Study assessed relative influence of perceived level of support for adolescent's alcohol use by best friends, most students in school, live-in parents/guardians, and adults in neighborhood/community. Findings revealed some differences by sex and grade level, and the different kinds of drinking behavior. Prevention programs including all four…

Describes innovative, theory-based, peer-focused college drug education academic course and its effect on perceived levels of risk associated with the use of alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. Evaluation of the effects of the course indicated the significant effect on perceived risk of cocaine, but not alcohol or marijuana. (Author/ABL)

Raising the legal purchase age to 21 in New York did not greatly affect alcohol use patterns for most college students in this study. Findings are based upon analysis of survey data collected from students before and after the law went into effect. (IAH)

A DWI prevention program for driving schools was developed and evaluated. Two hundred and eight driving school students followed the program. Research found that knowledge improved, attitudes and behavior intentions were already positive at pretest, DWI was equally reported by both control and study groups, and there was a positive effect on…

Reports on a nationwide sample of 52 colleges and universities examining the relationship between students' self-reported drinking patterns and problems and college administrator's perceptions of those problems, and the existence of campus alcohol policies, programs, and services. Results show little relationship between the three factors.…

Alcohol-related beliefs of children in grades 1, 4, and 7 (at a Catholic school in Brooklyn, NY) were examined to identify age-related differences in the content and the salience of positive versus negative conditions. Results indicate general developmental trends for both positive and negative effects, with older children scoring significantly…

Reports on the knowledge of Israeli high school students about the strength of seven different types of alcoholic beverages. Low rates of correct responses were found, especially among females. The strength of distilled spirits was more accurately estimated and that of light beer less accurately estimated. Implications for prevention are…

Examined alcohol awareness education courses taught at five college campuses. Administered pre-, post-, and learning retention tests to college freshmen and sophomores (N=703) to evaluate correlation of variables in knowledge-responsibility-consequences model and effects of alcohol education on consequences. Findings showed alcohol education…

To assess the contribution of situational factors to alcohol use during a naturally occurring high-stress time, 73 undergraduate students were studied. Contrary to the prediction of a simple tension-reduction model, results showed that students preferred to address heightened anxiety by studying to pass exams. Programmatic implications are…

Studies persuasion processes in a value-relevant context. Tests effects of the presence/absence of anecdotal evidence, crossed across three base messages regarding different alcohol use issues. Suggests that a variant of central processing was used: involvement predicted greater message-relevant responses only when the message was congruent with…

Studies characteristics of 70 adolescents who affiliate with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). Participants completed in-patient treatment and were contacted as part of follow-up survey. Half had affiliated with AA. Used discriminant analysis to predict affiliation. Found affiliators were more likely to have had prior treatment, friends who did not use…

In 1982, the author became the foster mom to Rick, a small child who got a pretty rough start to life and an even rougher "pre" start. Rick's birth mother was addicted to alcohol and for most of his time in her womb she drank heavily. The author was a single, special education teacher, and worked with children with developmental…

Building on the promise of interactive, multimedia education, this evaluation study examines an alcohol abuse prevention program, AlcoholEdu, delivered through an interactive Web-based format for the purpose of reducing the harm associated with student alcohol abuse. The study uses a clustered, randomly assigned post-test only evaluation design…

Substance abuse is a major problem encountered by social workers in all settings. This study investigated the impact of a postmaster's program in the treatment of substance-abusing clients on the domains of "Attitudes and Values," "Knowledge and Skills," and "Behaviors" of its graduates. Overall, 91 percent of…

For the study reported here, the authors used growth mixture modeling to analyze changes in alcohol and marijuana use and the use of drug and alcohol treatment services for a sample of 180 adolescents with serious emotional disturbance (ages 12-14 years at the beginning of the 7-year longitudinal study). Three latent classes of substance users…