Drug abuse, or substance abuse, is a substantial public health problem in the United States, particularly among high school students. The purpose of this article was to review school-based programs implemented in high schools for substance abuse prevention and to suggest recommendations for future interventions. Included were English language…

Background: Matching evidence-based alcohol prevention strat- egies with a community's readiness to support those strategies is the basis for the Tri-Ethnic Community Readiness Model (CRM). The purpose of this evaluation was to assess the association of a community's readiness to address alcohol abuse in their community with the…

This study sought to evaluate the acceptability and effectiveness of a brief alcohol intervention in increasing basic alcohol-related knowledge, and the intention to change high-risk drinking behaviors, among a sample of DUI and DWI offenders. Pre- and post-test data, in addition to program evaluation data, from 872 Level-II DUI and DWI offenders…

Objectives: Resident physicians report insufficient experience caring for patients with substance use disorders (SUDs). Resident training in Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) has been recommended. We describe the development of a standardized patient (SP) assessment to measure SBIRT skills, resident perceptions of…

Research shows that social norms interventions, which aim to educate individuals and groups on their actual attitudinal and behavioural norms relating to alcohol, cigarette and drug use,incur some success in reducing positive attitudes to substance use and rates of substance use. The research aimed to investigate the extent of misperceptions…

To combat hazardous drinking during 21st birthdays, a health-focused birthday card was mailed to 2,380 college students who later completed an online instrument to assess the campaign's impact. Students reported drinking more during their 21st birthday celebrations than on a typical weekend night. Men consumed more drinks, reached higher…

College student-athletes and first-year students are two undergraduate populations at risk for heavy-episodic drinking and alcohol-related negative consequences. In this study, 63 (56% female, 62% Caucasian) first-year student-athletes completed a preliminary questionnaire assessing demographic characteristics, athlete-specific drinking motives,…

This study investigated the role of sensation seeking, peer group drinking and self-efficacy in refusing to drink alcohol in influencing alcohol consumption of a sample of 588 Italian university students. Results confirmed that heavy drinkers are typically males living in university residences. Alcohol use is more frequent among students with…

While affiliation with Greek fraternities/sororities and intercollegiate athletic teams is associated with heavier drinking (Meilman et al., 1999), few studies have compared reasons for drinking among these groups. A sample of 1,541 students, identifying as either Greeks or athletes, completed an online survey. Athletes were significantly higher…

Survey responses by nonexperimental drug users in grades 6-12 were examined to determine whether MA users and nonusers with shared individual characteristics experience differential rates of police trouble, and whether specific factors place some users at greater risk than others. Findings showed that police trouble is pronounced for MA users,…

Three experiments investigated the impact of anchors on students' estimates of personal alcohol consumption to better understand the role that this form of bias might have in social norm intervention programs. Experiments I and II found that estimates of consumption were susceptible to anchoring effects when an open-answer and a scale-response…

Intercept surveys were conducted with 149 college students each asked to record their alcohol consumption for the previous two weeks using the Timeline Follow-back (TLFB method). Immediately following completion of the pretest TLFB alcohol survey the students were presented with brief educational information defining what constitutes one standard…

Descriptive norms, which are beliefs about the most commonly exhibited behavior in a group, are commonly used in normative interventions to reduce harmful drinking and perceptions about the extent of drinking among peers. The present study examined if interventions utilizing gender personalized normative would decrease subjects' misperceptions and…

Transactional associations of protective behavioral strategies (PBS) and risk-amplifying behaviors (RAB) to alcohol-related negative consequences were tested. A sample of 138 undergraduate women was assessed with self-report measures at two time points four months apart. Over and above quantity and frequency of alcohol consumption, engagement in…

Education-only interventions produce little change in drinking behaviors; but, multi-component prevention programs, which include alcohol information as one feature, can decrease drinking. This study examined the role of alcohol knowledge in a multi-component intervention previously found to reduce first-year female college students' alcohol…