Peer Leadership in School and Community Alcohol Use Prevention Activities

Abstract

This article describes two major peer leadership components of the first phase of Project Northland, a prevention trial using multilevel community-wide strategies to prevent alcohol use and alcohol-related problems among youth. The intervention programs target Class of 1998 students, and began when they were in sixth grade. Described are (1) two peer leadership interventions implemented when the cohort was in seventh and eighth grades, (2) the students involved with the peer leadership activities, and (3) the association between involvement in peer leadership activities and tendency toward alcohol use following involvement, at the end of seventh and eighth grades. Students were elected by their classmates to lead the seventh grade alcohol use prevention curriculum. In addition, students had the opportunity to volunteer as peer leaders to plan alcohol-free activities during their seventh- and eighth-grade years. At baseline both types of peer leaders generally were lower on measures of problem behaviors. However, following involvement in the seventh grade curriculum, tendency to use alcohol was higher among the elected peer leaders (n = 142) compared with other students in the intervention schools. These findings suggest important issues for future research on the early use of alcohol among social leaders, particularly those involved in prevention programs.