Cited by 213Substance Abuse Treatment and OutcomesBehavioral Health and InterventionsSmoking Behavior and Cessation

Testing the generalizability of intervening mechanism theories: Understanding the effects of adolescent drug use prevention interventions

Donaldson, Stewart I., Graham, John W., Hansen, William B.·1994·Journal of Behavioral Medicine

Abstract

Outcome research has shown that drug prevention programs based on theories of social influence often prevent the onset of adolescent drug use. However, little is known empirically about the processes through which they have their effects. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate intervening mechanism theories of two program models for preventing the onset of adolescent drug use. Analyses based on a total of 3077 fifth graders participating in the Adolescent Alcohol Prevention Trial revealed that both normative education and resistance training activated the causal processes they targeted. While beliefs about prevalence and acceptability significantly mediated the effects of normative education on subsequent adolescent drug use, resistance skills did not significantly predict subsequent drug use. More impressively, this pattern of results was virtually the same across sex, ethnicity, context (public versus private school students), drugs (alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana) and levels of risk and was durable across time. These findings strongly suggest that successful social influence-based prevention programs may be driven primarily by their ability to foster social norms that reduce an adolescent's social motivation to begin using alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana.

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Crossref · 10.1007/bf01858105

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Authors
Donaldson, S. I., Graham, J. W., & Hansen, W. B.
Affiliations
  • University of Southern California (US)
  • Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist (US)
Venue
Journal of Behavioral Medicine
Published
1994-04
Volume
17
Issue
2
Pages
195-216
ISSN
  • 0160-7715 (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-3521
OpenAlex
W2118904669
Cited by
211
References
64
Citations by year
2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 5 · 2015: 4 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 5
FWCI
6.99
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Journal of Behavioral Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Scholarship @ Claremont (The Claremont Colleges) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health (5r01aa006201-08)
  • National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA R01AA06201)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Smoking Behavior and Cessation
Keywords
adolescent drug use prevention, social influence theory, normative education, social norms, alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, cannabis use, prevention program effectiveness, generalizability, fifth grade students, school-based prevention
MeSH terms
Smoking Prevention, Adolescent, Alcohol Drinking, Behavior Therapy, Child, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Generalization, Psychological, Health Education, Humans, Male, Marijuana Smoking, Motivation, Personality Development, Risk Factors, Smoking, Social Environment, Substance-Related Disorders

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