A MIDDLE SCHOOL CURRICULM IN ALCOHOL ABUSE PREVENTION

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Goals: to develop a school-based prevention program which will: (a) increase students' negative expectancies concerning the utility of alcohol for enhancing human performance; (b) produce a lower drinking index, representing average number of drinking episodes in the past 7 days and in the past 30 days. Design: Four middle schools will be studied over a 5 year period. In year 1, two schools will be randomly assigned to an experimental curriculum. All 7th graders in these two schools will receive the curriculum. All 7th graders in the remaining two schools will receive a drug information comparison treatment. In year 2, all 8th graders (who were in the program as 7th graders in the previous year) will receive an intensive, counselor led social competency intervention delivered in small groups. In addition, a family workbook designed to provide intervention at the family level will accompany the experimental treatment in year 2. An information workbook will be coupled with the drug information condition. Intervention: The 2 year treatment program will be compromised of a series of 40 lessons designed to provide adolescents with (a) incentives for adopting an alcohol-free or non-problem drinking lifestyle so that such a lifestyle is perceived as attractive; (b) cognitive and behavioral skills enabling them to make changes both in tier own behavior and in environmental contexts providing support for their behavior, and (c) specific practice in using skills in order to strengthen their perceived competence in employing their newly acquired behaviors effectively. The family workbook has 20 lessons to help families learn social and health risks of alcohol use, examine drinking behavior or abstinence in the family, help the family establish rules around drinking, discuss how to avoid drinking and driving and to provide a problem-solving model to diffuse the emotions around drinking. Students will be measured 11 times between the 7th and 11th grades. Measures: will include self-reported drinking behavior, drinking motives, expectancies about the effects of alcohol, personality variables, depression, family history of alcohol use and abuse, school performance and attendance.