This proposal outlines a project for developing and testing an assessment instrument capable of accurately and reliably measuring the effectiveness of drug abuse education and prevention programs to decrease susceptibilities and increase resistance to substance abuse. The assessment instrument, based on an adapted use of the Associative Group Analysis (AGA) method, will focus on psycho-social dispositions broadly recognized as affecting substance abuse. The instrument will be designed for assessing teens and young adults. The proposed investigations will develop and test analytic procedures to serve the objectives of both individual and group based diagnosis. Phase I findings showed AGA's high level of analytic sensitivity in differentiating drug abusers and non- users in such dimensions as self reliance, social nexus, and other psycho-social dispositions reflecting susceptibility to drug use. In the proposed Phase II investigations additional dimensions of susceptibility will be examined (Task 1). Along the main dimensions identified, alternative diagnostic instruments will be developed and tested for their potential to identify and measure changes in susceptibility to substance abuse (Task 2). The multi-dimensional assessment instrument will be tested for its effectiveness and utility to measure the impact of select education and prevention programs expressed interest in participating in this project: this may be seen as a clear indication of the need to assess the effectiveness of the numerous competing programs and methods.
