Do School-Based Social Skills Training Programs Prevent Alcohol Use Among Young People?

Abstract

School-based social skills training programs are among the most popular form of alcohol misuse prevention strategies employed in the USA. This paper reviews published evaluations of this strategy, in an attempt to assess consistency of findings across studies. The majority of studies show that social skills training programs, while not detrimental, have little or no impact upon participants in terms of their alcohol use behavior. Reasons why such programs are ineffective are discussed, and suggestions made concerning the direction of future primary prevention research.

Key Words:

• School-based alcohol prevention programs
• social skills training