Session: Preventing Substance Use From Early Adolescence to Young Adulthood by Changing Youths’ Ecology: Results From Four Randomized Intervention Studies (Society for Prevention Research 21st Annual Meeting)

Substance use in adolescence can have detrimental effects on adult development, and therefore remains a public health concern. Interventions designed to prevent early onset of substance use have typically focused on the individual child. However, over the past two decades, interventions were developed that address the environmental context of the young person—primarily the family and school. Interventions involving adolescents and their parents, in collaboration with school staff, are promising: exciting results have emerged from these ecologically focused interventions with respect to patterns of drug use that reach to adulthood. The impacts of four randomized control trials targeting substance use through universal or selected interventions will be presented. These interventions targeted youth from diverse settings (rural, urban; Midwest, Northwest) and included youth of diverse ethnic backgrounds.

Paper 1: “Pathways to positively altered developmental trajectories through young adulthood: Universal substance misuse preventive interventions”. This paper presents a test of two universal programs that initially targeted 6th and 7th graders: the Iowa Strengthening Families Program (ISFP), and the combination of ISFP with an additional school-based component, the Life-Skills Training. Both interventions had significant impacts on trajectories of substance misuse until age 21. Mediation, moderation, and crossover effects to other areas of adjustment are presented.

Paper 2: “Impacts of the Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers [LIFT] multimodal universal preventive intervention program on substance use and abuse during emerging adulthood”. This study presents the results of LIFT, a randomized program fostering skill development in adolescents and their parents, with the goal of protecting adolescents against the development of antisocial behavior and substance use/abuse. Effects on hypothesized mediators (parents’ and adolescents’ skills) on adolescent substance use were significant. New analyses will test intervention effects when participants are in their early 20s.

Paper 3: “The Family Check-Up in public middle schools: The effect of selective engagement on the progression of substance use from early adolescence to early adulthood”. This study tested the impact of engagement in the Family Check-Up (FCU), a school-based, randomized, selective intervention for at-risk youths and their parents. Engagement in the FCU buffered the growth in substance use from age 12–19 and reduced problematic substance use by age 23.

The discussant is involved in several intervention projects similar to those presented here. He will draw from the strengths of the four interventions to make recommendations about the dissemination of high-quality, school-based substance use prevention programs.