An Interdisciplinary Approach for the Integration and Diffusion of Substance Abuse Prevention Programs

Abstract

Effective substance abuse prevention programs help students develop knowledge as well as psychosocial competencies that can help them resist or delay the initiation of alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) use. This paper describes the integration process used in a five-year project, Adoption of Drug Abuse Prevention Training (ADAPT), to study the effectiveness of two methods of drug prevention programming, based on Botvin's Life Skills Training (LST) program.¹ Botvin's standard LST program1 was implemented in three middle/junior high schools, the integrated or infused delivery of LST (I-LST) was implemented in three similar middle/junior high schools, and both methods of delivery were compared with three matched schools that received no treatment. Rather than implementing the traditional LST program, teachers in the infused condition developed a set of prevention lessons each year from the standard LST curriculum constructs and delivered them within their standard subject areas. This infused or integrated approach provided increased dosages of consistent prevention messages from multiple sources within the school in conjunction with their regular subject matter. Strategies for diffusion and adoption of the infused LST model are discussed as well as the teacher training process, lesson implementation, and evaluation procedures. The participating teachers' experiences, recommendations and difficulties are presented, and a sample program infusion matrix is included. Outcome results indicate that neither standard LST nor an infused LST delivery method was found effective for the entire sample, although some encouraging results were found for the females in the study.