Background: Prevention interventions that focus on the impact of social influences, making healthy choices, and promoting anti-substance abusing norms have proven effective in reducing adolescent drug use. The school-based drug abuse prevention program Life Skills Training (LST) teaches a variety of cognitive-behavioral skills for problem-solving and decisionmaking, resisting media influences, managing stress and anxiety, communicating effectively, developing healthy personal relationships, and asserting one’s rights. Researchers wanted to know if these strategies may also be successfully applied to combat adolescent delinquency, verbal and physical aggression, and fighting.

Study Design: Researchers introduced LST to 2,374 students in 20 New York City public and parochial schools, and established a comparable control group. Sample composition was 39 percent African-American, 33 percent Hispanic, 10 percent White; 55 percent economically disadvantaged; and 30 percent living in mother-only households.

What They Found: After 15 school-based sessions, delinquency and frequent fighting were significantly reduced across the entire intervention group.

Comments from the Authors: This study supports the idea that multiple problem behaviors may have common causes. It further suggests that the development of comprehensive, integrated school-based approaches to prevention may more efficiently target an array of related behaviors, thereby reducing the burden on resources and increasing the likelihood for adoption and implementation.

What’s Next: More research is needed to test the durability of the LST approach. It would also be useful to determine if these strategies can prevent more serious forms of violence, such as assault and homicide.

Publication: The study, led by Dr. Gilbert J. Botvin of the Department of Public Health at Weill Cornell University Medical College, was published in volume 7, pages 403-408 (2006) of Prevention Science.

Source: NIDA 27th Aug.2007