One year outcome evaluation of an alcohol and drug abuse prevention program in a Québec high school

This article presents the results of a one-year outcome evaluation of a school-based alcohol- and drug-abuse prevention program targeting adolescents in Quebec. This evaluation concerns the school component of the program and includes the first seven classroom interventions. The design is a pre- and post-intervention assessment of both the experimental (n = 145 students) and the control school (n = 179 students). Results obtained do not reveal any significant effect of the program on knowledge and beliefs regarding the use of alcohol and drugs, or any modification in self-efficacy with respect to decision making and ability to resist external pressure concerning the decision to use marijuana/hashish. The results do show, however, a decrease among the exposed students in self-efficacy within the context of alcohol use. Such a result may be a consequence of the program's capacity to raise the students' level of awareness of their susceptibility to social influences. It is plausible that in order to have positive effects, classroom interventions such as the present one need to be supplemented by additional activities targeting youths' environment.