About the SAHA project
SAHA - The Social And Health Assessment
Risk factors of school, social and health development of adolescents
Project „Risk factors of school, social and health development of adolescents“ was executed as a national part of the international project SAHA (The Social And Health Assessment). It is thematically wide approach based upon questionnaire research, which is interested in risk and protective factors of social and health development of school youth. Project SAHA is part of a Program on International Child & Adolescent Mental Health - PICAMH of Yale Child Study Center, which is interested in intercultural aspects of mental health and developmental psychopathology of children and adolescence. Except research activities, this programme also offers training in the region of mental health of children and adolescence. Main aim of the PICAMH project is to use scientific knowledge for creation of political and preventive programme.
SAHA study was executed in USA, Belgium, Russia, Surinam and Korea and it is in state of preparation or in progress in France, Iran, Mexico and Germany. In Czech republic the research was realised by the Institute of Psychology AV CR in Brno in cooperation with Child Psychiatric Clinic of the 2. Medical School of Charles University in Prague. The financial sources were contributed by Academy of Science of Czech republic by the Programme of Aimed Research and Development of AV CR (project no. S7025354), whose aim is to support and ease the application of research results into practice. The potential users are institutions who are interested in research and prevention of risk behaviour and socio-pathological events as well as the treatment of mental illnesses as a result of risk behaviour.
In Czech republic, the research was executed on a representative national sample of adolescents from city regions (capitol city Prague & 12 regional cities) in three age cohorts – 12 years (7. grade of Middle high school), 14 years (9. grade of Middle high school) and 16 years (2 grade of High school). Overall, the sample consisted of 4.980 students of middle high school and high school. The SAHA questionnaire was developed by workers of the Yale Child Study Center, which also studies beside the risk behaviour itself (antisocial behaviour, use of addictive drugs, risk sexual behaviour) a wide range of psychosocial factors, which can coincide with the risk behaviour such as its antecedents or consequences (family environment, school environment, bullying, quality of environment, being exposed to violence, psychiatric illnesses). Risk behaviour of adolescents is thus possible to describe not only from the view of quantity but also from the view of it psychological psychiatric context.
