Effectiveness of culturally focused and generic skills training approaches to alcohol and drug abuse prevention among minority adolescents: Two-year follow-up results.

Abstract

Two-year follow-up data (from inner-city, minority adolescents) were collected to test the effectiveness of 2 skills-based substance abuse prevention programs and were compared both with a control condition and with each other. Students were originally recruited from 6 New York City public schools while in 7th grade. Schools were matched and assigned to receive a generic skills training prevention approach, a culturally focused prevention approach, or an information-only control. Students in both prevention approaches had less current alcohol use and had lower intentions to engage in future alcohol use relative to students in the control group. Students in the culturally focused group also engaged less in current alcohol behavior and had lower intentions to drink beer or wine than those in the generic skills group. Both prevention programs influenced several mediating variables in a direction consistent with nondrug use, and these variables also mediated alcohol use.Recent national survey data (Johnston, O'Malley, & Bachman, 1994) showed that substance use is once again on the increase, further underscoring the importance of developing effective prevention approaches. Literature reviews

Effects of a School-Based Drug Abuse Prevention Program for Adolescents on HIV Risk Behavior in Young Adulthood

“…Over the past several years, the prevention approach used in the present study has been tested with minority youth (Botvin et al, 1995b) and shown to be effective in preventing substance use among inner-city minority youth in a large randomized trial (Botvin et al, 2001). Thus, an important goal of future research is to examine whether the prevention effects observed in the present study can extend to high risk urban minority populations as young adults, both in terms of risky sexual behavior and drug abuse.…”

Media resistance skills and drug skill refusal techniques: What is their relationship with alcohol use among inner-city adolescents?

“…Specifically, the findings suggested that alcohol prevention programs that include competence enhancement skills should be more effective than those that do not. Other prevention research has demonstrated the effectiveness of such approaches on alcohol use with ethnic minority inner-city adolescents (e.g., Botvin, Epstein, Baker, Diaz & Ifill-Williams, 1997;Botvin, Griffin, Diaz, & Ifill-Williams, 2001;Botvin et al, 1995). The current study suggested support for competence enhancement programs to include generic media resistance skills and new knowledge about the mechanism through which these competence skills may work.…”

“…The panel sample across all three waves consisted of 1318 students (59% retention). Prior work with inner-city populations has found similar rates of retention for twoyear follow-ups (e.g., Botvin, Schinke et al, 1995;Epstein et al, 2000). There was no further information available about students who did not continue participation.…”

“…Another longitudinal study found that refusal skills (in combination with other factors) mediated the effects of two prevention programs on adolescent alcohol use among inner-city youth (Botvin, Schinke, Epstein, Diaz & Botvin, 1995). General competence skills consisted of decision-making (items related ability to make sound decisions, such as "When I have a problem I think about which of the alternatives is best.")…”

Psychosocial Wellbeing of Black Youth in the Age of Hip-Hop: From Theory to Practice

“…Importantly, there is research suggesting the enhancement of competence can help to prevent other negative academic and social outcomes. Perhaps of even greater importance for research purposes, competence can be specified and measured independently, serving as its own outcome and indicator of positive development [30].…”