Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #111369

Maribel Alomari, BS¹, Joe Tomaka, PhD¹, Rebecca Palacios, MA², Sharon Thompson, MPH, PhD³, Myriam E. Leyva, BS, CHES⁴, and Diana Mota². (1) Health Promotion, UT El Paso, 1101 N. Campbell St., El Paso, TX 79902, 915-747-7218, ma2876@yahoo.com, (2) Border Research Solutions, 4150 Rio Bravo St, STE 128, El Paso, TX 79902, (3) Health Promotion, University of Texas at El Paso, 1101 N. Campbell St., El Paso, TX 79902, (4) UT Houston School of Public Health, 1100 N. Stanton, El Paso, TX 79902

We present the results of an impact evaluation of ALERT El Paso--a comprehensive, 6-week, substance abuse education program targeted toward at-risk, largely Mexican-American children (ages 5-17). The overall program goal of ALERT El Paso is to provide a set of educational and skill-building experiences that will: (a) prevent future drug, alcohol, and tobacco use by participating youth, (b) provide self-efficacy, coping, and life skills training for participating youth, and (c) ultimately improve the school and family functioning of these children. The program employs two age appropriate curricula including Kids' Connection (ages 5-11) and Project ALERT (ages 12-17). Both curricula include age- and culturally-appropriate health education regarding the nature of tobacco, alcohol, and drug use and abuse; education to increase the subjective importance of avoiding alcohol, drugs, and tobacco; activities to develop the social skills and self-confidence necessary to resist drug use. Pre/Post measures assessed for Kids' Connection include Attitudes, Self-Efficacy, Behavioral Intentions, Severity, and Subjective Norms. Significant effects were found for increased negative attitudes towards alcohol and drugs, increased self-efficacy, and non-drug-using social norms (all p. < .05). Pre/Post measures assessed for Project ALERT include Perceived Severity, Positive and Negative Expectancies, Self-Efficacy, Family Relations, and Behavioral Intentions. Significant effects were found for Self-Efficacy (p. < .05) and Positive expectations related to smoking (p. < .05), and to a lesser extent alcohol (p.= 06, one-tailed), but not marijuana (ns). The results highlight the effectiveness of using these programs in Mexican-American Populations and in a condensed instructional format (6 weeks).

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, the participant (learner) in this session will be able to

• Understand ALERT El Paso and several curricula for alcohol and drug prevention.
• Assess evaluation results for two curricula implemented with Mexican-American children
• Apply way to implement these kinds of programs in Hispanic and other minority populations.

Keywords: Substance Abuse Prevention, Adolescents

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.