Substance Abuse Prevention Research: Recent Developments and Future Directions

Abstract

Substance abuse continues to be one of the most serious problems facing communities throughout the United States. Existing school-based prevention programs have produced disappointing results when carefully evaluated. However, promising research has been conducted during the past eight years with two new prevention models that focus on the psychosocial factors believed to promote substance abuse. One, the social influence model, is designed to increase adolescents' ability to resist social influences to smoke, drink, or use drugs. The other model, though also designed to increase adolescents' resistance to pro-substance use social influences, focuses primary attention on the development of an array of cognitive-behavioral personal and social skills. More than 20 research studies testing programs based on these two prevention models have demonstrated significant reductions in substance use. Though future research is clearly needed, the results of these studies provide considerable cause for optimism.