Differential effects of baseline drinking status: effects of an alcohol prevention program targeting students and/or parents (PAS) among weekly drinking students.
The effects of an intervention designed to prevent onset of weekly drinking in non drinking students (PAS) were investigated in the group of students that was already drinking at baseline. A cluster randomized trial was used including 3,490 Dutch early adolescents (M age = 12.66, SD = 0.49) randomized over four conditions; 1) parent intervention, 2) student intervention, 3) combined intervention and 4) control group. Outcome measures were amount and growth of weekly alcohol drinking measured 10, 22 and 34 months after baseline. The combined intervention significantly curbed the growth of drinking among both non-drinkers (the target group of the intervention) and drinkers at baseline. Overall, less strong increases of drinking over time are found among non-drinkers compared to drinkers at baseline. Thus, the combined PAS intervention is also effective in curbing adolescents' drinking behaviour in those who already were drinking at baseline. Broad implementation of the combined parent-student intervention is recommended.
Department of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.140, 3508 TC Utrecht, the Netherlands. Electronic address: i.koning@uu.nl.
Ina M
IM
Koning
Department of Methodology and Statistics, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.140, 3508 TC Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Peter
P
Lugtig
Department of Social Sciences, Utrecht University, P.O. Box 80.140, 3508 TC Utrecht, the Netherlands.
Wilma A M
WA
Vollebergh
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D002648:Child; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D010290:Parents; D013334:Students; D013997:Time Factors
Adolescents; Alcohol prevention; Baseline drinking; Moderation; Parents