Effectiveness of a Universal Drug Abuse Prevention Approach for Youth at High Risk for Substance Use Initiation

La fidelidad en la implementación de programas está siendo cadavez más reconocida como un componente clave en los programas deprevención efectivos. El presente estudio examina la asociación entre la fidelidad en la implementación y los datos de consumo de drogas entre jóvenes estudiantes en 11 escuelas medias de Nueva York donde se han aplicado programas de prevención de drogas. Observadores entrenados supervisaron la implementación de un programa de prevención aplicado por profesores (N=38), los alumnos participantes (N=1857) completaron cuestionarios sobre el uso de tabaco y alcohol en un periodo de 15 meses. Los resultados indican que los profesores que prefi rieron las clases magistrales cuando impartían el programa, utilizaban con menor probabilidad el debate y la demostración como métodos educativos.Asimismo, los profesores que prefi rieron las clases magistrales fueron valorados por los observadores como menos preparados para dar clase y con menor capacidad de gestión de la clase. Los resultados indican que los factores relacionados con la calidad de implementación predicen significativamente el cambio en los datos de consumo de sustancias entre los estudiantes. AbstractImplementation fi delity is increasingly recognized as a key component of effective prevention programming. The present study examined the association between implementation fi delity and youth substance use outcomes among students in 11 New York City middle schools receiving a drug abuse prevention program. Trained observers monitored the implementation of a research-based prevention program by classroom teachers (N = 38), and participating students (N = 1,857) completed surveys assessing smoking and alcohol use over a 15-month period.Findings indicated that teachers who relied more on lecturing whenteaching the program were less likely to use discussion and demonstration as teaching methods. Teachers who relied on lecturing were rated by observers as being less ready to teach and having poorer classroom management skills. Findings indicated that factors related to the quality of implementation signifi cantly predicted change in student substance use outcomes. Students who were taught by the most skilled providers reported signifi cantly lower increases in smoking and drinking at the follow-up assessments compared to students taught by other providers.These fi ndings suggest that teacher training to enhance implementation fidelity is a crucial component to program success in terms of student behavioral outcomes.

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An Outcome Evaluation of Refusal Skills Program as a Drug Abuse Prevention Strategy

Journal of Drug Education ◽

10.2190/expa-1p58-u256-caj4 ◽

1989 ◽

Vol 19 (4) ◽

pp. 363-371 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Sehwan Kim ◽

Jonnie H. McLeod ◽

Carl Shantzis

Keyword(s):

Drug Abuse ◽

High Risk ◽

Outcome Evaluation ◽

Prevention Strategy ◽

Abuse Prevention ◽

Drug Abuse Prevention ◽

Refusal Skills ◽

New Strategy ◽

Drug Involvement

In recent years successful strategies developed in the antismoking campaign became the basis for widely publicized and federally endorsed antidrug “Just Say No” programs. Similarly, many refusal skills programs have been introduced as a new strategy in adolescent drug abuse prevention. However, none of these programs have been evaluated. While employing a typical refusal skills program entitled “WHOA! A Great Way To Say NO,” the effectiveness of the program was examined. Through this outcome evaluation, it has been learned that the program was not able to impact on the “high-risk” attitudinal syndromes that are closely related to student drug involvement. Unexpectedly, a significantly larger proportion of students in the program felt it was more difficult to say “No” at the time of the posttest than during the time of the pretest. This seems to suggest that the program participants became more attentive to the issues surrounding saying “No” or, perhaps, were more sensitized to the whole issue involving saying “No,” thereby making it more difficult for them to say “No” during the posttest period.

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Drug abuse prevention for high-risk African American children and their families: A review and model program

Addictive Behaviors ◽

10.1016/0306-4603(93)90051-a ◽

1993 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

pp. 213-234 ◽

Cited By ~ 12

Author(s):

Vincent B. Van Hasselt ◽

Mitchel Hersen ◽

Jane A. Null ◽

Robert T. Ammerman ◽

Oscar G. Bukstein ◽

...

Keyword(s):

African American ◽

Drug Abuse ◽

High Risk ◽

Abuse Prevention ◽

African American Children ◽

Model Program ◽

Drug Abuse Prevention ◽

American Children

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An Evaluation of the Fidelity of Implementation of a School-Based Drug Abuse Prevention Program: Project toward No Drug Abuse (TND)

Journal of Drug Education ◽

10.2190/4lkj-nq7y-pu2a-x1bk ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 35 (4) ◽

pp. 305-329 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Silvana Skara ◽

Louise Ann Rohrbach ◽

Ping Sun ◽

Steve Sussman

Keyword(s):

High Schools ◽

Drug Abuse ◽

High Risk ◽

Implementation Fidelity ◽

Abuse Prevention ◽

Drug Abuse Prevention ◽

Behavioral Skills ◽

Continuation High Schools ◽

High Risk Youth ◽

Outcome Differences

This article provides an implementation fidelity evaluation of the fourth experimental trial of Project Towards No Drug Abuse (TND). Two theoretical content components of the curriculum were examined to increase our understanding of the active ingredients of successful drug abuse prevention programs. A total of 18 senior high schools were randomly assigned by block to receive one of three conditions: cognitive perception information curriculum, cognitive perception information + behavioral skills curriculum, or standard care (control). These curricula were delivered to both regular and continuation high schools students ( n = 2331) by trained project health educators and regular classroom teachers. Across all program schools, the two different curricula were implemented as intended, were received favorably by students, and showed significant improvements in knowledge specific to the theoretical content being delivered. This pattern of results suggests that the experimental manipulations worked as intended, and thus, permit the attribution of future behavioral outcome differences between conditions to differences in content of Project TND material provided rather than to differences in the fidelity of delivery. Further, our findings indicate that Project TND can be implemented effectively with low and high risk youth in a general environment as well as with high risk youth in a more specialized environment.

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