Efficacy of a Brief Alcohol Consumption Reintervention for Adolescents

Abstract

This article reports the efficacy of a brief substance use preventive reintervention for suburban high school students funded by NIAAA. Participants were randomly assigned to receive a brief consultation or control brochure in Fall 2002. Significant positive effects at the 3- and 12-month follow-up have been reported elsewhere. A total of 346 10th- and 12th-grade students were recruited from the original sample for the reintervention study in Fall 2003. Students remained in their originally assigned group and received a brief iterative consultation or control brochure. The same survey was used to collect information on ATOD use and risk/protective factors at all data points. MANCOVAs revealed no group differences 18 months after the initial study baseline. Analysis examining interactions between substance users and nonusers by treatment group indicated significant positive effects for substance-using adolescents who received reintervention. Study limitations, implications, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Keywords:

• adolescents
• alcohol
• booster sessions
• brief intervention
• cigarettes
• marijuana
• prevention
• reintervention

Notes

¹ The journal's style utilizes the category substance abuse as a diagnostic category. Substances are used or misused; living organisms are and can be abused. Editor's note.

² These two concepts representing posited processes are often noted in the literature, without in any way helping one to adequately understand their dimensions (linear, nonlinear), their “demands,” the critical necessary conditions that are necessary for either or both of them to operate (begin, continue, become anchored and integrate, change as de facto realities change, cease, etc.) or not to and whether their underpinnings are theory-driven, empirically based, individual, and/or systemic stake holder-bound, based on “principles of faith,” ideological commitments or what. Without necessary clarification and understanding these terms can easily remain as yet additional shibboleth in a field of many stereotypes. Editor's note.