title: Family-centered program deters substance use, conduct problems, and depressive symptoms in black adolescents.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The present research addressed the following important question in pediatric medicine: Can participation in a new family-centered preventive intervention, the Strong African American Families-Teen (SAAF-T) program, deter conduct problems, substance use, substance use problems, and depressive symptoms among rural black adolescents across 22 months?
  
  
  METHODS
  Data were collected from 502 black families in rural Georgia, assigned randomly to SAAF-T or an attention control condition. The prevention condition consisted of 5 consecutive meetings at community facilities with separate, concurrent sessions for caregivers and adolescents followed by a caregiver-adolescent session in which families practiced skills they learned in the separate sessions. Adolescents self-reported conduct problem behaviors, substance use, substance use problems, and depressive symptoms at ages 16 years (pretest) and 17 years 10 months (long-term assessment).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Adolescents who participated in SAAF-T evinced lower increases in conduct problem behavior, substance use, substance use problems, and depressive symptom frequencies than did adolescents in the attention control condition across the 22 months between pretest and long-term assessment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is the first study to demonstrate efficacy in a prevention program designed to deter conduct problems, substance use, substance use problems, and depressive symptoms among rural black adolescents. Because SAAF-T is a manualized, structured program, it can be easily disseminated to public health agencies, schools, churches, boys' and girls' clubs, and other community organizations.
authors.affiliation: Center for Family Research, University of Georgia, 1095 College Station Road, Athens, GA 30602-4527, USA. gbrody@uga.edu
authors.forename: Gene H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Brody
authors.forename: Yi-fu
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Steven M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Kogan
authors.forename: Tianyi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Virginia K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Molgaard
authors.forename: Ralph J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: DiClemente
authors.forename: Gina M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Wingood
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D001741:Black or African American; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003863:Depression / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012424:Rural Population; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000208:ethnology / Q000517:prevention & control*