The purpose of this study was to examine one-year follow-up effects of the STARS for Families program, a primary care-based alcohol preventive intervention involving brief nurse consultations and parent prevention materials. All prevention strategies were tailored to individual youth stage of alcohol use initiation, as well as risk and protective factors for alcohol use. Subjects consisted of a cohort of 650 6th grade students from one neighborhood (n=262) and one magnet (bused) urban school (n=388), who were followed up through the 8th grade. Subjects were randomly assigned to either the intervention or a minimal intervention control consisting of commercial prevention booklets. A saliva pipeline procedure was administered to subjects to enhance the validity of self-reports. One year after intervention, significantly fewer magnet students receiving the intervention (5.2%) had intentions to drink in the next 6 months, than control students (17.3%) (p<.01). Univariate tests showed that magnet students receiving the intervention had significantly less intentions to drink in the future, greater motivation to avoid alcohol use, and less total alcohol use risk, than did control students p¢s<.05). In addition, a significant ethnicity by experimental group interaction effect was found for neighborhood students. This finding showed that whites and "other" ethnic students who received the intervention were drinking less alcohol quantity and heavy alcohol use, and experiencing fewer alcohol-related problems, than control students in these ethnic categories (p¢s<.05). These results suggest that a tailored, preventive intervention may produce sustained positive effects for some youth, a year after program implementation.
Learning Objectives: 1) Describe the significance of alcohol prevention programs for middle school youth. 2) Articulate the research methods used in the study. 3) Summarize the main findings and conclusions of the study. 4) Assess the implications of the findings for future health education research and practice
Keywords: Adolescents, Alcohol
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
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.