Low tech IY wins in Jamaica

Stripped of its dependence on video technology and other resources to be found in most US and UK schools, the Incredible Years prevention program has shown that with expert modification it can still be effective even in difficult social conditions.

Dyed in the wool prevention scientists will tell you that for a program to be truly valuable it must have the potential to be effective anywhere and in any conditions ? even in a country sometimes portrayed as being among the most dangerous in the world.

The location here in question is Jamaica. In 2005 more than 1,600 people were murdered on the island and there is widespread concern about violence in schools. The program under scrutiny is the normally resource-intensive Incredible Years, successful in developed Western conditions and a key component of a recently-announced public health initiative in Ireland.

The Jamaican experiment was led by Helen Baker-Henningham of the University of West Indies against the troubling background of a survey of more than 3,000 Jamaican adolescents conducted in 2000 by colleagues Kola Soyibo and Michael Lee.

Read the article (Prevention in Action website)