Search

Background: Universal school-based prevention programs for alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use are typically designed for all students within a particular school setting. However, it is unclear whether such broad-based programs are effective for youth at high risk for substance use initiation., Method: The effectiveness of a universal drug abuse preventive intervention was examined among youth from 29 inner-city middle schools participating in a randomized, controlled prevention trial. A subsample of youth (21% of full sample) was identified as being at high risk for substance use initiation based on exposure to substance-using peers and poor academic performance in school. The prevention program taught drug refusal skills, antidrug norms, personal self-management skills, and general social skills., Results: Findings indicated that youth at high risk who received the program (n = 426) reported less smoking, drinking, inhalant use, and polydrug use at the one-year follow-up assessment compared to youth at high risk in the control condition that did not receive the intervention (n = 332). Results indicate that a universal drug abuse prevention program is effective for minority, economically disadvantaged, inner-city youth who are at higher than average risk for substance use initiation., Conclusions: Findings suggest that universal prevention programs can be effective for a range of youth along a continuum of risk.

Background: Based on current trends, smoking will remain a major public health problem in the 21st century. Effective smoking prevention approaches offer the best hope for decreasing the rise in adolescent smoking rates. Competence enhancement approaches to smoking prevention are among the most successful. Yet, there is not a full understanding of how effective prevention approaches work. This study tests whether a deficiency in competence (poor decision-making skills and low personal efficacy) is linked to acquiring beliefs in the perceived benefits of smoking and whether these perceived benefits are then related to subsequent smoking., Methods: A sample of 1459 students attending 22 middle and junior high schools in New York City participated. Students completed surveys at baseline, 1-year follow-up and 2-year follow-up during a regular class period. They self-reported smoking, decision-making skills, personal efficacy and beliefs in the perceived benefits of smoking., Results: The tested structural equation model had a good fit and was parsimonious and consistent with the theory underlying the competence approach to smoking prevention., Conclusions: This research highlights the importance of addressing decision-making skills, personal efficacy, and beliefs in the social benefits of smoking within adolescent smoking prevention programs., (Copyright 2000 American Health Foundation and Academic Press.)

Background: Hispanic populations have been shown to be at high risk for smoking. The complex psychological process of adaptation to a different culture (acculturation) has been linked to smoking among Hispanic adults and adolescents. Although a positive association between acculturation and smoking appears to depend on gender among adults, research with Hispanic adolescents has ignored the moderating effect of gender., Methods: Students in 22 New York City schools completed self-report questionnaires and provided carbon monoxide breath samples at two annual assessments. Sixth and seventh graders who identified themselves as Hispanics participated in the study (N = 1,295 at baseline; N = 1,034 at 1-year follow-up). The questionnaire included items related to smoking, acculturation, and demographic characteristics., Results: Analyses were conducted to determine the effects of linguistic acculturation and gender on smoking. Girls smoked more frequently than boys at both time points. Being more acculturated was also associated with more smoking at the two survey assessments. As predicted, adolescent smoking depended on both gender and linguistic acculturation. For girls, but not boys, the highly acculturated adolescents smoked more frequently than either the bilingual or the less acculturated., Conclusions: Based on these findings, smoking prevention programs designed for Hispanic youth may benefit from an emphasis on Hispanic culture.

Effective in-service teacher training must be regarded as a critical aspect of the implementation of any innovative school-based smoking prevention curriculum. Inadequate training or lack of training often leads to implementation failure, which, in turn, may be interpreted as program failure. To be effective, teacher training must include a presentation of the theory underlying the program, a demonstration of the skills to be learned, an opportunity to practice the new skills being taught, feedback, and coaching for application. Training activities must include a training workshop and ongoing consultation during the teacher's first experience with classroom implementation. Adequate preparation before the beginning of training will help to ensure that the necessary components are combined in a meaningful training sequence.