School-based prevention: the best strategy for prevention of addiction (a gap between theory and practice)

Addiction is a worldwide problem. The costs of addiction are billions of dollars annually. Although therapeutic efforts for addicted people are prominently helpful, but it is clear that prevention is the best strategy for coping with addiction. The purpose of the article is explaining theoretical and practical foundations of school based prevention of addiction and in this way, making a connection between theory and practice. The method was analytical. Findings suggested that researchers believe regardless of biological, political, and economic factors, personal, peers and family factors have significant roles on developing addiction. Thus addiction has a developmental pattern and its prevention also must be looked from a developmental perspective. Children spend one third of their waking hours of living in schools and almost all of children enter to schools. The most important mission of schools is education and preparing of children for adulthood living. Schools also are the sites for connecting families, educational and health promoting systems. Therefore effective preventive interventions in this context definitely could be associated with long term favorite consequences. But, because of a gap between theory and practice, schools efforts in the field of prevention are ineffective. So current article indicates addiction has a developmental pattern that results from some antecedents that rooted in poor social and emotional skills, peers groups and family problems. These antecedents could be manipulated by evidence-based programs and consequently could lead to conditions for healthy and positive development of children.