Disadvantaged Youth and Alcohol Abuse Prevention

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The research will extend work begun in a randomized trial of individual and family interventions for preventing alcohol use among economically disadvantaged urban youth. In that trial, roughly 500 early adolescents from greater New York City, New Jersey, and Delaware were assigned by collaborating community site to one of three arms: youth intervention, youth intervention plus parent intervention, or control. Youths in both intervention arms completed initial and booster sessions of an alcohol abuse prevention program delivered by CD-ROM. Parents of youths in the second intervention arm received content to support youth intervention via videotape, newsletters, and a workshop. All youths were followed for 3 years. Findings to date demonstrate the efficacy of youth intervention and show modest added benefits for youths whose parents received intervention. Building on this work, the continuation study will longitudinally track youths as they enter the high-risk years for alcohol use, develop and deliver boosters sessions for youths and parents, and analyze program effects by study arm, intervention dosage, and gender and ethnic-racial variables. The contribution of mediating variables to intervention outcomes will also be explored. Annual follow-up measurements in the continuation study will include new scales to assess youths' increased risks for alcohol use by virtue of their maturation and prior scales administered at pretest, posttest, and 1-, 2-, and 3-year follow-up measurements in the current study. Tracking provisions are in place to retain the sample throughout the second 5 years of funding.