to raising healthy, well-adjusted children and to helping prevent later adolescent problems – including drug abuse.

The document advocating investment in family skills training programs, was developed in consultation with a team of leading researchers in family psychology and social policy from across the world, including New Zealander, Professor Matt Sanders who is a Professor of Parenting Studies and Family Psychology at the University of Auckland- and founder of the internationally acclaimed Triple P Positive Parenting Program.

UNODC says children are at greater risk of developing behaviour problems and mental disorders leading to substance abuse in families where there is a lack of trust and warmth and where discipline is not appropriate. Supporting parents in taking better care of their children has proven an effective strategy to prevent drug use, research shows.

Professor Sanders is widely acknowledged as a world leader in parenting and has recently established a research group at the University of Auckland. He is concurrently Director of the Parenting and Family Support Centre at the University of Queensland. Backed by over 30 years of research and clinical trials, his Triple P program has gained widespread acceptance and is now used in 17 countries.

“It is the evidence-based background of Triple P and the practical experience in tailoring programs to different needs that we were able to bring to the United Nations conference,” he says.

“ We know from our own research that family skills training programs produce better results in preventing risky behaviour like substance abuse, than do programs that only give parents information about substance abuse.”

Professor Sanders says family skills training programs need to be evidence- based and proven to work. They include strategies aimed at building positive family relationships; increasing family supervision and monitoring; communication family values and expectations.

http://www.unodc.org/youthnet/youthnet_action_family.html

ENDS

© Scoop Media