Two years of support are being requested in this continuation application. Of the two additional years being requested, the first year is necessary to enable us to complete the work begun under our current NIDA grant, while the second year is being requested to permit the us to follow the 1981-1982 cohort of 7th graders into the 10th grade. Students from 10 junior high schools in the New York area were assigned to the following conditions: (1) teacher led intervention, (2) peer led intervention, (3) teacher led intervention plus booster sessions, (4) peer led intervention plus booster sessions, and (5) a pretest multiple posttest control. All of the groups were pretested by questionnaire and saliva samples were collected. Students in conditions 1 thru 4 participated in a 20 session substance abuse prevention program designed to promote the development of basic coping skills, with particular emphasis being placed on coping with pro-drug social influences. Students in conditions 3 and 4 participated in a 10 session booster curriculum in grade 8. During the requested 04 year these same students will participate in additional booster sessions in grade 9. All students will be posttested twice in the 04 year and once in the 05 year (at 6 month intervals). The results so far provide tentative support for the efficacy of this approach to substance abuse prevention, producing substantial reductions in new substance use behavior. The most dramatic results were for the peer led condition where new marijuana use was reduced by over 80%. Not only will the proposed continuation enable us to determine the extent to which preventive gains obtained thus far in this study can be maintained during the critical junior high school period, but also will provide much need information about the factors that can potentiate or attenuate adolescent substance use behavior. Thus, the overall study has both practical and theoretical importance. At its conclusion, this investigation holds the promise of providing a low cost substance abuse prevention program which will be able to substantially reduce adolescent tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse as well as the debilitating and costly health and social consequences of these health compromising behaviors.
| Botvin, G J; Baker, E; Filazzola, A D et al. (1990) A cognitive-behavioral approach to substance abuse prevention: one-year follow-up. Addict Behav 15:47-63 |
| Wills, T A; Baker, E; Botvin, G J (1989) Dimensions of assertiveness: differential relationships to substance use in early adolescence. J Consult Clin Psychol 57:473-8 |
