Over the past 7 years, we have developed, implemented, and tested an intervention program designed to prevent escalations in problem behavior and drug use among high-risk young adolescents. The Adolescent Transitions Program (ATP) consists of a variety of intervention materials for parents and teenagers. The research findings suggest two new directions for this renewal. We propose to follow up the current ATP sample of 221 high-risk youth at ages 18-20. The goal of this follow-up is to determine the long- term impact of the various ATP components, as well as to more carefully study the specific consequences of adolescent substance use on development during young adulthood. We also propose to conduct a prevention trial with multi-ethnic youth and their parents drawn from high-risk urban areas of Portland, Oregon. Based on our previous findings, the emphasis of this prevention trial is to help parents use ATP to promote parenting skills, improve their relationship with their teenagers, and reduce the risk for problem behavior and substance use. All sixth-grade students in 6 targeted middle schools (N=1200) will be randomly assigned, at the individual level, to experimental or control conditions. School-based assessments of adaptation to middle school will be conducted on all participating sixth- grade students. From the 1200 students, 600 will be identified as at-risk using a brief teacher screening measure; 500 will be expected to participate in the proposed research. Family-based assessments will then be conducted yearly (in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades) with the identified students. From the 500 at-risk youth, 100 who are high-risk will also be identified using a validated school-based screening measure. The high-risk students will be observed and assessed more frequently throughout the school year. Experimental families will be involved in a multistage, proactive approach to intervention referred to as multiple gating. The first stage involves an orientation videotape and parent self-assessment procedure. The second stage includes a Family Feedback session, using motivational interviewing techniques to support parent motivation to change. The third stage is a case management strategy, and qualifies as treatment and monitoring for those youth already displaying troublesome levels of problem behavior in middle school. Booster interventions will be offered to all parents in grades 8 and 9. The immediate impact of the intervention strategy will be tested on measures of engagement in parenting resources, motivation to change parenting practices, youth substance use and other problem behavior throughout middle school.
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