The Differential Preliminary Belief in Prevention: The Case of Adolescents’ Problem Behaviors

Current literature on the barriers to the implementation of prevention efforts highlights circumstantial organizational and personal factors. However, the possibility that there is a more profound individual difference in people’s preliminary Belief in the Ability to Prevent (BIP; Israelashvili, 2018) has not yet been investigated. To explore this possibility, two sequential studies were performed on the case of adolescents’ problem behaviors. Study 1 (N = 200) examined the utility of a new measurement of BIP. Respondents were adolescents and adults (parents and teachers), living in northern Israel, who evaluated each of the vignettes in terms of the possibility of preventing the emerging adolescent’s problem behavior. Results from Study 1 supplied preliminary support for this research tool’s structure and validity, and demonstrated that there is variance in BIP scores and that past exposure to problem behaviors, especially suicidal behavior, is associated with lower BIP scores. Assuming that BIP emerges on the basis of cultural background and life experiences, Study 2 (N = 995) explored possible sex, age, and cultural differences and their accumulating contribution to explaining the variance in BIP. Based on MANCOVA analyses, the results from Study 2 support the hypothesized background differences and show that at-risk adolescents have lower levels of BIP. An additional tree analysis suggests that a person’s perception regarding the possibility of preventing more common problem behaviors, rather than extreme behaviors, serves as the basis upon which BIP is established. It is suggested that BIP is an additional possible variable that is related to people’s reluctance to collaborate with, and respond to, prevention efforts. Implications for implementation science are suggested.