A Gender-Specific, Web-Based Intervention to Prevent Drug Abuse Among Adolescent Girls

Introduction: Though adolescent drug use has generally declined or plateaued over the past decade, a detailed exam of female adolescent drug use is worrisome. Girls’ drug use often meets and in some cases surpasses boys’ use, particularly in early adolescence. Adolescent girls have a proclivity for particular drugs and their unique risk and protective factors warrant a gender-specific approach to prevention. A web-based drug abuse prevention program has the potential to reach girls where they socialize and spend much of their free time.

Methods: Study participants are a nationwide sample adolescent girls (N = 788), aged 13 and 14 years, who were recruited through Facebook advertising. All girls completed pretest measures online. One-half of girls were randomly assigned to the intervention arm – a 9-session, skills-based program. The intervention sessions were embedded in a website with the features that girls seek: entertainment news, health and beauty tips, horoscopes, inspirational quotes, chat boards, and polls. Following intervention delivery, girls in both arms completed posttest measures online. A third online measurement occasion occurred one year after posttest.

Results: Retention rates were 98% at posttest and 97% at 1-year follow-up. At posttest, and using zero-inflated negative binomial regression for analysis, intervention-arm girls smoked fewer cigarettes (β = -0.775, p = .021) compared to control-arm girls; at 1-year follow-up, intervention-arm girls engaged in less binge drinking (β = -0.730, p = .006) and continued to smoke fewer cigarettes (β = -0.901, p = .007) than control-arm girls.

For secondary risk factors associated with substance use at posttest, intervention-arm girls had higher self-esteem (β = 0.112, p = .013), goal setting (β = 0.089, p = .015), media literacy (β = 0.122, p < .0001), and self-efficacy (β = 0.120), p = .002) compared to girls in the control arm. At one-year follow-up, and compared to girls in the control arm, intervention-arm girls had higher alcohol refusal skills (β = 0.218, p = .001), cigarette refusal skills (β = 0.161, p = .008), marijuana refusal skills (β = 0.183, p = .013), coping skills (β = 0.110, p = .004), and media literacy (β = 0.082, p = .022), as well as lower rates of peer substance use (β = -0.602, p = .007).

Conclusion: Posttest and one-year follow-up data support the use of a tailored, web-based intervention to reduce adolescent girls’ drug use rates and improve their related drug use risk factors.