Abuse behaviour prevention in physical education context: Moved Unplugged, an Italian experience of comprehensive social influence approach adaptation

Over the last decades scientific evidence demonstrates that programs combining life skills and normative education with knowledge acquisition, designated as comprehensive social influence programs, work effectively in the young abuse behaviours prevention. Physical Education (PE) is an appropriate context to learn intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, since it makes possible the transfer across physical, cognitive, and psychosocial domains, through demonstration and practice. Furthermore, PE teachers may have a special role in doping prevention. The European Drug Addiction Prevention project (EUDAP) is a multi-centre trial conducted in seven European countries, that implemented and evaluated “Unplugged”, a school based prevention programme structured in units to be delivered by class teachers to a target of 12-14 years old students. In one centre in Italy the basic curriculum, has been integrated and adapted in a new version, named “Moved Unplugged” targeted for PE lessons, by means of an experiment conducted in 10 schools in 2007. On the basis of teacher structured evaluation, four new units have been added to the programme focusing on goal setting for motorial and health skills, doping knowledge and appreciating personal differences. In addition, original Unplugged’s units have been integrated with gym activities on relational skills, effective communication of emotions, problem solving, decision making, and creative thinking. Our research produced an original well-accepted instrument for young abuse prevention in the PE setting.