Abstract
Aims
To assess the effectiveness of Take it personal!, a prevention programme for individuals with mild intellectual disabilities and borderline intellectual functioning (MID‐BIF) and substance use (SU). The prevention programme aims to reduce SU (alcohol, cannabis, and illicit drugs) among experimental to problematic substance users.
Design
A quasi‐experimental design with two arms and a 3‐month follow‐up.
Setting
Adolescents were recruited from 14 treatment centres in the Netherlands specialised in offering intra‐ and extramural care for people with MID‐BIF and behavioural problems.
Participants
Data were collected from 66 individuals with MID‐BIF assigned either to the intervention condition (n =34) or to the control condition (n =32).
Interventions
Take it personal! was designed to target four personality traits: sensation seeking, impulsive behaviour, anxiety sensitivity, and negative thinking. For each of these profiles, interventions were developed that were structurally the same but contained different personality‐specific materials, games, and exercises. The control group received care as usual.
Measurements
Primary outcomes at 3‐month follow‐up were frequency of SU, severity of SU and binge drinking.
Findings
Results showed intervention effects for SU frequency (F(1, 50.43) = 9.27, p = 0.004) and binge drinking (F(1, 48.02) = 8.63, p = 0.005), but not for severity of SU (F(1, 42.09) = 2.20, p = 0.145).
Conclusions
A prevention programme to reduce substance use among experimental to problematic users with mild intellectual disabilities and borderline intellectual functioning helped participants decrease substance use frequency and binge drinking.