Proposed is a three-and-one-half year demonstration study to test, in a field experiment, the effectiveness of a combination of social skills training and the development of supportive social network linkages in reducing the drug use and criminal behavior of adolescents returning to the community from out-of-home placement in a juvenile correctional facility. A significant amount of effort has been focused on school-based programs for the primary prevention of adolescent substance-abuse. In contrast, less attention has focused on identification, early intervention, and treatment of adolescent substance-abusers. Institutionalized delinquents who will soon be returning to the community represent a group with whom drug-abuse early intervention and treatment efforts are particularly appropriate. Successful interventions with such youngsters should reduce the likelihood of a return to association with drug-using peers in the community and reduce further movement into drug-dependent or addictive behavior patterns, as well as reduce criminal activities. Successful interventions should also reduce later demands for drug treatment services from this population. The proposed field experiment builds on a theoretical synthesis of social learning and social control theories but is not a direct outgrowth of these efforts. After assessment for the use of illicit substances, one hundred and fifty (150) institutionalized drug using delinquents will be randomly assigned to experimental or control conditions. Experimental subjects will receive a three-phase intervention: 1) 13 weeks of a behavioral skills training class provided in the correctional facility; 2) an extension training phase focused specifically on skills needed to resist drug use and to cope with drug relapse, and on planning and preparing for community re-entry with the assistance of volunteer guides from the community; 3) a community-based treatment maintenance and social support aftercare phase. Program effects will be assessed through pre-post roleplay tests and six and twelve-month followup interviews.
| Jenson, J M; Wells, E A; Plotnick, R D et al. (1993) The effects of skills and intentions to use drugs on posttreatment drug use of adolescents. Am J Drug Alcohol Abuse 19:1-18 |
| Haggerty, K P; Wells, E A; Jenson, J M et al. (1989) Delinquents and drug use: a model program for community reintegration. Adolescence 24:439-56 |
