A Brief High School Prevention Program to Decrease Alcohol Usage and Change Social Norms.

SUBSTANCE abuse prevention; ALCOHOL drinking prevention; HYPOTHESIS; ANALYSIS of covariance; CHI-squared test; STATISTICAL correlation; CURRICULUM; PSYCHOLOGY of high school students; HIGH schools; RESEARCH methodology; PROBABILITY theory; QUESTIONNAIRES; SCHOOL health services; SMOKING; SOCIAL norms; SURVEYS; MATHEMATICAL variables; VIDEO recording; EFFECT sizes (Statistics); HUMAN services programs; PRE-tests & post-tests; EVALUATION of human services programs; ADOLESCENCE

This study assessed the effectiveness of Refuse, Remove, Reasons (RRR), a universal classroom-based substance abuse prevention program for urban and suburban high school students. A total of 1,352 adolescents were part of either a treatment (n = 678) or a comparison group (n = 674). The study evaluated the influence of implementing RRR in decreasing alcohol use, increasing perceived risk of drug use, decreasing social norms drug use, and increasing perceptions about negative consequences of drug use. Participants were assessed at baseline and treatment exit. One-way between-groups analyses of covariances were used to detect significant differences between treatment and comparison groups, using the pretest as a covariate. Findings indicated that RRR significantly reduced getting drunk from alcohol, decreased social norms and acceptance of alcohol and cigarettes, and increased perceptions about negative consequences of drug use for the treatment group compared with the comparison group. Results support school-based prevention models for reducing alcohol use and changing social norms for high school youths. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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