COUNTERING PRESSURES RELATED TO ADOLESCENT ALCOHOL MISUS

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The long-term objectives of the proposed project are to develop and test models of antecedents of adolescent alcohol use and misuse and to use the results of those tests to develop, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based social skills program in the prevention of adolescent alcohol misuse. The specific aims of the project are: 1) to conduct iterative development and testing of covariance structure models of antecedents of adolescent alcohol use and misuse behaviors; 2) to conduct continued longitudinal follow-up posttests in grades 10 and 12 of approximately 2,800 students who experienced the marginal alcohol misuse prevention program in grades 5 and 6, in order to assess the differential rates of change in alcohol use and misuse among the treatment, treatment plus booster, and control groups; 3) the development, implementation, and evaluation of a grade 10 alcohol misuse booster curriculum administered to half of the students in the longitudinal follow-up study, and 4) the development, implementation, and evaluation of a revised and expanded alcohol misuse prevention program, based on the iterative tests of covariance structure models, in grades 6 through 8. Pilot studies will be conducted on approximately 1,000 students in grades 6, 8, 10, and 12 to provide the initial estimates of covariance structure model parameters and to develop instruments for the continued longitudinal followup study and the evaluation of the grade 6 through 8 curriculum. The instruments will be used to test the 2,800 students from the original study at the beginning and end of grade 10 and at the end of grade 12. Half of the 2,800 students will experience a booster curriculum in grade 10 designed to increase resistance to pressures to misuse alcohol, with a central focus on resisting situations which involve drinking. The instruments will also be used to test a new sample of approximately 4,000 students at the beginning and end of grade 6 and at the end of grades 7 and 8. Half of these 4,000 students will experience a revised and expanded alcohol misuse prevention program, with a central focus on the development of social skills and resisting social pressures to misuse alcohol, during grades 6, 7 and 8. Analyses will be conducted on longitudinal data files with individual records matched across occasions. Adjustments will be made in the analyses for the testing of subjects within classrooms and within schools. A test of the generalizability of the new grade 6 through 8 alcohol misuse prevention curriculum school systems will be conducted.