(FROM THE APPLICATION): Young women in their childbearing years not only endanger themselves through substance use but potentially endanger their children. Those who use alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs nearly always initiate use when young and increase use prior to leaving school. To prevent drug use by young women, particularly drug use during pregnancy, it is important to start early to establish negative attitudes toward use of drugs; establish strong social sanctions against drug use, particularly during pregnancy; prevent initiation; and encourage quitting. Media can be used to change attitudes and behaviors, but media campaigns need clear messages, high exposure, and strong identification. This project will create, within each of four communities, drug prevention teams consisting of young women in their sophomore and junior years of high school. These teams provide a local point of view and, at the end of the project, will also yield a local cadre concerned about drug use and aware of how the media can assist in combating such use. The team will be trained to localize a media prevention campaign. The campaign will use pretested materials and messages, and the team will adapt those materials using its knowledge of local conditions and results from a local substance use survey. The effectiveness of each team will be assessed by evaluating the materials it produces; the prevention activities it implements; and, through a substance use survey, the perceived level of exposure to campaign materials and changes in attitudes toward substance use by young females and substance use during pregnancy.
