Alcohol Use and Psychosocial Outcome of Two Preventive Classroom Programs with Seventh and Tenth Graders

Abstract

Two preventive intervention programs on alcohol and other substance use were devised for classrooms of junior and senior high school students. One program focused on resistance to social influence, and the other on attitude change and decision making. Youngsters undergoing these interventions were compared with controls who had no intervention on both alcohol usage measures and nonusage psychosocial indices at a pre-intervention baseline, at one-year post-intervention for tenth graders, and at two-year post-intervention for seventh graders. No difference in outcome between the two interventions was found for tenth graders, but one-year post-intervention tenth graders who had either of the interventions used less alcohol than controls. Nonusage measures were not affected. Seventh graders showed no usage effects of interventions two years post-intervention, but the nonusage measures suggested more prosocial behavior. Also among seventh graders, those with a high score on peer or parent alcohol use modeling responded better to the social resistance intervention, while those with a low score responded better to the attitudinal intervention.