Effects of a Brief Alcohol Preventive Intervention for Youth Attending School Sports Physical Examinations

• NCJ Number: 181590
• Journal: Substance Use & Misuse Volume: 35 Issue: 3 Dated: February 2000 Pages: 421-432
• Author(s): Chudley E. Werch Ph.D.; John M. Carlson MSW; Deborah M. Pappas MSH; Patricia Edgemon MSH; Carlo C. DiClemente Ph.D.
• Editor(s): Stanley Einstein Ph.D.
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 12 pages
• Grant Number(s): AA9283
• Sponsoring Agency: US Dept of Health and Human Services
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This pilot study examined the feasibility and efficacy of a brief alcohol misuse preventive intervention for 178 junior high school students who attended sports physical examinations at three schools in northeast Florida during the summer of 1997.

Abstract

Just over half of the participating youths were males, and the majority were Caucasian. Participants were equally distributed among the 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. Over half of participants had tried alcohol sometime in their lives, and nearly one-third drank alcohol during the last year prior to the study. An abbreviated version of the Youth Alcohol and Drug Survey was used to collect data on alcohol and drug consumption. The intervention involved a telephone discussion on why and how adolescents should avoid alcohol use. At 6-month post-test, fewer suburban intervention youths intended to use alcohol during the next 6 months and fewer rural intervention youths used alcohol during the past 30 days, compared to control youth. When suburban and rural school samples were collapsed, intervention youths had significantly lower alcohol use on three of four measures than control subjects. 13 references and 2 tables