The proposed research will focus on rural disadvantaged Appalachian 12- to 14-year-old adolescents, from ten cooperating school districts), who are at risk for substance abuse due to risk factors and a lack of protective factors in such communities. The focus will be comparison of two approaches to Life Skills Training (LST), including (1) the standard classroom approach as previously found to affect adolescent substance use, with an added parental component; and (2) an Infusion Model of LST, also with the added parental component. We will specifically investigate, in a previously understudied population, the efficacy of social learning theory applied through LST, while adding school climate theory, to determine the effectiveness of the extended Infusion Model for prevention. The integration of regular 7th-grade curricular content areas within a facilitative classroom climate with the five LST program components is the basis of the Infusion Model of prevention. A corollary parent program will allow for a more comprehensive model of youth skills development in order to maximize early adolescent protective strengths. We hypothesize that Infused-Life Skills Training (I-LST) and LST will impact attitudes, coping skills, and decision making as mediating variables more than the control group. This impact on mediating variables will in turn delay the onset of use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and inhalants as dependent variables for the three years of data collection. We also hypothesize that the I-LST will be better than-LST and the control group, and LST will be better than the control group in affecting mediating and dependent variables. Finally, we hypothesize that the I-LST will have better acceptance among the teachers and they will continue to implement the program, and at higher levels of fidelity, than the LST teachers.
| Henry, Kimberly L; Smith, Edward A; Caldwell, Linda L (2007) Deterioration of academic achievement and marijuana use onset among rural adolescents. Health Educ Res 22:372-84 |
| Henry, Kimberly L; Smith, Edward A; Hopkins, Abigail M (2002) The effect of active parental consent on the ability to generalize the results of an alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention trial to rural adolescents. Eval Rev 26:645-55 |
