Adolescent drug involvement, depression, and suicidal behaviors are major co-occurring health problems, particularly among high-risk youth such as potential school dropouts. For these adolescents, health disparities are excerbated by school disenfranchisement and alienation from traditional health care resources. Thus, a public health challenge is early identification of these youth and implementation of targeted, multi-faceted prevention programs to reduce co-occurring health-risk behaviors.
This study describes the evaluation of two innovative prevention programs. From a pool of potential school dropouts, a sample of 412 ethnically diverse adolescents were identified at suicide-risk and participated in one of three conditions, randomly assigned by school: (1) C-CARE (n=129), a brief, 1:1 assessment intervention; (2) CAST (n=144), a small group skills-building and social support intervention combined with C-CARE; and (3) usual care control (n=139). Measurement occurred pre-intervention, following C-CARE (4 weeks), following CAST (10 weeks), and at 9-month follow-up. Measures included five indicators of drug involvement (AOD use, drug use control problems, adverse drug consequences), depression, and suicidal behaviors.
Significant reductions in suicidal behaviors were sustained across the 9-month follow-up period for all groups. Interventions were effective in reducing marijuana and hard drug use, adverse drug consequences, and depression. Overall, reduction in drug involvement was less dramatic than for depression or suicidal behaviors, suggesting that more intense and/or prolonged interventions may be required. Results are compared to a longer, more intense intervention with other youth from this population, identifying program strengths and short-comings, methodological issues, and "next steps" for research and public health practice.
Learning Objectives: Following participation in this session, participants will be able to: 1) Describe common co-occurring risk factors among adolescents at risk for school failure or dropout. 2) Evaluate 5 drug involvement outcomes serving as indicators of prevention program efficacy. 3) Discuss features of successful drug use prevention programs for youth at risk for school dropout
Keywords: Prevention, Drug Use
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: NA
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.