Take it personal! Development and modelling study of an indicated prevention programme for substance use in adolescents and young adults with mild intellectual disabilities and borderline intellectual functioning

BACKGROUND: This paper describes the theory and development of Take it personal! an indicated prevention programme aimed at reducing substance use in individuals with mild intellectual disabilities and borderline intellectual functioning. METHOD: The process of the development of Take it personal! followed the steps of the Intervention Mapping protocol. Take it personal! is based on the theory that personality traits are an important construct to understand substance use (14–30 years old). A small modelling study was conducted with six adolescents to examine the feasibility, user‐friendliness and potential effectiveness of the intervention. RESULTS: The results showed that the intervention has good feasibility and user‐friendliness. Post‐intervention evaluation of frequency, binge drinking and problematic use indicated that use was lower than at pre‐intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Take it Personal! can be a promising preventive intervention designed to reduce substance use in individuals in this target group. A larger scale study is needed to draw further conclusions.