Original article
Prevention of Illicit Drug Use Through a School-Based Program: Results of a Longitudinal, Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.12.003Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the long-term effects of an illicit drug use prevention program for adolescents that integrates life skills into the theory of planned behavior.

Methods

We conducted a cluster-randomized trial in which 24 participating schools were randomized to either an intervention group (12 schools, n = 1,176 students) or a control group (12 schools, n = 915 students). Participants were grade 7 students. The intervention comprised a main intervention of 10 sessions and two booster interventions. Booster 1 (four sessions) and booster 2 (two sessions) were performed at 6 months and 12 months, respectively, after completion of the main intervention. Assessments were made at baseline, after the main intervention, and after each booster session using specific questionnaires for measuring participants' attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and life skills.

Results

Retention rates were 71.9% (845/1,176) in the intervention group and 90.7% (830/915) in the control group after the 12-month follow-up. A significantly lower proportion of intervention group participants reported illicit drug use after the first and second booster sessions compared with control group participants (.1% vs. 1.7% and .2% vs. 1.7%, respectively; both p < .05). Attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, life skills, and behavioral intention scores of the intervention group were significantly higher than those of control group after the first and second booster sessions (all p < .001), suggesting that intervention group students tended to avoid drug use.

Conclusions

A drug use prevention program integrating life skills into the theory of planned behavior may be effective for reducing illicit drug use and improving planned behavior-related constructs in adolescents.

Section snippets

Study design and participants

We conducted a cluster-randomized trial in which participating schools were randomized to either an intervention group or a control group. The inclusion criteria for school selection were as follows: (1) school authorities agreed to fully participate in the main session and two booster sessions of the drug use prevention program; (2) the school had licensed health education teachers who were willing to participate in the program; and (3) the same health education teacher was able to perform

Results

The demographic characteristics of the two study groups are summarized in Table 2. The two groups were similar in age (13.39 ± .55 years and 13.43 ± .60, respectively) and gender (male students, 51.1% and 54.1%, respectively). Moreover, no significant differences were observed between the two groups in other baseline variables (Table 2). The number of dropouts is shown in Figure 1.

Table 3 shows the proportion of participants reporting illicit drug use, cigarette smoking, and consumption of

Discussion

In this study, we used a longitudinal, cluster-randomized design to examine the effects of a school-based drug use prevention program that integrated aspects of the TPB and life skills. To our knowledge, no other intervention programs designed to prevent illicit drug use in adolescents have incorporated both TPB and life skills. The intervention program, comprising a main intervention and two booster sessions, was implemented at 12 middle schools among students aged 13–15 years, and showed

Acknowledgments

The authors thank all students and teachers who participated in the study.

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    Conflicts of Interest: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

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