Alcoholism Prevention Using Student Improvement Teams

We will develop, test, and disseminate a high school alcohol abuse prevention program. The programstudents identified as peer opinion leaders as members of a Student Improvement Team. Team members wand trained to complete three tasks. First, they will actively identify and comment fellow studentsacts. Second, they will serve as peer mediators. In this role they will actively intervene in situatconflict. Third, they will plan and implement activities and programs designed to improve the physicenvironment of the school. The structure of these tasks will be designed to influence normative belipatterns of behavior, including those related to alcohol use and abuse, which include drinking and dfighting. Team members will learn and apply skills such as conducting surveys, promoting school bondrealistic but appropriate standards of student behavior. The program will be engaging to students, fadministrative structure of the school, and target appropriate mediating processes that account forhigh school students. During Phase I, methods for achieving program goals will be developed and test