Drug Abuse Prevention

Research Findings from September, 2001 Director's Report

This section lists selected summaries from NIDA funded research projects that investigate youth drug abuse prevention. The summaries provided were selected from recent issues of the Director's Report to the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse. For a more comprehensive listing of NIDA funded projects see the Director's Report.

Study Links Recalled Adolescent Peer Norms About Drug Use With Current Drug Use

Drug use among adolescents is a significant social and public health problem in the U.S. and in many other countries. This study explored the relationship between the drug use norms of young adult peers (recalled from age 15) and subjects' current drug use in the past 12 months. Subjects included two samples of 18-24 year olds from a low income, minority neighborhood in New York City, a probabilistically selected household sample, and a targeted sample of users of cocaine, heroin, crack or injected drugs. Norms varied by drug, and were least for marijuana, and increasingly negative for cocaine, heroin, crack, and injected drugs. There was a strong relationship between recalled norms and current use for both individual drugs and a hierarchically defined level of drug use; this relationship remained significant after controlling for socio-demographics and parental and sibling drug use. Intervention programs for young teens that influence peer selection and norms of groups of adolescents should be developed and tested. Research is also needed on the social, economic, political, and other determinants of norms in the neighborhood and community context. Flom, P.L., Friedman, S.R., Kottiri, B.J., Neaigus, A., and Curtis, R. Recalled Adolescent Peer Norms Towards Drug Use in Young Adulthood in a Low-Income, Minority Urban Neighborhood. Journal of Drug Issues, pp. 425-444, Spring 2001.

Session Specific Outcomes

Like their urban counterparts, adolescents from rural areas are at risk for health and behavior problems, including alcohol and other drug use. This study tested the effects of specific sessions of a parent-training intervention on parenting practices. Preparing for the Drug Free Years, an intervention designed to prevent adolescent substance abuse and other problem behaviors was tested with 209 rural families who were randomly assigned to an intervention or a wait-list control condition. Analyses of covariance comparing adjusted post-test scores revealed that parents in the intervention condition reported significant improvements in parenting behaviors targeted in specific sessions when compared with controls. Effects were most pronounced among mothers. No significant effects were found for non-targeted parenting behaviors, and targeted behaviors were most improved among parents attending relevant program sessions. These results strengthen the internal validity of the study and increase the plausibility that reported improvements were due to the intervention. Kosterman, R., Hawkins, J.D., Haggerty, K.P., Spoth, R., and Redmond, C. Preparing for the Drug Free Years: Session-specific Effects of a Universal Parent-training Intervention with Rural Families. Journal of Drug Education, 31(1), pp. 47-68, 2001.

Aggressive Interactions

Results of a seven-session general population intervention for parents and their sixth-grade children were examined to determine the long-term effects of this intervention on aggressive and hostile behaviors during adolescence. Twenty-two public schools were randomly assigned to the Iowa Strengthening Families Program or a control condition. Measures included independent observer ratings of aggressive and hostile behaviors in adolescent-parent interactions, family-member report of aggressive and hostile behaviors in those interactions, and adolescent self-report of aggressive and destructive conduct across settings. Data were collected during the 6th (pre-intervention and post-intervention), 7th, 8th, and 10th grades. All measures showed a generally positive trend in intervention-control group differences over time. During 10th grade, significant intervention-control differences were found for adolescent self-report of aggressive and destructive conduct (P=.01),with relative reduction rates ranging from 31.7% to 77.0%. Significant differences were shown for observer-rated aggressive and hostile behaviors in adolescent-parent interactions (P =.01); differences in family member reports of those behaviors were not significant. Supplemental analyses of both interactional behavior measures, specific to parent sex, indicated significant experimental group differences in interactions with mothers (P=.04 for both measures) but not with fathers. Thus, brief family competency-training interventions designed for general populations can reduce aggressive and hostile behaviors in adolescents' interactions with parents and adolescent aggressive behaviors outside of the home setting. Spoth, R.L., Redmond, C., and Shin, C. Reducing Adolescents' Aggressive And Hostile Behaviors - Randomized Trial Effects of a Brief Family Intervention 4 Years Past Baseline. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 154(12), pp. 1248-1257, 2000.

School-based Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation: Where are We Going?

The objective of this article is to discuss the past, present, and future directions of school-based tobacco use prevention and cessation research. It discusses the origins of tobacco use prevention research; how prevention research advanced with empirical etiologic work; the genesis of comprehensive social influences programming and its contents; multiple modalities of programming beyond the school setting; and the rebirth of teen cessation programming and the issue of dissemination. Results indicate there are many avenues of teen tobacco use prevention and cessation research and practice that need continued exploration, particularly regarding effects on mediation and teen cessation. This discussion provides background to assist health behavior researchers and practitioners to move forward in this area. Sussman, S. School-based Tobacco Use Prevention and Cessation: Where are We Going? American Journal of Health Behavior 20, 25(3), pp. 191-199, 2001.

Concurrent Prediction of Drug Use Among High-risk Youth

Correlates of drug use were examined in a continuation (i.e. alternative) high school sample of 1,315, using canonical correlation analysis. Fourteen demographic, attitudes/belief and psychosocial pressure/anxiety-type variables were included as concurrent predictors. Eight drug-use-related measures were also placed into the analysis as outcome variables. Two factors were revealed. White ethnicity, not being Latino, all attitude/belief measures, and family conflict and depression showed relatively high loadings on the first predictor factor, and were associated with all drug-use measures. Latino, all attitude/belief measures, and family conflict and depression showed relatively high loadings on the first predictor factor, and were associated with all drug-use measures. Latino ethnicity and being relatively unacculturated (i.e., tending to speak Spanish), most of the attitude/belief measures (but not sensation seeking or spirituality), and perceived peer approval to use drugs, trait anxiety, and depression showed relatively high loadings on the second predictor factor, and were associated with the hard-drug-use measures. These results suggest that there is a subgroup of unacculturated Latino youth who are anxious, who perceive they will achieve peer approval by using drugs, and who tend to use hard drugs. Indicated drug abuse prevention strategies may need to be tailored to this subgroup when developing and implementing programming. McCuller, W.J., Sussman, S., Dent, C.W., and Teran, L. Current Prediction of Drug Use Among High-risk Youth. Addictive Behaviors 26 (1), pp. 137-142, 2001.

Influence of Parental Child-rearing Practices and Environment on Adolescent Drug Use

This study examined the relationship between the domains of environmental factors, family illegal drug use, parental child-rearing practices, maternal and adolescent personality attributes, and adolescent illegal drug use. A nonclinical sample of 2,837 Colombian youths and their mothers were interviewed about intrapersonal, interpersonal, and environmental factors in their lives. Results indicated that certain environmental factors (e.g., violence, drug availability, and machismo), family drug use, a distant parent-child relationship, and unconventional behaviors are risk factors for adolescent illegal drug use. As hypothesized, results showed that the adverse effects of family illegal drug use on adolescent drug use can be buffered by protective parental child-rearing practices and environmental factors, leading to less adolescent illegal drug use. Prevention and treatment efforts should incorporate protective environmental, familial, and intrapersonal components in order to reduce adolescent illegal drug use. Brook, J.S., Brook, D.W., De La Rosa, M., Whiteman, M., Johnson, E., and Montoya, I. J. Behav Med, April 24(2), pp. 183-203, 2001.