SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION IN HIGH RISK ADOLESCENTS

The purpose of the proposed study is to evaluate the effectiveness of personal and social coping skills training in preventing substance abuse in high risk adolescents. In addition, the effectiveness of generalization programming in the adolescent's natural social environment through the school, the family, and the media will be explored. Six hundred students who have been identified as at risk for substance abuse 60 secondary schools in two metropolitan areas will participate in the study. The metropolitan areas will be assigned to one of the following conditions: (1) Media-PSAs aimed at cueing utilization of coping skills, or (2) No-media. Thirty schools within each city will be randomly assigned to one of the three following conditions: (1) School intervention--student coping skills training and school staff training aimed at facilitating cueing and reinforcing of coping skills in the school environment; (2) School intervention plus Parent Training aimed at facilitating cueing and reinforcing coping skills in the family environment; or (3) Placebo control. Outcome will be evaluated through pre-training, post-training, and one-year follow-up assessment on cognitive measures, self-report of substance use measures, physiological measures, attitudinal measures, self-report personality measures, performance mastery measures, behavior ratings of parents and teachers, and school records of behavior and academic performance. Process evaluation will be carried out through measures of student acquisition of coping skills, PSA effectiveness and target population penetration, and parent and school staff knowledge acquisition.