Excellence in Prevention Strategy List
Youth Cannabis Use Prevention
- Youth Cannabis Use Prevention List
effective July 1, 2023
Opioid Use Prevention
- Opioid Use Prevention List
effective July 1, 2023
Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention
- Mental Health Promotion and Suicide Prevention List
effective July 1, 2023
The Programs & practices for youth marijuana use prevention report provides an overview of DBHR's collaborative process to determine the above program lists.
Welcome to the Excellence in Prevention Strategies List. This page provides detailed information about direct service and environmental prevention strategies. Programs and strategies in this list must be shown in at least two studies to produce intended results. All programs listed include substance abuse prevention as an area of interest.
When initially compiled, the strategies described in this list came from three primary resources:
- National Registry for Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP)
- The State of Oregon’s list of evidence-based programs
- The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation’s “Scientific Evidence for Developing a Logic Model on Underage Drinking: A Reference Guide for Community Environmental Prevention.”
Use the search box or the questions below to help you narrow your search.
At the aggregate level, a central focus has been on trends in alcohol advertising, per capita consumption and drinking problems. Only a few studies have considered the effects of alcohol advertising restrictions on alcohol consumption or problems.
Al's Pals: Kids Making Healthy Choices is a school-based prevention program that seeks to develop social-emotional skills such as self- control, problem-solving, and healthy decision-making in children ages 3-8 in preschool, kindergarten, and first grade. The program fosters both the personal traits of resilience and the nurturing environments children need to overcome difficulties and fully develop their talents and capabilities. Through fun lessons, engaging puppets, original music and materials, and appropriate teaching approaches, the Al's Pals curriculum helps young children regulate their own feelings and behavior; creates and maintains a classroom environment of caring, cooperation, respect, and responsibility; teaches conflict resolution and peaceful problem-solving; promotes appreciation of differences and positive social relationships; prevents and addresses bullying behavior; conveys clear messages about the harms of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs; and builds children's abilities to make healthy choices and cope with life's difficulties.
Athletes Training and Learning To Avoid Steroids (ATLAS) is a school-based drug prevention program. ATLAS was designed for male high school athletes to deter drug use and promote healthy nutrition and exercise as alternatives to drugs. The curriculum consists of 10 45- minute interactive classroom sessions and 3 exercise training sessions facilitated by peer educators, coaches, and strength trainers. Program content includes (1) discussion of sports nutrition; (2) exercise alternatives to anabolic steroids and sports supplements; and (3) the effects of substance abuse in sports, drug refusal role-playing, and the creation of health promotion messages.
Per se laws— a specific BAC level (usually .05 or .08) at which a driver is considered legally impaired and can be arrested (Andenaes, 1988). The BAC can be measured by taking a blood sample from a driver or via an analysis of the exhaled breath. The invention of the breathalyser and other portable devices for collecting samples of drivers’ breaths, combined with per se legislation, revolutionized law enforcement of drinking and driving.
All USA states have longstanding laws prohibiting driving while impaired by alcohol. The U.S. Congress included a provision in the Fiscal Year 2001 Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act 213 requiring states and territories to implement .08 BAC laws by October 1, 2003 or risk losing federal highway construction funds. Certain policies depend upon laws that clearly define drinking and driving with a BAC at or higher than a prescribed level for the whole population (e.g., .08 or .05) or for young drivers (usually zero or .02).
The Border Binge-Drinking Reduction Program provides a process for changing the social and community norms associated with underage and binge drinking that has proven effective at reducing alcohol-related trauma caused by young American's binge drinking across the U.S.-Mexican border. The program is a bi-national effort to curb irresponsible drinking practices, employing environmental management techniques including (1) regular surveys of youths returning from a night of drinking with anonymous blood alcohol concentration (BAC) breath tests; (2) strong media advocacy, using information from the surveys to characterize the problem, mobilize the community to action, and reframe the issue from an accepted norm to a health and safety issue for the bi-national community; (3) formation of the Bi-national Policy Council, which recommends policy changes on both sides of the border and provides spokespeople for the media advocacy and community organizing components; (4) increased enforcement of existing laws and policies, such as ID checks at border crossings and in bars in Tijuana, Mexico; and (5) implementation of policies and practices that impact the environment where dangerous cross- border drinking occurs.
Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS) is a prevention program for college students who drink alcohol heavily and have experienced or are at risk for alcohol-related problems. Following a harm reduction approach, BASICS aims to motivate students to reduce alcohol use in order to decrease the negative consequences of drinking. It is delivered over the course of two 1-hour interviews with a brief online assessment survey taken by the student after the first session. The first interview gathers information about the student's recent alcohol consumption patterns, personal beliefs about alcohol, and drinking history, while providing instructions for self-monitoring any drinking between sessions and preparing the student for the online assessment survey. Information from the online assessment survey is used to develop a customized feedback profile for use in the second interview, which compares personal alcohol use with alcohol use norms, reviews individualized negative consequences and risk factors, clarifies perceived risks and benefits of drinking, and provides options to assist in making changes to decrease or abstain from alcohol use. Based on principles of motivational interviewing, BASICS is delivered in an empathetic, nonconfrontational, and nonjudgmental manner and is aimed at revealing the discrepancy between the student's risky drinking behavior and his or her goals and values. The intervention is delivered by trained personnel proficient in motivational interviewing and may be tailored for use with young adults in settings other than colleges.
Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT) is designed to (1) prevent, reduce, and/or treat adolescent behavior problems such as drug use, conduct problems, delinquency, sexually risky behavior, aggressive/violent behavior, and association with antisocial peers; (2) improve pro-social behaviors such as school attendance and performance; and (3) improve family functioning, including effective parental leadership and management, positive parenting, and parental involvement with the child and his or her peers and school. BSFT is typically delivered in 12-16 family sessions but may be delivered in as few as 8 or as many as 24 sessions, depending on the severity of the communication and management problems within the family. Sessions are conducted at locations that are convenient to the family, including the family's home in some cases. Hispanic families have been the principal recipients of BSFT, but African American families have also participated in the intervention.
BSFT considers adolescent symptomatology to be rooted in maladaptive family interactions, inappropriate family alliances, overly rigid or permeable family boundaries, and parents' tendency to believe that a single individual (usually the adolescent) is responsible for the family's troubles. BSFT operates according to the assumption that transforming how the family functions will help improve the teen's presenting problem.
Changes in licensing provisions that substantially modify hours of service can have a significant effect on drinking and drinking-related problems overall. Studies suggest that reduced hours and days of sale can have net effects in reducing overall alcohol consumption and problems levels, with the effects concentrated during the times of closure but not matched by counterbalancing changes at other times of the week. Some states and communities prohibit on-premise or off-premise purchase of alcoholic beverages on Sundays or after a certain evening (not early morning) hour.
In sum, it appears that changes in licensing provisions that substantially reduce hours of service can have a significant impact on drinking and drinking-related problems overall, The evidence that such changes affect young people is more limited as most evaluations have focused on the total drinking population.
The Child Development Project (CDP) is a comprehensive, elementary school-based intervention program. CDP incorporates class meetings, learning activities for partners and small groups, and open-ended discussions on literature to enhance students’ social, ethical, and intellectual development. CDP is based on the belief that prevention efforts are most likely to be effective when they occur early in a child’s development, before antisocial behavioral patterns have a chance to become firmly established. CDP emphasizes the promotion of positive development rather than the prevention of disorder. The central goal of CDP is to help schools become "caring communities of learners" by offering an environment of caring, supportive, and collaborative relationships to build students’ sense of community in school and to promote school bonding.
Class Action is the second phase of the Project Northland alcohol-use prevention curriculum series. Class Action (for grades 11-12) and Project Northland (for grades 6-8) are designed to delay the onset of alcohol use, reduce use among youths who have already tried alcohol, and limit the number of alcohol-related problems experienced by young drinkers. Class Action draws upon the social influence theory of behavior change, using interactive, peer-led sessions to explore the real-world legal and social consequences of substance abuse. The curriculum consists of 8-10 group sessions in which students divide into teams to research, prepare, and present mock civil cases involving hypothetical persons harmed as a result of underage drinking. Using a casebook along with audio-taped affidavits and depositions, teens review relevant statutes and case law to build legal cases they then present to a jury of their peers. Case topics include drinking and driving, fetal alcohol syndrome, drinking and violence, date rape, drinking and vandalism, and school alcohol policies. Students also research community issues around alcohol use and become involved in local events to support community awareness of the problem of underage drinking.
Please note that for DBHR Prevention grantees, Class Action is only considered an Evidence-based Practice (EBP) when implemented as a booster session for the Project Northland series.
Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA) is a community-organizing program designed to reduce teens' (13 to 20 years of age) access to alcohol by changing community policies and practices. CMCA seeks both to limit youths' access to alcohol and to communicate a clear message to the community that underage drinking is inappropriate and unacceptable. It employs a range of social- organizing techniques to address legal, institutional, social, and health issues related to underage drinking. The goals of these organizing efforts are to eliminate illegal alcohol sales to minors, obstruct the provision of alcohol to youth, and ultimately reduce alcohol use by teens. The program involves community members in seeking and achieving changes in local public policies and the practices of community institutions that can affect youths' access to alcohol.
CMCA is based on established research that has demonstrated the importance of the social and policy environment in facilitating or impeding drinking among youth. CMCA community-organizing methods draw on a range of traditions in organizing efforts to deal with the social and health consequences of alcohol consumption.
Communities That Care (CTC) is a program of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) in the office of the United States Government's Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). CTC is a coalition-based prevention operating system that uses a public health approach to prevent youth problem behaviors such as violence, delinquency, school dropout and substance abuse. Using strategic consultation, training, and research-based tools, CTC is designed to help community stakeholders and decision makers understand and apply information about risk and protective factors, and programs that are proven to make a difference in promoting healthy youth development, in order to most effectively address the specific issues facing their community’s youth.
Developed by Drs. J. David Hawkins and Richard Catalano at the University of Washington’s Social Development Research Group (SDRG), CTC’s principal strategy, the Social Development Strategy, focuses on strengthening protective factors that can buffer young people from problem behaviors and promote positive youth development.
CTC is grounded in rigorous research from social work, public health, psychology, education, medicine, criminology, and organizational development. It engages all community members who have a stake in healthy futures for young people and sets priorities for action based on community challenges and strengths. Clear, measurable outcomes are tracked over time to show progress and ensure accountability.
Community Trials Intervention To Reduce High-Risk Drinking is a multi-component, community-based program developed to alter the alcohol use patterns and related problems of people of all ages. The program incorporates a set of environmental interventions that assist communities in (1) using zoning and municipal regulations to restrict alcohol access through alcohol outlet density control; (2) enhancing responsible beverage service by training, testing, and assisting beverage servers and retailers in the development of policies and procedures to reduce intoxication and driving after drinking; (3) increasing law enforcement and sobriety checkpoints to raise actual and perceived risk of arrest for driving after drinking; (4) reducing youth access to alcohol by training alcohol retailers to avoid selling to minors and those who provide alcohol to minors; and (5) forming the coalitions needed to implement and support the interventions that address each of these prevention components. The program aims to help communities reduce alcohol-related accidents and incidents of violence and the injuries that result from them.
Across Ages is a school- and community-based substance abuse prevention program for youth ages 9 to 13. The unique feature of Across Ages is the pairing of older adult mentors (55 years and older) with young adolescents, specifically those making the transition to middle school. The overall goal of the program is to increase protective factors for high-risk students to prevent, reduce, or delay the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs and the problems associated with substance use. The four intervention components are (1) a minimum of 2 hours per week of mentoring by older adults who are recruited from the community, matched with youth, and trained to serve as mentors; (2) 1-2 hours of weekly community service by youth, including regular visits to frail elders in nursing homes; (3) monthly weekend social and recreational activities for youth, their families, and mentors; and (4) 26 45-minute social competence training lessons taught weekly in the classroom using the Social Problem-Solving Module of the Social Competence Promotion Program for Young Adolescents developed by Roger Weissberg and colleagues.
The Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentoring Program is designed to help participating youth ages 6-18 ("Littles") reach their potential through supported matches with adult volunteer mentors ages 18 and older ("Bigs"). The program focuses on positive youth development, not specific problems, and the Big acts as a role model and provides guidance to the Little through a relationship that is based on trust and caring. The Big and Little agree to meet two to four times per month for at least a year, with get-togethers usually lasting 3 or 4 hours and consisting of mutually enjoyable activities.
Volunteers applying to be a Big are screened by local Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) agencies for potential safety risks, ability to commit the necessary time, and capability of forming positive relationships with youth. Approved volunteers undergo training, which includes presentations on the developmental stages of youth, communication and limit-setting skills, tips for building relationships, and recommendations on the best way to interact with their matched Little, whose racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic background may differ from that of the Big.
In matching Bigs and Littles, BBBSA agencies often consider practical factors, such as gender, geographic proximity, and availability, as well as the match preferences of volunteers, youth, and parents. Volunteers indicate the type of youth they would like to be matched with, noting age, race, and the types of activities they expect to engage in with the youth.
Youth and their parents state their preference for volunteers, noting such factors as age, race, and religion, and youth also provide their activity preferences. Matching policies may vary across local BBBSA agencies, but in all cases, the parent must approve the match.
The study reviewed for this summary was conducted with eight urban BBBSA agencies and included youth ages 10-16.
Please note that only the community-based model of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Mentoring Program is considered an Evidence-based Practice (EBP) for DBHR prevention grantees.
The systematic checking by law enforcement of whether a licensed establishment actually sells alcohol to underage persons or “underage looking persons”.
The Coping Power Program (CPP) is a cognitive-based intervention delivered to aggressive children and their parents during the children’s transition to middle school. The program aims to increase competence, study skills, social skills, and self-control in aggressive children as well as improving parental involvement in their child’s education.
The Coping Power Program is a multi-component intervention based heavily on cognitive–behavioral therapy, which emphasizes increasing and exercising parenting skills and the child’s social skills. The child component of CPP draws from anger management programs that concentrate on decision-making, attributions, and peer pressure.
The program has a component aimed at the parents of children in intervention classrooms. The child component of CPP lasts 16 months and includes 22 fifth grade sessions and 12 sixth grade sessions. The parent component is administered over 16 sessions, which provides the parents with instruction on parenting skills, including rule setting, appropriate punishment, stress management, and family communication.
The parent component concentrates on parenting and stress-management skills, while the child component involves the use of school-based focus groups and emphasizes anger management and social problem–solving skills. Parents also meet with CPP staff to help them understand and prepare for future adolescence-related and general education issues, and to give them the tools necessary for a smooth transition to middle school.
The Curriculum-Based Support Group (CBSG) Program is a support group intervention designed to increase resiliency and reduce risk factors among children and youth ages 4-15 who are identified by school counselors and faculty as being at elevated risk for early substance use and future delinquency and violence (e.g., they are living in adverse family situations, displaying observable gaps in coping and social skills, or displaying early indicators of antisocial attitudes and behaviors). Based on cognitive-behavioral and competence-enhancement models of prevention, the CBSG Program teaches essential life skills and offers emotional support to help children and youth cope with difficult family situations; resist peer pressure; set and achieve goals; refuse alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs; and reduce antisocial attitudes and rebellious behavior. Delivered in 10-12 weekly, 1-hour support group sessions, the curriculum addresses topics such as self-concept, anger and other feelings, dreams and goal setting, healthy choices, friends, peer pressure, life challenges, family chemical dependency, and making a public commitment to staying drug free and true to life goals. Lesson content and objectives are essentially the same for all participants but are tailored for age and developmental status.
The number of outlets grows in response to population, and outlets are usually established along roadway systems. Outlet counts are either in terms of population densities (numbers of outlets per person) or geographic densities (numbers of outlets per kilometer of roadway). In developed societies, people may easily drive or use public transport to obtain alcohol. The number of outlets may be restricted directly or indirectly through policies that make licenses more difficult to obtain (e.g., by increasing the cost of a license). Several states limit the number of alcohol outlets and control the price of alcohol by maintaining state-run (rather than privately owned) outlets.
Specifying locations where drinking cannot occur is a policy that has been implemented with laws about public drinking and/or public intoxication, as well as those prohibiting drinking in parks or recreational locations, or at the workplace. These restrictions have real potential for affecting the drinking of youth since youth often prefer recreational venues for drinking, e.g., public parks, beaches, lakes, etc. and limiting drinking in such locations also holds the potential for reducing social access of alcohol provided by others.
Early Risers "Skills for Success" is a multi-component, developmentally focused, competency-enhancement program that targets 6- to 12- year-old elementary school students who are at high risk for early development of conduct problems, including substance use. Early Risers is based on the premise that early, comprehensive, and sustained intervention is necessary to target multiple risk and protective factors. The program uses integrated child-, school-, and family-focused interventions to move high-risk children onto a more adaptive developmental pathway.
A "family advocate" (someone with a bachelor's degree and experience working with children/parents) coordinates the child- and family- focused components. The child-focused component has three parts: (1) Summer Day Camp, offered 4 days per week for 6 weeks and consisting of social-emotional skills education and training, reading enrichment, and creative arts experiences supported by a behavioral management protocol; (2) School Year Friendship Groups, offered during or after school and providing advancement and maintenance of skills learned over the summer; and (3) School Support, which occurs throughout each school year and is intended to assist and modify academic instruction, as well as address children's behavior while in school, through case management, consultation, and mentoring activities performed by the family advocate at school.
The family-focused component has two parts: (1) Family Nights with Parent Education, where children and parents come to a center or school five times per year during the evening, with children participating in fun activities while their parents meet in small groups for parenting-focused education and skills training; and (2) Family Support, which is the implementation of an individually designed case plan for each family to address their specific needs, strengths, and maladaptive patterns through goal setting, brief interventions, referral, continuous monitoring, and, if indicated, more intensive and tailored parent skills training.
Increasing excise taxes on alcohol is another type of policy that affects price. Using national samples of youth, several studies indicate that raising alcohol excise taxes may have large effects in reducing youth drinking. Tax increases may influence not only consumption, but also other alcohol-related outcomes, and youth again appear to be more price responsive than adults in terms of these outcomes.
Familias Unidas is a family-based intervention for Hispanic families with children ages 12-17. The program is designed to prevent conduct disorders; use of illicit drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes; and risky sexual behaviors by improving family functioning. Familias Unidas is guided by eco-developmental theory, which proposes that adolescent behavior is affected by a multiplicity of risk and protective processes operating at different levels (i.e., within family, within peer network, and beyond), often with compounding effects. The program is also influenced by culturally specific models developed for Hispanic populations in the United States.
The intervention is delivered primarily through multi-parent groups, which aim to develop effective parenting skills, and family visits, during which parents are encouraged to apply those skills while interacting with their adolescent. The multi-parent groups, led by a trained facilitator, meet in weekly 2-hour sessions for the duration of the intervention. Each group has 10 to 12 parents, with at least 1 parent from each participating family. Sessions include problem posing and participatory exercises. Group discussions aim to increase parents' understanding of their role in protecting their adolescent from harm and to facilitate parental investment.
Families and Schools Together (FAST) is a multifamily group intervention designed to build relationships between families, schools, and communities to increase well-being among elementary school children. The program's objectives are to enhance family functioning, prevent school failure, prevent substance misuse by the children and other family members, and reduce the stress that children and parents experience in daily situations. Participants in the multifamily group work together to enhance protective factors for children, including parent-child bonding, parent involvement in schools, parent networks, family communication, parental authority, and social capital, with the aim of reducing the children's anxiety and aggression and increasing their social skills and attention spans.
FAST includes three components: outreach to parents, eight weekly multifamily group sessions, and ongoing monthly group reunions for up to 24 months to support parents as the primary prevention agents for their children. Collaborative teams of parents/caregivers, professionals (e.g., substance abuse or mental health professionals), and school personnel facilitate the groups, which meet at the school at the end of the school day. With each cycle of FAST implementation, 30 to 50 students in one grade level and their families can participate.
Although versions of FAST have been developed for families with children of all ages (babies through teens), the research reviewed for this summary included only elementary school children.
Family Matters is a family-directed program to prevent adolescents 12 to 14 years of age from using tobacco and alcohol. The intervention is designed to influence population-level prevalence and can be implemented with large numbers of geographically dispersed families. The program encourages communication among family members and focuses on general family characteristics (e.g., supervision and communication skills) and substance-specific characteristics (e.g., family rules for tobacco and alcohol use and media/peer influences). The program involves successive mailings of four booklets to families and telephone discussions between the parent and health educators. Two weeks after family members read a booklet and carry out activities intended to reinforce its content, a health educator contacts a parent by telephone. A new booklet is mailed when the health educator determines that the prior booklet has been completed.
Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a classroom-based behavior management strategy for elementary school that teachers use along with a school's standard instructional curricula. GBG uses a classroom-wide game format with teams and rewards to socialize children to the role of student and reduce aggressive, disruptive classroom behavior, which is a risk factor for adolescent and adult illicit drug abuse, alcohol abuse, cigarette smoking, antisocial personality disorder (ASPD), and violent and criminal behavior. GBG is structured around four core elements: classroom rules, team membership, self- and team-behavior monitoring, and positive reinforcement of individual team members and the team as a whole.
In each 1st-grade classroom, the teacher assigns all children to one of three teams with an equal number of girls and boys; aggressive, disruptive children; and shy, socially isolated children. The assignments are made on the basis of an initial 10-week observation period at the start of the school year. Basic classroom rules of student behavior are posted, and the whole team is rewarded if team members commit a total of four or fewer infractions of the classroom rules during game periods. For the first 3 weeks, GBG is played three times a week for 10 minutes each time during periods of the day when the classroom environment is less structured and the students are working independently of the teacher. Game periods are increased in length and frequency at regular intervals; by mid-year the game is played every day. Initially, the teacher announces the start of a game period and gives rewards at the conclusion of the game. Later, the teacher initiates game periods without announcement and defers rewards until the end of the school day or week. Over time, GBG is played at different times of the day and during different classroom tasks, so the game evolves from being highly predictable in timing and occurrence with immediate reinforcement to being unpredictable with delayed reinforcement. The children continue to participate in GBG through 2nd grade, where they are assigned to new classrooms and new teams. Training is required for the teachers who implement the intervention as well as for their coaches, who work with, support, and supervise them.
Schools that implement the program may choose to extend GBG beyond 2nd grade. In the study reviewed for this summary, children received GBG over 2 years, in 1st and 2nd grade, and their class assignments in 1st grade remained the same in 2nd grade.
Please note that the versions of the Good Behavior Game administered by American Institutes for Research (AIR) and PAXIS Institute are each considered Evidence-based Programs for DBHR Prevention Grantees.
Guiding Good Choices (GGC) is a drug use prevention program that provides parents of children in grades 4 through 8 (9 to 14 years old) with the knowledge and skills needed to guide their children through early adolescence. It seeks to strengthen and clarify family expectations for behavior, enhance the conditions that promote bonding within the family, and teach skills that allow children to resist drug use successfully. GGC is based on research that shows that consistent, positive parental involvement is important to helping children resist substance use and other antisocial behaviors. Formerly known as Preparing for the Drug Free Years, this program was revised in 2003 with more family activities and exercises. The current intervention is a five-session curriculum that addresses preventing substance abuse in the family, setting clear family expectations regarding drugs and alcohol, avoiding trouble, managing family conflict, and strengthening family bonds. Sessions are interactive and skill based, with opportunities for parents to practice new skills and receive feedback, and use video-based vignettes to demonstrate parenting skills. Families also receive a Family Guide containing family activities, discussion topics, skill-building exercises, and information on positive parenting.
The Healthy Living Project for People Living With HIV promotes protective health decision-making among individuals with HIV--heterosexual women, heterosexual men, gay men, and injection drug users--to reduce substance use and the risk of transmitting HIV. The Healthy Living Project is based on social action theory and targets the interactive psychosocial domains of the community environment, internal affective states, and self-regulation. Using a cognitive-behavioral approach, this manual-driven intervention is delivered by facilitators functioning as "life coaches" who work with clients individually to help them make changes in their health behavior, become active participants in their ongoing medical care, and achieve desired personal goals. The Healthy Living Project consists of 15 sessions, each 90 minutes in duration, presented in 3 modules: Stress, Coping, and Adjustment; Safer Behaviors; and Health Behaviors. During tailored counseling sessions, the client is encouraged to identify a life project and work with the coach to set attainable goals and build self- confidence, self-esteem, and motivation to increase protective health behaviors. Intervention strategies include psychosocial education, skills building to improve coping, and problem-solving training involving role-play exercises.
Hip-Hop 2 Prevent Substance Abuse and HIV (H2P) is designed to improve knowledge and skills related to drugs and HIV/AIDS among youth ages 12-16 with the aim of preventing or reducing their substance use and risky sexual activity. The program incorporates aspects of hip-hop culture--including language, arts, and history--as a social, cultural, and contextual framework for addressing substance use and HIV risk behaviors.
H2P uses a curriculum consisting of 10 modules, called "ciphers," delivered in 10 2-hour sessions. Through the curriculum's use of hip-hop culture, an interactive, multimedia CD, and a mix of traditional teaching methods, students learn information about drugs, HIV/AIDS, and sexual behavior; resistance and refusal skills; effective communication and negotiation skills; information about healthy alternatives to sex and drugs; and prevention self-efficacy skills.
School staff (e.g., teachers, counselors) deliver the first four modules in after-school or in-school sessions and the remaining modules at H2P camp, a 3-day retreat offering students structured learning and recreational activities, team-building experiences, mentoring, and opportunities for creative expression. Prior to serving as instructors, school staff participates in a 1-day training to learn about the genesis, ideology, and cultural components of hip-hop.
I Can Problem Solve (ICPS) is a universal school-based program that focuses on enhancing the interpersonal cognitive processes and problem-solving skills of children ages 4-12. ICPS is based on the idea that there is a set of these skills that shape how children (as well as adults) behave in interpersonal situations, influencing how they conceptualize their conflicts with others, whether they can think of a variety of solutions to these problems, and whether they can predict the consequences of their own actions. Rather than addressing specific behaviors as right or wrong, ICPS uses games, stories, puppets, illustrations, and role-plays to help children acquire a problem- solving vocabulary, learn to understand their own as well as others' feelings, think of alternative solutions, and think of potential consequences to an act. In turn, ICPS aims to prevent and reduce early high-risk behaviors, such as impulsivity and social withdrawal, and promote pro-social behaviors, such as concern for others and positive peer relationships. A key principle of the program is that the child, not the teacher, must solve the problem at hand. Giving the child this responsibility allows the child to develop the habit of creating solutions to problems, considering the potential consequences of one's actions, and thinking for oneself.
ICPS consists of three age-specific programs: preschool (containing 59 lessons), kindergarten and primary school (83 lessons), and intermediate elementary school (77 lessons). ICPS lessons are 20 minutes in duration and taught three to five times per week over the course of the academic year. In addition to the lessons, ICPS offers suggestions for integrating problem-solving principles into day-to-day classroom happenings, a technique called "ICPS dialoguing." The studies reviewed for this summary were conducted with children in preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade.
Incredible Years is a set of comprehensive, multifaceted, and developmentally based curricula targeting 2- to 12-year-old children and their parents and teachers. The parent, child, and teacher training interventions that compose Incredible Years are guided by developmental theory on the role of multiple interacting risk and protective factors in the development of conduct problems. The three program components are designed to work jointly to promote emotional and social competence and to prevent, reduce, and treat behavioral and emotional problems in young children.
The parent training intervention focuses on strengthening parenting competencies and fostering parents' involvement in children's school experiences to promote children's academic and social skills and reduce delinquent behaviors. The Dinosaur child training curriculum aims to strengthen children's social and emotional competencies, such as understanding and communicating feelings, using effective problem- solving strategies, managing anger, practicing friendship and conversational skills, and behaving appropriately in the classroom. The teacher training intervention focuses on strengthening teachers' classroom management strategies, promoting children's pro-social behavior and school readiness, and reducing children's classroom aggression and noncooperation with peers and teachers. The intervention also helps teachers work with parents to support their school involvement and promote consistency between home and school. In all three training interventions, trained facilitators use videotaped scenes to structure the content and stimulate group discussions and problem solving.
Automobile ignition interlock devices that prevent a vehicle from starting until the driver passes a breath test.
Keep a Clear Mind (KACM) is a take-home drug education program for elementary school students in grades 4-6 (ages 9-11) and their parents. KACM is designed to help children develop specific skills to refuse and avoid use of "gateway" drugs. The program consists of four weekly lessons based on a social skills training model: Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana, and Tools to Avoid Drug Use. Each lesson introduces the topic for the week and is followed by a sequence of five activities to be completed at home with a parent. The activities include answering a simple question about drugs, listing reasons not to use specific drugs, writing "No" statements to resist social pressure to use drugs, selecting from a list of alternatives the best ways to refuse and avoid drugs, and completing contracts to refuse and avoid drugs. Small incentives such as folders, stickers, and bookmarks are provided to students who return their completed lessons within the indicated period. Parent newsletters prompt parents to reinforce their children for practicing saying no to drugs and provide specific behavior tips for communicating with children about how to avoid drug use. KACM can be facilitated by schools, private practice counselors, community-based youth organizations, and recreation centers.
The KEEP SAFE (Middle School) program begins during the summer prior to middle school entry and consists of two parallel components (both led by paraprofessionals): a six-session group-based intervention for the foster-care youth and a six-session, group-based intervention for the foster parents. The groups meet twice weekly for 3 weeks during the summer. Facilitators teach youth about setting goals, establishing positive relationships with peers and adults, building confidence, and developing decision-making. Problem-solving skills and opportunities are also provided so they can practice positive behaviors. A ceremony is conducted at the end of the summer in which the youth proclaim their goals and commitments to each other and their foster parents. Sessions for foster parents focus on maintaining stability in the home, preparing the youth for middle school, and developing behavioral reinforcement techniques and realistic expectations. Parents are given homework assignments designed to encourage them to practice their new skills at home. Continued sessions (i.e., ongoing training and support) are provided to foster parents (group-based) and youth (one-on-one sessions) once a week for two hours during the first year of middle school.
For more information, please visit https://www.keepfostering.org/.
Keepin' it REAL is a multicultural, school-based substance use prevention program for students 12-14 years old. Keepin' it REAL uses a 10-lesson curriculum taught by trained classroom teachers in 45-minute sessions over 10 weeks, with booster sessions delivered in the following school year. The curriculum is designed to help students assess the risks associated with substance abuse, enhance decision-making and resistance strategies, improve antidrug normative beliefs and attitudes, and reduce substance use. The narrative and performance-based curriculum draws from communication competence theory and a culturally grounded resiliency model to incorporate traditional ethnic values and practices that protect against substance use. The curriculum places special emphasis on resistance strategies represented in the acronym REAL: Refuse offers to use substances, Explain why you do not want to use substances, Avoid situations in which substances are used, and Leave situations in which substances are used.
Beer kegs are often a main source of alcohol at teenage parties and may encourage drinking greater quantities of beer, increasing the risk of driving under the influence of alcohol and other alcohol-related problems. When police arrive at underage keg parties, people often scatter. Without keg tagging, there is no way to trace who purchased the keg. As a result beer key registration is one strategy directed at social events where beer can be provided without restrictions. Keg registration laws require the purchaser of a keg of beer to complete a form that links their name to a number on the keg. In this way, if a beer keg is present in a drinking setting where young people are consuming alcohol, then the person who purchased the keg can be identified and held responsible.
Sanction of suspending or revoking a license.
LifeSkills Training (LST) is a school-based program that aims to prevent alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use and violence by targeting the major social and psychological factors that promote the initiation of substance use and other risky behaviors. LST is based on both the social influence and competence enhancement models of prevention. Consistent with this theoretical framework, LST addresses multiple risk and protective factors and teaches personal and social skills that build resilience and help youth navigate developmental tasks, including the skills necessary to understand and resist pro-drug influences. LST is designed to provide information relevant to the important life transitions that adolescents and young teens face, using culturally sensitive and developmentally and age-appropriate language and content. Facilitated discussion, structured small group activities, and role-playing scenarios are used to stimulate participation and promote the acquisition of skills. Separate LST programs are offered for elementary school (grades 3-6), middle school (grades 6-9), and high school (grades 9-12); the research studies and outcomes reviewed for this summary involved middle school students.
Please note that the Botvin Middle School Version (Grades 6, 7, and 8) is considered an Evidence-based Program for DBHR Prevention grantees.
Lions Quest Skills for Adolescence (SFA) is a multi-component, comprehensive life skills education program designed for school wide and classroom implementation in grades 6-8 (ages 10-14). The goal of Lions Quest programs is to help young people develop positive commitments to their families, schools, peers, and communities and to encourage healthy, drug-free lives. Lions Quest SFA unites educators, parents, and community members to utilize social influence and social cognitive approaches in developing the following skills and competencies in young adolescents: (1) essential social/emotional competencies, (2) good citizenship skills, (3) strong positive character, (4) skills and attitudes consistent with a drug-free lifestyle and (5) an ethic of service to others within a caring and consistent environment. The learning model employs inquiry, presentation, discussion, group work, guided practice, service-learning, and reflection to accomplish the desired outcomes. Lions Quest SFA is comprised of a series of 80 45-minute sequentially developed skill-building sessions, based on a distinct theme that may be adapted to a variety of settings or formats.
Few studies of the specific effects of reduced-alcohol beverages on young people have been conducted.
Not On Tobacco (N-O-T) is a school-based smoking cessation program designed for youth ages 14 to 19 who are daily smokers. N-O-T is based on social cognitive theory and incorporates training in self-management and stimulus control; social skills and social influence; stress management; relapse prevention; and techniques to manage nicotine withdrawal, weight, and family and peer pressure. The program consists of 50-minute group sessions conducted weekly for 10 consecutive weeks, plus four optional booster sessions. The sessions are delivered in gender-specific groups of 10-12 teens by same-gender facilitators. N-O-T can be implemented by schools or other community organizations using teachers, school nurses, counselors, and other staff and volunteers who are trained to facilitate group sessions.
Nurse-Family Partnership (NFP) is a prenatal and infancy nurse home visitation program that aims to improve the health, well-being, and self-sufficiency of low-income, first-time parents and their children. NFP was founded on concepts of human ecology, self-efficacy, and human attachment. Its program activities are designed to link families with needed health and human services, promote good decision-making about personal development, assist families in making healthy choices during pregnancy and providing proper care to their children, and help women build supportive relationships with families and friends. Nurses follow a detailed, visit-by-visit guide that provides information on tracking dietary intake; reducing cigarette, alcohol, and illegal drug use; identifying symptoms of pregnancy complications and signs of children's illnesses; communicating with health care professionals; promoting parent-child interactions; creating safe households; and considering educational and career options. Program objectives include decreased substance use, improved maternal economic self-sufficiency, fewer subsequent unintended pregnancies, reduced child abuse and neglect, and improved school readiness of the children. Individual programs serve a minimum of 100-200 families and are supported by 4-8 trained registered nurse home visitors (each carrying a caseload of 25 families), a nurse supervisor, and administrative support. Nurse home visits begin early in pregnancy and continue until the child's second birthday. The frequency of home visits changes with the stages of pregnancy and infancy and is adapted to the mother's needs, with a maximum of 13 visits occurring during pregnancy and 47 occurring after the child's birth.
The Nurturing Parenting Programs (NPP) are family-based programs for the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect. The programs were developed to help families who have been identified by child welfare agencies for past child abuse and neglect or who are at high risk for child abuse and neglect. The goals of NPP are to: Increase parents' sense of self-worth, personal empowerment, empathy, bonding, and attachment. Increase the use of alternative strategies to harsh and abusive disciplinary practices. Increase parents' knowledge of age-appropriate developmental expectations. Reduce abuse and neglect rates.
NPP instruction is based on psycho-educational and cognitive-behavioral approaches to learning and focuses on "re-parenting," or helping parents learn new patterns of parenting to replace their existing, learned, abusive patterns. By completing questionnaires and participating in discussion, role-play, and audiovisual exercises, participants learn how to nurture themselves as individuals and in turn build their nurturing family and parenting skills as dads, moms, sons, and daughters.
Participants develop their awareness, knowledge, and skills in five areas: (1) age-appropriate expectations; (2) empathy, bonding, and attachment; (3) nonviolent nurturing discipline; (4) self- awareness and self-worth; and (5) empowerment, autonomy, and healthy independence. Participating families attend sessions either at home or in a group format with other families. Group sessions combine concurrent separate experiences for parents and children with shared "family nurturing time." In home-based sessions, parents and children meet separately and jointly during a 90-minute lesson once per week for 15 weeks.
Parenting Through Change is a group-based parent training intervention formerly known as Parent Management Training - Oregon Model and now delivered through GenerationPMTO, a group of theory-based parent training interventions that can be implemented in a variety of family contexts. The program aims to teach effective family management skills in order to reduce antisocial and problematic behavior in children who range in age from 3 through 16 years.
Please note that while the GenerationPMTO delivery system encompasses programs in both group and individual formats, only the group-based program titled Parenting Through Change is considered an Evidence-based Program for DBHR Prevention grantees.
For more information, please visit https://generationpmto.org/parent-groups/.
Parenting Wisely is a set of interactive, computer-based training programs for parents of children ages 3-18 years. Based on social learning, cognitive behavioral, and family systems theories, the programs aim to increase parental communication and disciplinary skills. The original Parenting Wisely program, American Teens, is designed for parents whose preteens and teens are at risk for or are exhibiting behavior problems such as substance abuse, delinquency, and school dropout. Parents use this self-instructional program on an agency's personal computer or laptop, either on site or at home, using the CD-ROM or online format. During each of nine sessions, users view a video enactment of a typical family struggle and then choose from a list of solutions representing different levels of effectiveness, each of which is portrayed and critiqued through interactive questions and answers. Each session ends with a quiz. All nine sessions can be completed in 2 to 3 hours. Parents also receive workbooks containing program content and exercises to promote skill building and practice.
Adaptations of the original Parenting Wisely program have been created for various groups of youth. One of these adaptations, Young Children, targets children ages 3-9 years. Although the studies reviewed in this summary primarily evaluated the original version of Parenting Wisely, the Young Children version was also evaluated, as were adaptations created to be implemented with groups of parents.
Parents as Teachers (PAT) is an early childhood family support and parent education home-visiting model. Families may enroll in Parents as Teachers beginning with pregnancy and may remain in the program until the child enters kindergarten. Based on theories of human ecology, empowerment, self-efficacy, and developmental parenting, Parents as Teachers involves the training and certification of parent educators who work with families using a comprehensive research-based and evidence-informed curriculum. Parent educators work with parents to strengthen protective factors and ensure that young children are healthy, safe, and ready to learn. The goals of the model are to increase parent knowledge of early childhood development, improve parenting practices, provide early detection of developmental delays and health issues, prevent child abuse and neglect, and increase children's school readiness and school success. Different curriculum materials are used for those working with families of children up to age 3 and those working with families of children from age 3 to kindergarten.
Home visitation is the key component of the Parents as Teachers model, with personal visits of approximately 60 minutes delivered weekly, every 2 weeks, or monthly, depending on family needs. Parent educators share research-based information and use evidence-based practices by partnering, facilitating, and reflecting with families. Parent educators use the Parents as Teachers curriculum in culturally sensitive ways to deliver services that emphasize parent-child interaction, development-centered parenting, and family well-being. Parent- child interaction focuses on promoting positive parenting behaviors and child development through parent-child activities. Development- centered parenting focuses on the link between child development and parenting and on key developmental topics (i.e., attachment, discipline, health, nutrition, safety, sleep, transitions/routines, and healthy births). Family well-being includes a focus on family strengths, capabilities, skills, and the building of protective factors.
A second component of the Parents as Teachers model is monthly or more frequent group connections, which parents can attend with their child to obtain information and social support and share experiences with their peers. Group connection formats include family activities, presentations, community events, parent cafes, and ongoing groups. Annual health, hearing, vision, and developmental screenings, beginning within 90 days of enrollment, are a third component of the model. Additionally, Parents as Teachers affiliates establish ongoing relationships with institutions and community organizations that serve families. Parent educators help families identify needs, set goals, connect with appropriate resources, and overcome barriers to accessing services.
Another major way that underage drinkers gain access to alcohol is at parties (e.g., Wagenaar et al., 1993). Party patrols are a local enforcement strategy in which police arrive at a social event in which alcohol is being served and check the age identifications of party participants. Under- age drinking parties frequently involve large groups and are commonly held in a home, an outdoor area, or other public location such as a hotel room. Party patrols are a recommended strategy to ad- dress underage drinking parties (Little & Bishop, 1998; Stewart, 1999). Parties are frequently cited as one of the settings at highest risk for youth alcohol consumption and related problems, and have been linked to impaired driving, sexual assaults, violence, property damage, and to the initiation of alcohol use of younger adolescents by older adolescents (Mayer, Forster, Murray, & Wagenaar, 1998; Schwartz & Little, 1997; Wagenaar et al., 1993). Decreased sales to older minors, in turn, are expected to reduce availability of alcohol to younger adolescents. Without these special patrols law enforcement agencies sometimes do not have enough manpower to thoroughly investigate under- age drinking parties. They cannot always trace who provided the alcohol or other drugs to minors.
Party patrols involve police entering locations where parties are in progress. The police can use noise or nuisance ordinances as a basis for entering a party to observe if underage drinking is taking place. In party patrol strategies, police are enlisted, as a part of their regular patrol duties, to routinely: (a) enter premises where parties that may involve underage drinking are underway, (b) respond to com- plaints from the public about noisy teenage parties where alcohol use is suspected, and (c) check, as part of regular weekend patrols, open areas and other venues where teen parties are known to occur. When underage drinking is discovered, the drinkers can be cited as well as the person who supplied the alcohol. Even when it is not possible to cite the person who supplied the alcohol, awareness of increased police activity in this regard can act as a deterrent and can express community concerns regarding the unacceptability of providing alcohol to minors. As with other environmental interventions, public awareness and media attention is important to increase the deterrence effect of this strategy. There is some evidence that this technique is effective.
Positive Action is an integrated and comprehensive program that is designed to improve academic achievement; school attendance; and problem behaviors such as substance use, violence, suspensions, disruptive behaviors, dropping out, and sexual behavior. It is also designed to improve parent-child bonding, family cohesion, and family conflict. Positive Action has materials for schools, homes, and community agencies. All materials are based on the same unifying broad concept (one feels good about oneself when taking positive actions) with six explanatory sub-concepts (positive actions for the physical, intellectual, social, and emotional areas) that elaborate on the overall theme. The program components include grade-specific curriculum kits for kindergarten through 12th grade, drug education kits, a conflict resolution kit, site-wide climate development kits for elementary and secondary school levels, a counselor's kit, a family kit, and a community kit. All the components and their parts can be used separately or in any combination and are designed to reinforce and support one another.
PRIME For Life (PFL) is a motivational intervention used in group settings to prevent alcohol and drug problems or provide early intervention. PFL has been used primarily among court-referred impaired driving offenders, as in the two studies reviewed for this summary. It also has been adapted for use with military personnel, college students, middle and high school students, and parents. Different versions of the program, ranging from 4.5 to 20 hours in duration, and optional activities are available to guide use with various populations.
Based on the Lifestyle Risk Reduction Model, the Transtheoretical Model, and persuasion theory, PFL emphasizes changing participants' perceptions of the risks of drug and alcohol use and related attitudes and beliefs. Risk perception is altered through the carefully timed presentation of both logical reasoning and emotional experience. Instructors use empathy and collaboration (methods consistent with motivational interviewing) to increase participants' motivation to change behavior to protect what they value most in life. Participants are guided in self-assessing their level of progression toward or into dependence or addiction. PFL also assists participants in developing a detailed plan for successfully following through with behavior change. Multimedia presentations and extensive guided discussion help motivate participants to reduce their substance use or maintain low-risk choices. Individual and group activities are completed using participant workbooks.
Project EX is a school-based smoking-cessation clinic program for adolescents that stresses motivation, coping skills, and personal commitment. Consisting of eight 40- to 45-minute sessions delivered over a 6-week period, the program curriculum includes strategies for coping with stress, dealing with nicotine withdrawal, and avoiding relapses. Project EX uses engaging and motivating activities such as games and yoga to reduce or stop smoking among adolescents and teach self-control, anger management, mood management, and goal- setting techniques. Adolescents are provided with accurate information about the social, emotional, environmental, and physiological consequences of tobacco use. The first four sessions are intended to prepare students for an attempt at quitting smoking, which should take place between sessions 4 and 6. The remaining sessions are designed to maintain quit status and enhance quit attempts. Project EX clinics operate during school hours. Each clinic group can accommodate 8 to 15 students.
Project Northland is a multi-level intervention involving students, peers, parents, and community in programs designed to delay the age at which adolescents begin drinking, reduce alcohol use among those already drinking, and limit the number of alcohol-related problems among young drinkers. Administered to adolescents in grades 6-8 on a weekly basis, the program has a specific theme within each grade level that is incorporated into the parent, peer, and community components. The 6th-grade home-based program targets communication about adolescent alcohol use utilizing student-parent homework assignments, in-class group discussions, and a communitywide task force. The 7th-grade peer- and teacher-led curriculum focuses on resistance skills and normative expectations regarding teen alcohol use, and is implemented through discussions, games, problem-solving tasks, and role-plays. During the first half of the 8th-grade Powerlines peer-led program, students learn about community dynamics related to alcohol use prevention through small group and classroom interactive activities. During the second half, they work on community-based projects and hold a mock town meeting to make community policy recommendations to prevent teen alcohol use.
The Midwestern Prevention Project (MPP) was a comprehensive, community-based, multifaceted program intended to prevent or reduce gateway substance use (alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana) during adolescence. The program strived to help youths recognize the tremendous social pressures to use drugs and to provide them with assertiveness skills to help refuse peer pressure and avoid drug use. MPP was designed to eliminate gateway substance use in middle school students, to reduce the risk of delinquency along the lifespan.
The program was targeted at youths in the transitory period from early adolescence to middle adolescence, as this age presents a high risk for gateway drug use. The program was intended for use in a school-based setting for middle school students, specifically, sixth and seventh graders.
MPP disseminated an antidrug message to students through a system of well-coordinated, communitywide strategies that involved various areas that influence a middle school student’s life, including school, community, family, and mass media.
School. The central component for drug prevention programming is the school. The school component used active social learning techniques (modeling, role playing, and discussion, with student peer leaders assisting teachers). It was included in teachers’ curricula for middle school students and included homework that requires participation from parents in assignments.
Community/policy. A consistent message supporting a non–drug use norm was delivered through community organization and training, as well as through changes in local health policy regarding tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs. This component entailed training community leaders and government officials to plan prevention goals and strategies for implementation.
Parent. The parent education and organization component involved a parent–principal committee that met to review school drug policy and parent–child communications training, and was designed to occur within the school and the school neighborhood. This component was intended to motivate parents to participate in the furtherance of program goals.
Mass media. The mass media component was intended to promote the program’s antidrug message through various media, such as television, radio, and newspaper. Mass media programming was used to support the other components by introducing the program’s concepts to the entire community.
These components were introduced to the community in sequence at a rate of one a year, with the mass media component occurring throughout all the years. All components involved regular meetings of respective deliverers (for example, community leaders for organization) to review and refine programs. Overall, the interrelated components were intended to promote a comprehensive curriculum that disseminated a zero-tolerance attitude toward substance use. While the MPP was mainly school based, the program was designed to elicit participation from the community, schools, and family to promote a comprehensive approach to drug prevention. Therefore, proper implementation of the MPP curriculum required collaboration and effective communication between members from teachers, parents, principals, and student leaders. The MPP used a preventive approach to drug abuse, concentrating on the pressure that adolescents face regarding substance use. The program addressed the fact that adolescents ages 10 to 14 are highly susceptible to experimentation and peer pressure to use drugs and cigarettes, and that cigarette use during formative years can serve as a gateway to further drug use and delinquency. Also taking into account that school transition provides a critical risk period for smoking and risk behavior in youths, the program adopted a comprehensive school-based curriculum to prevent and reduce substance use in middle school students.
Project SUCCESS (Schools Using Coordinated Community Efforts to Strengthen Students) is designed to prevent and reduce substance use among students 12 to 18 years of age. The program was originally developed for students attending alternative high schools who are at high risk for substance use and abuse due to poor academic performance, truancy, discipline problems, negative attitudes toward school, and parental substance abuse. In recent years, Project SUCCESS has been used in regular middle and high schools for a broader range of high-risk students. The intervention includes four components: The Prevention Education Series (PES), an eight-session alcohol, tobacco, and other drug program conducted by Project SUCCESS counselors (local staff trained by the developers) who help students identify and resist pressures to use substances, correct misperceptions about the prevalence and acceptability of substance use, and understand the consequences of substance use. School-wide activities and promotional materials to increase the perception of the harm of substance use, positively change social norms about substance use, and increase enforcement of and compliance with school policies and community laws. A parent program that includes informational meetings, parent education, and the formation of a parent advisory committee. Individual and group counseling, in which the Project SUCCESS counselors conduct time-limited counseling for youth following their participation in the PES and an individual assessment. Students and parents who require more intensive counseling, treatment, or other services are referred to appropriate agencies or practitioners in the community.
Project Towards No Drug Abuse (Project TND) is a drug use prevention program for high school youth. The current version of the curriculum is designed to help students develop self-control and communication skills, acquire resources that help them resist drug use, improve decision-making strategies, and develop the motivation to not use drugs. It is packaged in 12 40-minute interactive sessions to be taught by teachers or health educators. The TND curriculum was developed for high-risk students in continuation or alternative high schools. It has also been tested among traditional high school students.
Project Towards No Tobacco Use (Project TNT) is a classroom-based curriculum that aims to prevent and reduce tobacco use, primarily among 6th- to 8th-grade students. The intervention was developed for a universal audience and has served students with a wide variety of risk factors. Designed to counteract multiple causes of tobacco use simultaneously, Project TNT is based on the theory that youth will be better able to resist tobacco use if they are aware of misleading information that facilitates tobacco use (e.g., pro-tobacco advertising, inflated estimates of the prevalence of tobacco use), have skills that counteract the social pressures to obtain approval by using tobacco, and appreciate the physical consequences of tobacco use.
Project TNT comprises 10 core lessons and 2 booster lessons, all 40-50 minutes in duration. The core lessons are designed to be taught over a 2-week period but may be spread out over as long as 4 weeks. Booster lessons, which are taught 1 year afterward, are intended to be delivered over 2 consecutive days but may be taught 1 week apart. The curriculum uses a wide variety of activities to encourage student involvement and participation. Activities include games, videos, role-plays, large and small group discussion, use of student worksheets, homework assignments, activism letter writing, and a videotaping project. The two-lesson booster program summarizes previously learned material and discusses how this material might be used in daily living.
Project Venture is an outdoor experiential youth development program designed primarily for 5th- to 8th-grade American Indian youth. It aims to develop the social and emotional competence that facilitates youths' resistance to alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use. Based on traditional American Indian values such as family, learning from the natural world, spiritual awareness, service to others, and respect, Project Venture's approach is positive and strengths based. The program is designed to foster the development of positive self-concept, effective social interaction skills, a community service ethic, an internal locus of control, and improved decision-making and problem-solving skills. The central components of the program include a minimum of 20 1-hour classroom-based activities, such as problem-solving games and initiatives, conducted across the school year; weekly after-school, weekend, and summer skill-building experiential and challenge activities, such as hiking and camping; 3- to 10-day immersion summer adventure camps and wilderness treks; and community-oriented service learning and service leadership projects throughout the year.
Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies (PATHS) and PATHS Preschool are school-based preventive interventions for children in elementary school or preschool. The interventions are designed to enhance areas of social-emotional development such as self-control, self-esteem, emotional awareness, social skills, friendships, and interpersonal problem-solving skills while reducing aggression and other behavior problems. Skill concepts are presented through direct instruction, discussion, modeling, storytelling, role-playing activities, and video presentations. The elementary school PATHS Curriculum is available in two units: the PATHS Turtle Unit for kindergarten and the PATHS Basic Kit for grades 1-6. The curriculum includes 131 20- to 30-minute lessons designed to be taught by regular classroom teachers approximately 3 times per week over the course of a school year. PATHS Preschool, an adaptation of PATHS for children 3 to 5 years old, is designed to be implemented over a 2-year period. Its lessons and activities highlight writing, reading, storytelling, singing, drawing, science, and math concepts and help students build the critical cognitive skills necessary for school readiness and academic success. The PATHS Preschool program can be integrated into existing learning environments and adapted to suit individual classroom needs.
PROSPER (Promoting School-Community-University Partnerships to Enhance Resilience) is a practitioner-scientist partnership model that evolved out of a series of partnership-based prevention projects grounded in the Land Grant University-based Extension system and the elementary/secondary public school system. As a delivery system rather than substantive program, PROSPER attempts to foster implementation of evidence-based youth and family interventions, complete with ongoing needs assessments, monitoring of implementation quality and partnership functions, and evaluation of intervention outcomes. The program is best characterized by a school, community, and university partnership. The partnership includes (1) state-level university researchers and Extension-based program directors, (2) a prevention coordinator team typically based in the Cooperative Extension System (CES), and (3) local community strategic teams, consisting of a Cooperative Extension System team leader, a representative from the public elementary/secondary school systems who serves as a co-leader, representatives of local human service agencies and other relevant service providers, and other community stakeholders, such as youths and parents. As PROSPER teams develop, they should involve other stakeholders who can positively influence program recruitment, program implementation, and sustainability (such as individuals from various church groups, parent groups, businesses, law enforcement agencies, and/or the media). The local strategic teams receive technical support from the university-level and CES prevention coordinator team members, who attend the local team meetings. This technical assistance is proactive, meaning contact is made with local team members frequently (weekly or biweekly) in order to actively engage in collaborative problem solving.
Once formed, the local team is tasked to select evidenced-based, universal-level family-focused and school-based programs to implement with middle school youth and their families in the local school district.
For more information, please visit https://helpingkidsprosper.org/
Protecting You/Protecting Me (PY/PM) is a 5-year classroom-based alcohol use prevention and vehicle safety program for elementary school students in grades 1-5 (ages 6-11) and high school students in grades 11 and 12. The program aims to reduce alcohol-related injuries and death among children and youth due to underage alcohol use and riding in vehicles with drivers who are not alcohol free. PY/PM consists of a series of 40 science- and health-based lessons, with 8 lessons per year for grades 1-5. All lessons are correlated with educational achievement objectives. PY/PM lessons and activities focus on teaching children about (1) the brain--how it continues to develop throughout childhood and adolescence, what alcohol does to the developing brain, and why it is important for children to protect their brains; (2) vehicle safety, particularly what children can do to protect themselves if they have to ride with someone who is not alcohol free; and (3) life skills, including decision-making, stress management, media awareness, resistance strategies, and communication. Lessons are taught weekly and are 20-25 minutes or 45-50 minutes in duration, depending on the grade level. A variety of ownership activities promote students' ownership of the information and reinforces the skills taught during the lesson.
Parent take-home activities are offered for all 40 lessons. PY/PM's interactive and affective teaching processes include role-playing, small group and classroom discussions, reading, writing, storytelling, art, and music. The curriculum can be taught by school staff or prevention specialists. PY/PM also has a high school component for students in grades 11 and 12. The youth-led implementation model involves delivery of the PY/PM curriculum to elementary students by trained high school students who are enrolled in a peer mentoring, family and consumer science, or leadership course for credit. The program's benefits to high school students are derived from learning about the brain and how alcohol use can impact adolescents, serving as role models to the elementary school participants, and taking coursework in preparation for delivering the curriculum.
Raising Healthy Children (RHC) is a multifaceted program with separate components targeting classroom teachers, parents, and students to promote opportunities, skills and recognition in developmentally appropriate ways from grades 1-12. The goal is to decrease the negative impact of the student in the classroom by providing services to the family. The teacher program includes a series of workshops for instructional improvement in classroom management. Workshop topics include proactive classroom management, cooperative learning methods, strategies to enhance student motivation, student involvement and participation, reading strategies, and interpersonal problem-solving skills. In addition, after each workshop, RHC project staff provide classroom coaching for teachers. After the first year of the project, teachers participate in monthly booster sessions to further reinforce RHC teaching strategies. The RHC program for parents is conducted by school-home coordinators who are classroom teachers or specialists with experience in providing services to parents and families. Parent training and involvement include five-session parenting group workshops, selected topic workshops, and in-home problem-solving sessions. Topics for parent training include family management skills and "How to Help Your Child Succeed in School." The student intervention consists of summer camps targeting students with academic or behavioral problems who are recommended by teachers or parents. In addition, in-home services are provided for students referred for behavior or academic problems.
For more information, please visit https://depts.washington.edu/sdrg/programs-tools/.
Increasing the legal age for purchase and consumption of alcohol to age 21 and therefore reduces alcohol sales, use, and problems among young people.
The Red Cliff Wellness School Curriculum is a substance abuse prevention intervention based in Native American tradition and culture. Designed for grades K-12, the curriculum aims to reduce risk factors and enhance protective factors related to substance use, including school bonding, success in school, increased perception of risk from substances, and identification and internalization of culturally based values and norms. The Red Cliff program is taught by teachers who have been trained in interactive, cooperative learning techniques and facilitation. The manualized curriculum has separate components for grades K-3, 4-6, and 7-12. Each component includes 20-30 developmentally appropriate lessons and activities designed to enhance the values of sharing, respect, honesty, and kindness and to assist students in understanding their emotions. Small-group discussions (described as "talking circles" in Native American terms) are extensively used, along with small-group process activities, independent workbook activities, and collaborative projects for older students.
The school curriculum was created by the First American Prevention Center, an arm of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. The curriculum is part of a broader wellness initiative that includes a community curriculum and home wellness kit. The research reviewed in this summary involved only the elementary school component (grades 4-6) of the K-12 program.
The focus of RBS programs is to prevent alcohol service to minor and intoxicated patrons and to intervene so intoxicated patrons do not drive. Efforts to promote RBS consist of the implementation of a combination of outlet policies (e.g., requiring clerks or servers to check identification for all customers appearing to be under the age of 30, cutting off service to intoxicated patrons, limiting sales of pitchers of alcohol, promoting alcohol-free drinks and food, and eliminating last call announcements) and training in their implementation (e.g., teaching clerks and servers to recognize altered or false identification, training servers to recognize intoxicated patrons and deny service). RBS can be implemented at both on-license (Saltz & Stanghetta, 1997) and off-license establishments (Grube, 1997). Voluntary programs appear to be less effective than mandatory pro- grams or programs using incentives such as reduced liability. How RBS is implemented and what elements are included in a particular program may be an important determinant of its effectiveness. Policy development and implementation within outlets may be more important than server training in determining RBS effectiveness. Overall, however, establishing definite alcohol serving policies in each licensed establishment has the potential to reduce sales of alcohol to youth and overall problematic consumption of alcohol.
This strategy involves restricting the flow of alcohol at parties and other events on and off college campuses to reduce overall social availability of alcohol. Policies for preventing underage access to alcohol at parties can also be used to decrease the amount of drinking among older students. Overlapping community policies include banning beer kegs and prohibiting home deliveries of large quantities of alcohol. Overlapping policies for campus events include limiting the quantity of alcohol per person and monitoring or serving alcohol rather than allowing self-service.
Regulation or restriction of “happy hours” and other price promotions of alcohol (e.g., two drinks for the price of one, women drink for free), especially in on-premise outlets (i.e., bars and restaurants). Although not specific to college populations, the study has clear implications for college students; many bars surrounding campuses attract students by promoting drink specials. Restrictions on happy hours can be implemented by individual outlets, campuses (if a licensed establishment is on campus), local communities (if communities are not preempted by state law) and the state. In non- licensed settings on campus where alcohol is served, event planners may want to limit the amount of free alcohol available.
Reward & Reminder, a population-level intervention targeting whole communities, counties, or States, is designed to promote the community norm of not selling tobacco to minors. By using rapid and public rewards and recognition for clerks and retailers/outlets that do not sell tobacco to minors, Reward & Reminder aims to reduce illegal sales of tobacco, perceived access to tobacco, and tobacco use prevalence rates. The intervention emerged from a contextual analysis of factors affecting the behavior of store clerks, retailers, and the tobacco industry overall. At the core of the program is the use of "mystery shoppers," teams of youth who--with parental permission and under the supervision of adults--enter stores and try to buy tobacco products. They provide immediate recognition and rewards, such as gift certificates, to clerks who do the "right thing" and give reminders to those who do not. The results of the mystery shopper visits are entered into a Web-based system where they are made publicly visible, and the results are communicated to local media to promote the positive norm. The mystery shopper visits are scheduled across the year to maximize the immediate and sustained impact.
Schools And Families Educating Children (SAFEChildren) is a family-focused preventive intervention designed to increase academic achievement and decrease risk for later drug abuse and associated problems such as aggression, school failure, and low social competence. SAFEChildren targets 1st-grade children and their families living in inner-city neighborhoods. The intervention has two components. The first component is a multiple-family group approach that focuses on parenting skills, family relationships, understanding and managing developmental and situational challenges, increasing parental support, skills and issues in engaging as a parent with the school, and managing issues such as neighborhood problems (e.g., violence). Families participate in 20 weekly sessions (2 to 2.5 hours each) led by a trained, professional family group leader. Each session includes a review of the previous week's homework, discussion about a focused topic, and in-session role-plays and activities. The second component is a reading tutoring program for the child. Tutoring is provided twice weekly (one 30-minute and one 20-minute session) over 20 weeks, using a modified version of the Wallach program. Each tutoring session involves segments on phonics, sound and word activities, and reading books.
Say It Straight (SIS) is a communication training program designed to help students and adults develop empowering communication skills and behaviors and increase self-awareness, self-efficacy, and personal and social responsibility. In turn, the program aims to reduce risky or destructive behaviors such as substance use, eating disorders, bullying, violence, precocious sexual behavior, and behaviors that can result in HIV infection. SIS began as a school-based program for use in grades 3-12. Its application has been expanded to include students in detention and treatment, student mentors and mentees, parents, high-risk communities, adults in treatment, college students, and the homeless.
SIS is based in social learning and positive psychology, emphasizing values such as resiliency, courage, compassion, and integrity. The change process in SIS begins with the recognition of one's own disempowering behaviors and leads to awareness of one's own deepest wishes to choose empowering behaviors for wellness. These changes lead from relationships of submission and dominance to relationships of equal value. Building on SIS's principle of "rooting diversity in sameness," participants learn to identify with others even when they may disagree or have differences with them. By using a technique called "body sculpting" and creating and acting in role-plays or "movies," they explore how they feel when they engage in empowering and disempowering communication/behavior. In body sculpting, the participants place their bodies in postures that intensify and make overt their internal experiences; for example, a begging posture can be used to represent placating. The movies enable participants to act out difficult interpersonal situations that are important in their lives (e.g., alcohol or drug abuse, drinking and driving, speeding, cheating, stealing, bullying, violence, vandalism, sexual behavior). Movies can be videotaped to give participants the opportunity to observe themselves. SIS also incorporates feedback, journaling, and small- and large-group discussion. Through these processes, participants learn that by empowering themselves, they gain respect and empower others.
School policies are formal regulations which provide for sanctions against youth for the possession of alcohol on school property. The penalties are usually a part of school policies which ban or provide restrictions for possession or provision of alcohol on school property. Many schools are adopting zero-tolerance policies. These policies mandate predetermined consequences or punishments for specific serious student infractions. The vast majority of elementary and secondary schools have alcohol-related policies and the majority of schools have adopted zero tolerance policies. When alcohol violations are detected, suspension and expulsion are the typical responses. However, it is presently unknown what effect, if any, school sanctions have on the prevalence of underage drinking either at the individual or school population levels, whether schools are an appropriate venue for addressing this behavior, or, when compared to other possible venues, whether schools are better, worse, or equally effective in deterring or modifying this behavior.
Although the research on the topic is limited, there are some inferences that can be drawn about efforts to deter underage drinking. For example, all states and a number of municipalities have some type of prohibition against youth drinking, although these prohibitions vary from state to state. The nature and severity of the sanctions associated with violations of these prohibitions vary consider- ably across jurisdictions. It is also apparent that for a variety of reasons, enforcement of these laws is relatively sporadic and inconsistent. In addition, although all schools in this country have an alcohol policy, these policies also vary considerably.
Second Step is a classroom-based social-skills program for children 4 to 14 years of age that teaches socio-emotional skills aimed at reducing impulsive and aggressive behavior while increasing social competence. The program builds on cognitive behavioral intervention models integrated with social learning theory, empathy research, and social information-processing theories. The program consists of in- school curricula, parent training, and skill development. Second Step teaches children to identify and understand their own and others' emotions, reduce impulsiveness and choose positive goals, and manage their emotional reactions and decision-making process when emotionally aroused. The curriculum is divided into two age groups: preschool through 5th grade (with 20 to 25 lessons per year) and 6th through 9th grade (with 15 lessons in year 1 and 8 lessons in the following 2 years). Each curriculum contains five teaching kits that build sequentially and cover empathy, impulse control, and anger management in developmentally and age-appropriate ways. Group decision-making, modeling, coaching, and practice are demonstrated in the Second Step lessons using interpersonal situations presented in photos or video format.
Sembrando Salud is a culturally sensitive, community-based tobacco- and alcohol-use prevention program specifically adapted for migrant Hispanic/Latino adolescents and their families. The program is designed to improve parent-child communication skills as a way of improving and maintaining healthy decisionmaking. Designed for youth 11 to 16 years of age, the 8-week curriculum for adolescents and their families is delivered by bilingual/bicultural college students in classrooms and meeting rooms in school-based settings.
The program interventions are a mix of interactive teaching methods including group discussions led by a leader, videos, demonstrations, skill practice, and role-playing. Adolescents are exposed to how problems can be identified and analyzed, solutions generated, and decisions made, implemented, and evaluated. There is also a focus on developing parental support for the healthy discussions and behaviors of adolescents through enhanced parent-child communications. Parental communication skills, such as listening, confirmation, and reassurance, also are developed.
The program develops new behavioral skills, such as refusing alcohol and tobacco offers, and communicating with peers and adults alike. Program Development Support The National Cancer Institute, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, funded development of Sembrando Salud.
SMART Leaders is a 2-year booster program that follows from Stay SMART (for Skills, Mastery, And Resistance Training). Both are components of SMART Moves, a comprehensive drug and sexual activity prevention program offered through the Boys and Girls Clubs of America (BGCA). Stay SMART is a curriculum-based program for 13- to 15-year-olds that teaches a broad spectrum of social and personal competence skills to help youths identify and resist peer and other social pressures to smoke, drink, and engage in sexual activity. The program consists of 12 sessions: 1) gateway drugs, 2) decision-making, 3) advertising, 4) self-image and self-improvement, 5) coping with change, 6) coping with stress, 7) communication skills, 8) social skills: meeting and greeting people, 9) social skills: boy meets girl, 10) assertiveness, 11) relationships, and 12) life planning skills.
SMART Leaders reinforces the skills and knowledge learned during Stay SMART and encourages participants to stay involved in prevention activities and to be positive, drug-free role models for their peers. SMART Leaders I involves five small group sessions consisting of role-playing and videotapes about identifying different peer pressures to use drugs and engage in sexual activity and learning to resist those pressures. SMART Leaders II is taught in a three-session video format, with one session dedicated to resisting alcohol, one session to resisting drugs, and one to resisting early sexual activity. Participants are encouraged to become involved in other programs and activities at the BGCA and encourage their peers to be drug-free.
The traditional strategy for increasing perceived certainty of apprehension is to increase the frequency and visibility of drinking-and-driving enforcement, for example, by simply intensifying police enforcement in the form of short-term intensive checkpoints during holidays. Increasing the probability of arrest could translate into a higher perceived probability of detection and fewer accidents. At sobriety checkpoints, only motorists who are judged by police to have been drinking are asked to take a breath test. This approach greatly weakens the deterrent potential because experienced offenders believe (with some justification) that they can avoid detection.
A local ordinance that establishes either a civil or criminal offense for a person who provides alcohol to persons under 21 years of age and enables law enforcement to cite the individual who hosted the party or who owns or controls the property where parties occur. These responsible individuals may include older peers, parents, landowners and tenants. These ordinances are specifically directed at adults who might dismiss the state laws concerning underage drinking, health- related warnings, insist on serving minors, host parties and/or look the other way when others host on their property. The intent is not to seek out and punish adults who are regularly monitoring their children and who take reasonable precautions to prevent their children from hosting underage parties.
A substantial portion of alcohol obtained by underage persons is from social sources (friends, parties, homes, etc.) and other persons who purchase alcohol and provide it to underage persons (both persons themselves under the legal purchase age and persons who themselves are of legal age). The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, has created a guide for reducing alcohol access by youth (OJJDP, 1999). The highest priorities recommended by OJJDP is a compendium of environmental strategies including “shoulder taps” and compliance checks. Shoulder taps occur when an underage person asks another person to purchase alcohol on their behalf. These are common means by which adolescents obtain alcohol (e.g., Jones-Webb et al., 1997a, 1997b; Smart, Adlaf, & Walsh, 1996; Wagenaar et al., 1993, 1996), in part because young people believe it to be less risky than purchasing alcohol themselves. Underage persons themselves are breaking the law through this purchase, even if they do not consume the alcohol. Adults of legal purchase age are also breaking the law by purposefully purchasing alcohol for a young person. Shoulder tap interventions occur when an underage person or a person who appears to be underage age, stand outside a licensed alcohol outlet and approach an older person to request that he/she purchase alcohol for them. In such cases, the potential buyer may be offered a small “fee” for making this purchase. If the older person actually makes the alcohol purchase and gives it to the youth, then they can be arrested or cited by the police.
SPORT is a brief, multiple behavior program integrating substance abuse prevention and fitness promotion to help adolescents minimize and avoid substance use while increasing physical activity and other health-promoting habits. It is based on the Behavior-Image Model, which asserts that social and self-images are key motivators for the development of healthy behavior. The intervention promotes the benefits of an active lifestyle with positive images of youth as active and fit, and emphasizes that substance use is counterproductive in achieving positive image and behavior goals. SPORT involves a short, self-administered health behavior screen survey measuring physical activity and sport behaviors and norms, healthy nutrition, sleep, and alcohol use. Participants then receive a 10- to 12-minute personally tailored consultation from a written script, along with a key facts handout. A simple fitness prescription goal plan is completed by participants to motivate positive behavior and image change. In addition, parent/caregiver communication cards addressing key content are provided during the consultation and then sent or mailed home to adolescents for 3 to 5 consecutive weeks.
Please note that for DBHR Prevention grantees, SPORT PPW is considered an Evidence-based Program only when implemented in one-on-one format, and not considered EBP when implemented in a group format.
One form of retail alcohol regulation retail outlets is for the government to monopolize ownership of one or more types. The idea of government ownership of alcohol sales outlets in the interest of public order or public health first arose around 1850. A government monopoly typically greatly reduced the number of outlets, limited the hours of operation for sales, and removed the private profit motive for increasing sales.
Storytelling for Empowerment is a school-based, bilingual (English and Spanish) intervention for teenagers at risk for substance abuse, HIV, and other problem behaviors due to living in impoverished communities with high availability of drugs and limited health care services. The program primarily targets Latino/Latina youth and uses cognitive decision-making, positive cultural identity (cultural empowerment), and resiliency models of prevention as its conceptual underpinnings. Storytelling for Empowerment aims to decrease alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use by identifying and reducing factors in the individual, family, school, peer group, neighborhood/community, and society/media that place youth at high risk for ATOD use, while enhancing factors that may strengthen youth resiliency and protect against ATOD use. The core components of the intervention include the Storytelling PowerBook and the Facilitator's Guide. The PowerBook is a series of activity workbooks that include the following sections: Knowledge Power: brain physiology, physical effects of drugs Skill Power: decision-making strategies, role-playing Personal Power: multicultural stories, symbol making Character Power: multicultural historical figures, character traits Culture Power: defining culture, bi-culture, subculture; cultural symbols Future Power: multicultural role models, choosing a role model, goal setting
Other available adaptations of the PowerBook include the (1) StoryBook for HIV, with sections on science, risk factors, relationships, and self-efficacy, and (2) Stories To Live or Die By: Inhalants, Meth, Ecstasy, which teaches facts and myths about methamphetamine, ecstasy, and club drugs.
The Strengthening Families Program (SFP) is a family skills training program designed to increase resilience and reduce risk factors for behavioral, emotional, academic, and social problems in children 3-16 years old. SFP comprises three life-skills courses delivered in 14 weekly, 2-hour sessions. The Parenting Skills sessions are designed to help parents learn to increase desired behaviors in children by using attention and rewards, clear communication, effective discipline, substance use education, problem solving, and limit setting. The Children's Life Skills sessions are designed to help children learn effective communication, understand their feelings, improve social and problem- solving skills, resist peer pressure, understand the consequences of substance use, and comply with parental rules. In the Family Life Skills sessions, families engage in structured family activities, practice therapeutic child play, conduct family meetings, learn communication skills, practice effective discipline, reinforce positive behaviors in each other, and plan family activities together. Participation in ongoing family support groups and booster sessions is encouraged to increase generalization and the use of skills learned.
The Strengthening Families Program: For Parents and Youth 10-14 (SFP 10-14) is a family skills training intervention designed to enhance school success and reduce youth substance use and aggression among 10- to 14-year-olds. It is theoretically based on several etiological and intervention models including the bio-psychosocial vulnerability, resiliency, and family process models. The program includes seven 2- hour sessions and four optional booster sessions in which parents and youth meet separately for instruction during the first hour and together for family activities during the second hour. The sessions provide instruction for parents on understanding the risk factors for substance use, enhancing parent-child bonding, monitoring compliance with parental guidelines and imposing appropriate consequences, managing anger and family conflict, and fostering positive child involvement in family tasks. Children receive instruction on resisting peer influences to use substances. Sessions, which are typically held once a week, can be taught effectively by a wide variety of staff.
The Strong African American Families (SAAF) program is a 7-week interactive educational program for African American parents and their early adolescent children living in rural communities. Early adolescence is the period in which children gain increasing control over their behavior, begin forming friendships based on similarities and common interests, and develop attitudes toward substances and substance use. The attitudes and behaviors that they develop during this time influence their achievement motivation, academic performance and friendship selections, which in turn lead them toward or away from substance use. The SAAF program is designed to strengthen positive family interactions and to enhance parents' efforts to help their children establish and reach positive goals during this critical transition between childhood and adolescence.
For more information, please visit https://cfr.uga.edu/saaf-programs-old/saaf/
The Strong African American Families - Teen (SAAF-T) intervention is a preventive intervention for African-American teens living in rural communities and entering high school. It integrates individual youth skills building, parenting skills training, and family interaction training. SAAF-T involves five group sessions using DVDs where narrators address specific content and actors present family scenarios depicting program-targeted interactions and behaviors. Each meeting includes separate one-hour concurrent training for caregivers and youth, followed by a one-hour conjoint session during which families practice the skills they learned in their separate sessions. The program provides parents and youth with skills that nurture adolescent self-regulation, achievement orientation, and negative attitudes toward substance use and other risk behaviors. The program is interactive involving role-playing activities, guided discussions, and question answering.
For more information, please visit https://cfr.uga.edu/saaf-programs-old/saaf-t/
Team Awareness is a customizable worksite prevention training program that addresses behavioral risks associated with substance abuse among employees, their coworkers, and, indirectly, their families. The training seeks to promote social health and increased communication between workers; improve knowledge about and attitudes toward alcohol- and drug-related protective factors in the workplace, such as company policy and Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs); and increase peer referral behaviors. To achieve these objectives, the training focuses on six components: the importance of substance abuse prevention; team ownership of policy (embracing policy as a useful tool for enhancing safety and well-being for the whole workgroup); stress, including stressors, individual coping styles, and other methods for coping; tolerance and how it can become a risk factor for groups; the importance of appropriate help-seeking and help-giving behavior; and access to resources for preventive counseling or treatment (e.g., EAPs, local community resources, 12-step programs, wellness programs). Training is highly interactive and includes group discussions, videos, role-playing, quizzes, games, communication exercises, and optional homework assignments.
The primary goal of tobacco-free environmental policies is to create environments that do not expose youth to the use and possession of tobacco.
Research demonstrates that tobacco use and exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke is a threat to health. Policies restricting the use of tobacco in schools and other environments should reduce adolescents’ exposure to secondhand tobacco smoke and limit places where they can use tobacco and thus reduce the health risks associated with tobacco use and secondhand smoke.
Too Good for Drugs (TGFD) is a school-based prevention program for kindergarten through 12th grade that builds on students' resiliency by teaching them how to be socially competent and autonomous problem solvers. The program is designed to benefit everyone in the school by providing needed education in social and emotional competencies and by reducing risk factors and building protective factors that affect students in these age groups. TGFD focuses on developing personal and interpersonal skills to resist peer pressures, goal setting, decision-making, bonding with others, having respect for self and others, managing emotions, effective communication, and social interactions. The program also provides information about the negative consequences of drug use and the benefits of a nonviolent, drug- free lifestyle. TGFD has developmentally appropriate curricula for each grade level through 8th grade, with a separate high school curriculum for students in grades 9 through 12. The K-8 curricula each include 10 weekly, 30- to 60-minute lessons, and the high school curriculum includes 14 weekly, 1-hour lessons plus 12 1-hour "infusion" lessons designed to incorporate and reinforce skills taught in the core curriculum through academic infusion in subject areas such as English, social studies, and science/health. Ideally, implementation begins with all school personnel (e.g., teachers, secretaries, janitors) participating in a 10-hour staff development program, which can be implemented either as a series of 1-hour sessions or as a 1- or 2-day workshop.
Lower blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limits for underage drivers and/or a risk of loss of license when an underage youth has been found to be drinking, even if the youth was not driving. Usually this limit is set at the minimum that can be reliably detected by breath-testing equipment (i.e., .01-.02 BACs). Zero-tolerance laws also commonly invoke other penalties such as automatic license revocation.