Research Project

Differential Effectiveness in Drug Prevention Programs

• Dr. Jerald R. Herting (PI)
• Dr. Brooke P. Randell
• Dr. Elaine A. Thompson
  

The purpose of this proposal is to investigate the components of a drug abuse prevention program for high-risk youth and directly address the National Institute on Drug Abuse's call for a new generation of drug abuse prevention studies. The proposal takes advantage of a completed Department of Education study in which a sample of 890 at-risk youth were randomly assigned to either a control condition or to the Reconnecting Youth (RY) prevention program and yielded a set of extensive baseline and longitudinal measures for participants, including a post-program and 5-month follow-up. A long-term follow-up, at approximately 30 months, is proposed to evaluate the long-term efficacy of the RY program and to provide a detailed quantitative analysis of the theoretical underpinnings of the intervention. The latter directly addresses how the specified intervention components act to achieve the desired outcomes (reduced drug involvement and increased mood management and school performance). Analyses also provide detailed evaluations of the characteristics of the RY intervention mechanisms and their influence on the experimental outcomes. Finally, a detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis, based on a re-sampling of 100 individuals from in-depth interviews, explores categories of youth who were successful or who failed to achieve the desired outcomes, particularly with respect to drug involvement. The study should inform the specificity and efficacy of the RY intervention and promote prevention science's ability to understand what components of intervention strategies are successful in obtaining reductions in drug involvement and co-occurring problem behaviors.