Les Clés pour l'adolescence, un programme de promotion de la ...

ehaviours: “it was interesting to see that they still care enough even when they’re in high school to
sort of ‘Oh I don’t want him to see’. ” (Teacher)
One area of risk pointed out by eight out of the nine students concerned hurtful language and gossip
about others, reflecting a lack of respect. “Well there’s people in our class that like really lash out
sometimes and they’ll say really nasty things. (...) Yeah but they don’t just yell at them, they say things
that are just really unneeded.” (Student 13)
It seems that young persons of the study age group (12-14 years old) have participated in activities that
involved a “physical” risk. For example, four out of the nine spoke of friends who found pleasure in
taking on reckless challenges. “One of my friends, for some reason, he enjoys climbing things, like
schools, and I have no idea why. He enjoys fire, I don’t know.” (Student 15)
Numerous factors have an effect on the reactions of youth confronting these risks and on their
decisions whether to give in to peer pressure. The three most tangible are the influence of parents,
that of peers, and of Skills for Adolescence itself. Parental influence is associated with a desire to
maintain harmony. “And so he decided to stay behind, and because he did that, one of the other boys
(...) stayed with him. (...) He knows our values (...), he has a good sense of right and wrong and I think he
tries to stick to that.” (Parent 12) The program helped these young participants to understand how
peer pressure can present itself and what can be done to counter such pressure, as expressed by a
student when asked if he thought some of the things they were talking about in Skills for Adolescence
had an effect on him. “ With peer pressure like I don’t know, that’s probably going to be later on in high
school or something but I think it’s just you know not to get dragged into that you know. To be aware of
it when you see it.” (Student 11) The preventive focus was undoubtedly greatly appreciated by the
parents interviewed. “I think it can do nothing but to help to educate them (...), so I think the more they
know, the more prepared they’ll be.” (Parent 12)
It can still be said that risks associated with alcohol, tobacco and drugs fall short of being a major
problem with the participants in this study. The majority of them (seven out of nine, group age 12-14
years old) have yet to be exposed to such consumption outside their family circle. Within this setting,
they have seen their parents and relatives drink socially and several have even been offered a little
taste of alcohol while on family holidays. The two other students who spoke of more risky behaviour
had heard “through the grapevine” about a friend who smoked marijuana. (Students 7 and 9) Most of
the students have a very negative attitude towards smoking and drug use, underscoring how reckless
and unhealthy it is to indulge. “No thanks, that’s gross, I’ll die.” (Student 11) All the same, they
appear to acknowledge the presence of alcohol on the horizon and admit they may well become social
drinkers by the end of high school.
Emerging results
The content analysis highlighted emerging results from the interviews. Specifically, the respondents
shared their opinion with regard to the strength of the program and some constraints of
implementation as described in the next pages.
Program strengths
According to the teacher, Skills for Adolescence paved the way for a discussion of themes related to
adolescence and equipped the participants with a descriptive vocabulary with which to describe their