Prevention of alcohol misuse through the development of personal and social competence: a pilot study

Seventh graders (N = 239) from two New York City junior high schools were involved in a 9-month study testing the efficacy of a broad-spectrum approach to prevention of alcohol misuse. The two schools were randomly assigned to experimental and control conditions. The seventh graders in the treatment school received a 20-session program targeted at the major cognitive, attitudinal, social and personality factors believed to promote the early stages of alcohol misuse. The program contained material on decision making, coping with anxiety, general social skills and assertiveness (including techniques for resisting peer pressure to drink) as well as information about the short- and long-term consequences of alcohol misuse. Complete pretest, posttest 1 and posttest 2 data were collected from 167 students (89 women). A significantly greater proportion of the students in the experimental group reported less frequent drinking (p less than .02), less drinking per occasion (p less than .04), and less frequent episodes of drunkenness (p less than .01) than the students in the control group.