Mechanisms of Influence on Youth Substance Use for a Social-Emotional and Character Development Program: A Theory-Based Approach

Abstract

Background: The Theory of Triadic Influence (TTI) provides a comprehensive framework for understanding adolescent substance use. Objectives: We examined mechanisms by which a TTI-guided social-emotional and character development program, Positive Action (PA), influences adolescent substance use. Study data come from the PA-Chicago, longitudinal matched-pairs cluster-randomized control trial. A diverse, dynamic cohort of approximately 1,200 students from 14 low-performing schools were assessed at eight points of time, between grades 3-8, across a six-year period. Students completed scales related to substance use, self-control, deviant peer affiliation, and school attachment, adapted from the Risk Behavior Survey, Social-Emotional and Character Development Scale, Conventional Friends Scale, and People in My Life Scale. After testing the overall effect of PA on substance use, we used latent growth modeling to assess whether effects on each outcome were mediated by longitudinal changes in three composite measures aligning with the TTIs three streams. Results: Students in PA schools reported fewer experiences with drinking, getting drunk, and overall substance use. In the multiple mediator models, significant indirect effects of PA on substance use via changes in self-control were evident. Conclusions/Importance: Findings are consistent with theory and past research suggesting the influence of self-control on youth substance use. Future studies should include implementation in different settings and additional theory-based measures.

Trial RegistrationThis trial is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01025674.

Keywords:

• Theory of triadic influence
• substance use
• social emotional and character development programs
• self-control

Acknowledgments

The SACD research program includes multi-program evaluation data collected by MPR and complementary research study data collected by each grantee. The findings reported here are based only on the Chicago portion of the multi-program data and the complementary research data collected by the University of Illinois Chicago and Oregon State University (Brian Flay, Principal Investigator) under the SACD program. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Institute of Education Sciences, CDC, MPR, or every Consortium member, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Niloofar Bavarian. We are extremely grateful to the participating Chicago Public Schools (CPS), their principals, teachers, students, and parents. We thank the CPS Research Review Board and Office of Specialized Services, especially Drs. Renee Grant-Mitchell and Inez Drummond, for their invaluable support of this research. We also wish to thank Dr. Isaac Washburn for his contribution to this manuscript. Lastly, we wish to dedicate this article to the memory of the late Dr. Brian Flay. We miss you.

Declaration of interest

The research described herein was conducted using the program, the training, and technical support of Positive Action, Inc. in which Brian Flay’s spouse holds a significant financial interest. Issues regarding conflict of interest were reported to the relevant institutions and appropriately managed following the institutional guidelines.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by grants from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), US Department of Education: R305L030072, R305L030004 and R305A080253 to the University of Illinois, Chicago (2003–05) and Oregon State University (2005–12); manuscript preparation was supported by IES grant R305A180259 to Boise State University (2018–21). The initial phase (R305L030072), a component of the Social and Character Development (SACD) Research Consortium, was a collaboration among IES, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Division of Violence Prevention, Mathematica Policy Research Inc. (MPR), and awardees of SACD cooperative agreements (Children’s Institute, New York University, Oregon State University, University at Buffalo-SUNY, University of Maryland, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Vanderbilt University).