Alcohol & Drug Abuse

The Multi-State Prevention Teleconference Trial
Principal Investigator: Dr. Mary Ann Pentz

The Multi-State Prevention Teleconference Trial project, also known as Prevention Works: The Next STEP, is developing and evaluating a distance learning approach to community organization for alcohol, tobacco and other drug abuse prevention using evidence-based prevention practices. The study addresses whether relatively low-cost televised training and limited technical assistance is sufficient for assisting community leaders and schools in diverse communities to organize for drug abuse prevention and adopt and implement evidence-based prevention programs. Twenty-three communities in five states are participating. This project is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Drug Abuse Prevention - Adolescence and Early Adulthood II
Principal Investigator: Dr. Mary Ann Pentz

This longitudinal study evaluates the long-term effects of a multi-component drug abuse prevention program, the Midwestern Prevention Project (also known as Project STAR). The study continues follow-up of adolescents enrolled in the original studies in Kansas City and Indianapolis in the 1980s. Now adults, the participants are surveyed regularly to assess changes in drug use and risk factors over the life span and assess possible inter-generational effects on their own children. This project is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Drug Abuse Prevention - Adolescence and Early Adulthood I
Principal Investigator: Dr. Mary Ann Pentz

This recently completed project expanded on the drug prevention programming of the Midwestern Prevention Project (Project STAR) by introducing intervention earlier in childhood. The study developed and evaluated a fourth- and fifth-grade classroom curriculum called Bright STARS, which focused on increasing children’s social and academic competence as a means for preventing later drug use and other problem behaviors. This project was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

Health in Advertising Project
Principal Investigator: Dr. Alan W. Stacy

The Health in Advertising Project (HAP) seeks to understand the cognitive processes through which television advertising influences alcohol use and binge drinking in adolescents. Two different frameworks are studied in over 2,000 adolescents over a five-year period.

One etiologic approach emphasizes implicit cognition and associative memory, assuming that alcohol use is governed primarily by memory processes that are not directly amenable to introspection, rational thought processes or typical survey assessment.

The second competing approach emphasized in this project is an explicit cognition, or outcome expectancy, framework, which assumes that beliefs about the effects of alcohol enter into a reasoned decision process.

These competing frameworks are studied in a longitudinal investigation of the cognitive processes through which advertising influences adolescents. The results will have critical implications for intervention and policy.

Stacy also is involved in an allied project on applying implicit cognition and associative memory processes to HIV risk behavior in high-risk adults.

HAP is funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

Project Towards No Drug Abuse Project TND
Principal Investigator: Dr. Steve Sussman

A main goal of Project Towards No Drug Abuse (Project TND) is to provide classroom-based programming to youth at continuation high schools, the alternative school system in California. Continuation high school youth are at relatively high risk for substance abuse.

The 12 classroom-based lessons provide students detailed information about the social and health consequences of drug use and addresses topics including motivation enhancement (e.g., health care as a value, perspectives, stereotyping material, chemical dependency, empathy about effects of drug abuse on others).

Topics also include instruction in active listening, correction of cognitive misperceptions about drug use, decision-making skills, effective communication skills, cognitive and behavioral coping, stress management, tobacco cessation techniques and self-control to counteract risk factors for drug abuse relevant to older teens. This material is provided within a motivation-skills/decision-making model of indicated prevention.

Project TND has been tested in three true experimental field trials, thus far, involving two or three conditions in each trial involving one or two program conditions that were compared to a standard care control condition. A total of 3,000 youth from 42 schools were involved across the three trials.

To determine outcomes, a one-year follow-up was conducted after the core intervention was delivered. Relative to comparisons, participants experienced:

• 27% prevalence reduction in 30-day cigarette use.
• 22% prevalence reduction in 30-day marijuana use
• 26% prevalence reduction in 30-day hard drug use.
• 9% prevalence reduction in 30-day alcohol use among baseline drinkers.
• 25% prevalence reduction in 1-year weapons carrying among males.

Project TND effects have been shown to generalize to the regular high school setting. This project is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

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