The current study examines the association between risk behaviors and victimization and race-based victimization amongst U.S.-born and foreign-born Asian, Black, and Latinx adolescents. Data were derived from the U.S. subset of the 2009-2010 Health Behavior in School-aged Children study. Samples include 662 Asian, 2413 Black, and 3188 Latinx…

With the growing awareness of adolescent prescription drug abuse, communities and schools are beginning to explore prevention and intervention strategies which are appropriate for their youth. This article provides a framework for developing a collaborative approach to prescription drug abuse prevention--called the Prevention Awareness Team--that…

Prescription drug misuse is a major health problem, particularly among teens. A key step in curbing misuse is the development of effective prescription drug prevention messages. This paper explores the elements of prescription drug misuse prevention messages that resonate with teens using data from focus groups with seventh and eighth grade…

Adolescents may engage in risk behaviors that jeopardize their futures. Although adolescent risk-taking has long been attributed to faulty decision making, surprisingly little research has directly examined this link. This study examined the role of deliberative decision making (the tendency to consider options and consequences before making a…

This study examined the longitudinal effects of five family factors (familism, parent derogation, parent-child communication, family alcohol problems, and family drug problems) on intensity of alcohol use among a sample of 451 African American and White non-Hispanic males from early to mid-adolescence (sixth through eighth grades). Results…

This study examined the relationship of social influences to use drugs and competence variables with lifetime poly-drug use for adolescents residing in inner-city regions. The same model was tested separately for boys and girls. Sixth- and seventh-graders (N = 2400) in inner-city schools self-reported substance use, social influences to use drugs…

Among preadolescents, use of "gateway" substances (tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana) is rare. By high school, most students have normally established habits of use or nonuse. Because the occurrence of first and experimental use is most frequent during the years around puberty, programs targeting sixth and seventh grades seem most promising.…

In a recent randomized field trial, Ellickson et al. found the Project ALERT drug prevention curriculum curbed alcohol misuse and tobacco and marijuana use among eighth-grade adolescents. This article reports effects among ninth-grade at-risk adolescents. Comparisons between at-risk girls in ALERT Plus schools (basic curriculum extended to ninth…

Evaluation with over 4,000 seventh and eighth graders in California and Oregon showed that Project ALERT, a curriculum to curb drug use by teaching resistance to pressures, successfully dampened cognitive risk factors for cigarette and marijuana use but had limited impact on beliefs about alcohol. (SK)

A study was conducted to determine variables which would predict smoking among 297 seventh graders and to test the validity of the variables in a followup one year later. The most valid predictors were number of friends and siblings who smoked and the intention to smoke in the future. (PP)

Examined effectiveness of refusal skills program implemented with seventh graders (N=235) of "Just Say No" variety. Program was not able to influence the "high-risk" attitudinal syndromes that are closely related to student drug involvement, and significantly larger proportion of students found it more difficult to say…

Although concern about adolescent drug use has grown over the past two decades, strategies for controlling use have not kept pace. Project ALERT (Adolescent Learning Experiences in Resistance Training), a school-based program, specifically targets cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana, the so-called gateway drugs. It is based on the social influence…

Reports on the effectiveness of a drug abuse prevention intervention with a predominantly minority sample of seventh-grade students (N=721). Results indicate that this approach was effective on several behavioral measures of current drug use, including measures of polydrug use and on intention measures relevant to future drug use. (RJM)

The relationship between level of program implementation and change in adolescent drug use behavior in the Midwestern Prevention Project was assessed. Results for 5,065 sixth and seventh graders at follow up are discussed in terms of research assumptions about the quality of program implementation and possible school-level predictors of…

Reports the level of participation of parents in a parent-targeted school-based drug prevention program, and the differences between students whose parents participated and those who didn't. Results indicate that parent-targeted drug prevention programs may stigmatize attending parents and may be unlikely to attract the highest risk families. (JPS)