Preventing binge drinking during early adolescence: one- and two-year follow-up of a school-based preventive intervention.
The authors examined the effectiveness of a school-based prevention program on reducing binge drinking in a sample of minority, inner-city, middle-school students. Rates of binge drinking were compared among youth who received the program beginning in the 7th grade (n = 1,713) and a control group (n = 1,328) that did not. The prevention program had protective effects in terms of binge drinking at the 1-year (8th grade) and 2-year (9th grade) follow-up assessments. The proportion of binge drinkers was over 50% lower in the intervention group relative to the control group at the follow-up assessments. There were also several significant program effects on proximal drinking variables, including drinking knowledge, pro-drinking attitudes, and peer drinking norms. These findings indicate that a school-based drug abuse prevention approach previously found to be effective among White youth significantly reduced binge drinking among urban minority youth.
Botvin
G J
GJ
Institute for Prevention Research, Weill Medical College of Cornell University New York, New York 10021, USA. gjbotvin@med.cornell.edu
Griffin
K W
KW
Diaz
T
T
Ifill-Williams
M
M
D000293:Adolescent; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D019973:Alcohol-Related Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000517:prevention & control*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D004493:Education; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009519:New York City / Q000453:epidemiology; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011322:Primary Prevention; D011614:Psychotherapy, Brief; D012041:Regional Medical Programs; D012574:Schools; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D016896:Treatment Outcome