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We assessed the effectiveness of a culturally grounded, multimedia, sexual risk reduction intervention called Circle of Life (mCOL), designed to increase knowledge and self-efficacy among preteen American Indians and Alaska Natives. Partnering with Native Boys and Girls Clubs in 15 communities across six Northern Plains reservations, we conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial among 10- to 12-year-olds (n = 167; mean age = 11.2). Club units were randomly assigned to mCOL (n = 8) or the attention-control program, After-School Science Plus (AS+; n = 7). Compared with the AS+ group, mCOL youth scored significantly higher on HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) knowledge questions at both follow-ups; self-efficacy to avoid peer pressure and self-efficacy to avoid sex were significantly higher at posttest; self-perceived volition was significantly higher at 9-month follow-up; and no differences were found for behavioral precursors to sex. mCOL had modest effects on precursors to sexual behavior, which may lead to less risky sexual behavior in later years.

Objectives: Girls' rates of drug use have met up with and, in some instances, surpassed boys' rates. Although girls and boys share risk and protective factors associated with drug use, girls also have gender-specific risks. Interventions to prevent girls' drug use must be tailored to address the dynamics of female adolescence. Methods: One such intervention, called RealTeen, is a 9-session, web-based drug abuse prevention program designed to address such gender-specific risk factors associated with young girls' drug use as depressed mood, low self-esteem, and high levels of perceived stress as well as general drug use risk factors of peer and social influences. Web-based delivery enables girls to interact with the program at their own pace and in a location of their choosing. Implications: This article describes the processes and challenges associated with developing and programming a gender-specific, web-based intervention to prevent drug use among adolescent girls.

Intervention research is essential to help Hispanic American adolescents avoid drug use. This article describes an intervention research program aimed at preventing drug use among these youths. Grounded in salient epidemiological data, the program is informed by bicultural competence, social learning, and motivational interviewing theories. The program, called Vamos, is aimed at the risk and protective factors as well as the cultural prerogatives that demark the adolescent years of Hispanic American youths. Innovative in its approach, the program is delivered through a smartphone application (app). By interacting with engaging content presented via the app, youths can acquire the cognitive-behavioral skills necessary to avoid risky situations, urges, and pressures associated with early drug use. The intervention development process is presented in detail, and an evaluation plan to determine the program's efficacy is outlined. Lessons for practice and intervention programming are discussed.

Peer and parent influences on alcohol use and related risky behaviors were examined in a sample of late-adolescent (M = 17.3 years; SD = 1.11 years) urban youths. Participants (N = 400) completed an online measure assessing peer influences of alcohol use and alcohol offers and also parental influences of rules against alcohol use and perceived levels of emotional family support, relative to youths' alcohol use, binge drinking, alcohol-related consequences, and intentions to drink. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that increased peer alcohol use and alcohol offers were associated with youths' increased drinking, binge drinking, alcohol-related consequences, and intentions to drink. Controlling for peer influences, parental rules against alcohol use were associated with decreased drinking, binge drinking, and intentions to drink; increased levels of family support were associated with decreased alcohol-related consequences and intentions to drink. These findings suggest that parental influences, albeit small relative to peer influences, are associated with fewer instances of monthly alcohol use and related risky behaviors among late-adolescent urban youths.

Objective: This study was undertaken to evaluate the efficacy of a skills-based CD-ROM intervention, with and without a parent component, to reduce alcohol use among urban youth at 6-year follow-up. Method: At recruitment, 513 youths with a mean age of 10.8 years were randomly assigned to one of three study arms: youth CD-ROM intervention plus parent component, youth CD-ROM intervention only, or control. All youths completed pretest, posttest, and annual follow-up measures. Youths and parents in their respective arms received the initial intervention program between pretest and posttest measures and received booster interventions between each follow-up measure. Results: With 80% sample retention at 6-year follow-up, youths in both intervention arms reported less past-month alcohol and cigarette use and fewer instances of heavy drinking and negative alcohol-related consequences. Despite having similar numbers of drinking peers as youths in the control arm, youths in both intervention arms reported greater alcohol-refusal skills. Only past-month cigarette use differed between the two intervention arms, with youths in the intervention-plus-parent-component arm smoking less than youths in the CD-ROM intervention-only arm. Conclusions: Six years after initial intervention, youths who received a culturally tailored, skills-based prevention program had reduced alcohol use and lower rates of related risky behaviors than youths in the control arm. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 71, 535-538, 2010), ALCOHOL IS THE SUBSTANCE OF CHOICE among adolescents in this country and is associated with social, health, and economic problems (Office of the Surgeon General, 2006). Prevention science has responded [...]

This study developed and tested a gender-specific intervention for preventing substance abuse among adolescent girls. Delivered on CD-ROM by computer, the program was compared with a conventional substance abuse prevention program delivered live in a group setting. Seventh-grade girls in New York City middle schools completed pretests, and, by school, were randomly assigned to receive either gender-specific computer intervention (GSI) or conventional intervention, and were posttested. Analyses of pretest to posttest gain scores showed GSI girls compared to girls receiving conventional intervention to possess a larger repertoire of stress-reduction methods, to report lower approval of cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs, to identify more unhealthy ways to deal with stress, to report lower likelihood of cigarette use or alcohol consumption if asked to do so by best friends, and to hold stronger plans to avoid cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs in the next year. These modest findings lend credence to the promise of gender-specific, computerized interventions for substance abuse prevention among adolescent girls. Keywords: Gender-specific intervention, computer-based intervention, substance abuse prevention, INTRODUCTION Adolescent girls are closing the gender gap in their substance use behavior (1). Over one-fifth of all eighth-grade girls report drinking alcohol in the past month (2), and their [...]

Objective: This study tested a CD-ROM intervention with and without a parent involvement component to reduce risk of alcohol use among an urban sample of early adolescents. Method: Youths (N = 514, mean age 11.5 years at recruitment) were assigned randomly by community site to receive the CD-ROM intervention, the CD-ROM plus parent intervention, or no intervention. All youths completed pretest, posttest and three annual follow-up measurements. After pretesting, youths and parents received their respective interventions. Results: Main effects of the intervention and for measurement occasion as well as interaction effects of the intervention by measurement occasion were seen for substance use and related outcomes. Over time, youths in all 3 groups reported increased use of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana; youths who received the interventions reported smaller increases than control youths. At 3-year follow-up, alcohol use was lower for CD-ROM plus parent intervention youths than for CD-ROM only youths, who, in turn, reported less use than controls. Cigarette use was lower for youths in either intervention group than in the control group at posttest and at 1-, 2- and 3-year follow-ups. Marijuana use was lower for youths in either intervention than for controls at 1-, 2- and 3-year follow-ups. Youths in both intervention groups outperformed control youths at posttest and at 1- and 3-year follow-ups on levels of negative and peer influence toward substance use. Finally, at the 3-year follow-up, youths in the CD-ROM plus parent intervention group reported more family involvement in their alcohol use prevention efforts than did youths in the CD-ROM group, who, in turn, reported more positive levels of family involvement than youths in the control group. Conclusions: Study findings modestly support the CD-ROM intervention with and without the parent intervention to reduce alcohol use risks among urban early adolescents., CONSIDERABLE RESEARCH has been invested in discovering effective approaches to prevent alcohol use among American youth. Most approaches use theory-driven principles to help young people resist peer pressure, offset media [...]

We assessed the effectiveness of a culturally grounded, multimedia, sexual risk reduction intervention called Circle of Life (mCOL), designed to increase knowledge and self-efficacy among preteen American Indians and Alaska Natives. Partnering with Native Boys and Girls Clubs in 15 communities across six Northern Plains reservations, we conducted a cluster randomized controlled trial among 10- to 12-year-olds (n = 167; mean age = 11.2). Club units were randomly assigned to mCOL (n = 8) or the attention-control program, After-School Science Plus (AS+; n = 7). Compared with the AS+ group, mCOL youth scored significantly higher on HIV/sexually transmitted infection (STI) knowledge questions at both follow-ups; self-efficacy to avoid peer pressure and self-efficacy to avoid sex were significantly higher at posttest; self-perceived volition was significantly higher at 9-month follow-up; and no differences were found for behavioral precursors to sex. mCOL had modest effects on precursors to sexual behavior, which may lead to less risky sexual behavior in later years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Girls’ rates of drug use have met up with and, in some instances, surpassed boys’ rates. Although girls and boys share risk and protective factors associated with drug use, girls also have gender-specific risks. Interventions to prevent girls’ drug use must be tailored to address the dynamics of female adolescence. Methods: One such intervention, called RealTeen, is a 9-session, web-based drug abuse prevention program designed to address such gender-specific risk factors associated with young girls’ drug use as depressed mood, low self-esteem, and high levels of perceived stress as well as general drug use risk factors of peer and social influences. Web-based delivery enables girls to interact with the program at their own pace and in a location of their choosing. Implications: This article describes the processes and challenges associated with developing and programming a gender-specific, web-based intervention to prevent drug use among adolescent girls. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intervention research is essential to help Hispanic American adolescents avoid drug use. This article describes an intervention research program aimed at preventing drug use among these youths. Grounded in salient epidemiological data, the program is informed by bicultural competence, social learning, and motivational interviewing theories. The program, called Vamos, is aimed at the risk and protective factors as well as the cultural prerogatives that demark the adolescent years of Hispanic American youths. Innovative in its approach, the program is delivered through a smartphone application (app). By interacting with engaging content presented via the app, youths can acquire the cognitive–behavioral skills necessary to avoid risky situations, urges, and pressures associated with early drug use. The intervention development process is presented in detail, and an evaluation plan to determine the program’s efficacy is outlined. Lessons for practice and intervention programming are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Growing moves in the U.S. toward relaxed laws surrounding adult use of marijuana raise concerns about concurrent increases in adolescent use of marijuana.Objectives: This study collected and analyzed primary data on the relationship between marijuana legalization status in U.S. states and adolescents' marijuana use.Methods: Recruited through social networking sites and youth-services community agencies, a sample of 1,310 adolescents from 48 U.S. states and the District of Columbia reported their use of marijuana. Youths' use rates were compared with the marijuana legalization status of youths' states of residence.Results: Study findings failed to show a relationship between adolescents' use of marijuana and state laws regarding marijuana use. Relationships were found for increased marijuana use by older youths, females, and non-Hispanic youths. Youths whose parents completed 2 or more years of college were less likely to report marijuana use than those whose parents completed fewer than 2 years of college.Conclusions: Albeit study findings do not support predictions of growing marijuana use by adolescents in states with liberalized adult use laws, further monitoring of adolescents' use with larger and more representative samples is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Peer and parent influences on alcohol use and related risky behaviors were examined in a sample of late-adolescent (M = 17.3 years;SD = 1.11 years) urban youths. Participants (N = 400) completed an online measure assessing peer influences of alcohol use and alcohol offers and also parental influences of rules against alcohol use and perceived levels of emotional family support, relative to youths' alcohol use, binge drinking, alcohol-related consequences, and intentions to drink. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that increased peer alcohol use and alcohol offers were associated with youths' increased drinking, binge drinking, alcohol-related consequences, and intentions to drink. Controlling for peer influences, parental rules against alcohol use were associated with decreased drinking, binge drinking, and intentions to drink; increased levels of family support were associated with decreased alcohol-related consequences and intentions to drink. These findings suggest that parental influences, albeit small relative to peer influences, are associated with fewer instances of monthly alcohol use and related risky behaviors among late-adolescent urban youths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite the availability of an increasing array of empirically validated adolescent drug abuse prevention programs, program materials and evaluation findings are poorly disseminated. CD-ROM and the Internet hold promise for disseminating this information to schools and agencies that directly serve youth, and to policy-making bodies that exercise control over funds to support adolescent drug abuse prevention programming. However, data on the relative efficacy of these newer technologies over conventional print means of dissemination are lacking.Methods: Recruited through schools, community agencies, and policy-making bodies, 188 professionals were randomized to receive prevention program materials via pamphlets (55 participants), CD-ROM (64 participants), and the Internet (69 participants). Participants completed pretest, posttest, and 6-month follow-up measures that assessed their access to prevention program materials; self-efficacy for identifying, obtaining, and recommending these programs; and their likelihood of requesting, implementing, and recommending prevention programs to their constituents.Results: Participants exposed to dissemination via CD-ROM and the Internet evidenced the greatest short- and long-term gains on accessibility, self-efficacy, and behavioral intention variables.Conclusions: CD-ROM and the Internet are viable means for disseminating adolescent drug abuse prevention programs to schools, community agencies, and policy-making bodies, and should be increasingly used for dissemination purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]