Original article
Longitudinal Outcomes of an Alcohol Abuse Prevention Program for Urban Adolescents

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.11.208Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

This randomized clinical trial examined longitudinal outcomes from an alcohol abuse prevention program aimed at urban youths.

Methods

Study participants were an ethnically and racially heterogeneous sample of early adolescents, recruited from community-based agencies in greater New York City and its environs. Once they assented to study participation and gained parental permission, youths were divided into three arms: youth intervention delivered by CD-ROM (CD), the same youth intervention plus parent intervention (CDP), and control. Once all youths completed baseline measures, those in CD and CDP arms received a computerized 10-session alcohol abuse prevention program. Parents of youths in the CDP arm received supplemental materials to support and strengthen their children's learning. All youths completed postintervention and annual follow-up measures, and CD- and CDP-arm participants received annual booster intervention sessions.

Results

Seven years following postintervention testing and relative to control-arm youths, youths in CD and CDP arms reported less alcohol use, cigarette use, binge drinking, and peer pressure to drink; fewer drinking friends; greater refusal of alcohol use opportunities; and lower intentions to drink. No differences were observed between CD and CDP arms.

Conclusions

Study findings lend support to the potential of computerized, skills-based prevention programs to help urban youth reduce their risks for underage drinking.

Section snippets

Participants

Study participants were 513 early adolescent girls and boys from greater New York City and its environs, including Trenton, NJ, and Wilmington, DE. The size of the study sample reflected statistical power calculations for finding small effect sizes [26]. Youths were recruited through the auspices of community-based agencies that provided such after-school services as recreation, tutoring, computer labs, and sports. On average, roughly 12 youths from each agency enrolled in the study. At the

Results

At 7-year follow-up, the sample had a mean age of 18.42 years (SD = 1.11), was 53.1% female, and was 51.6% Black, 27.4% Hispanic, 9.3% White, and 11.7% other ethnic–racial groups. As they did at baseline measurement, study arms differed in their ethnic–racial composition (p < .0001; Table 1). Outcome variable means and standard deviations for youths assigned to CD, CDP, and control arms at baseline and 7-year follow-up appear in Table 2.

At 7-year follow-up, youths' older age was associated with

Discussion

Seven years after initially receiving a computer-based substance abuse prevention program, a sample of late-adolescent youths continued to realize material benefits. Youths who received intervention, regardless of whether their parents also received intervention, reported less alcohol use, binge drinking, and cigarette smoking, relative to control-arm youths. That youths involved in the prevention program also were better able to refuse drinking opportunities, reported less peer pressure to

Acknowledgments

Supported by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism grant R01 AA11924.

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