Transitions: High School Alcohol Prevention

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alcohol use increases when students transition from high school to college, making the late high school years a critical window of opportunity for intervention. This project will develop an intervention that targets high school juniors and seniors and their families. There are currently no programs that specifically target these groups. A significant body of research has identified important modifiable mediators (normative beliefs, beliefs about consequences, and skills to resist pressure). The primary goal of this STTR is to develop and pilot test a program that will be useful to counselors, students and parents. During Phase I, four tasks will be completed: (1) Three workshops for students will be developed. Workshops will, respectively, focus on improving normative beliefs, increasing students' beliefs about potential negative consequences of drinking, and increasing students' skills for resisting social pressure to drink. (2) A manual that will include specific suggestions for parental action will be developed. (3) A handbook for training guidance counselors to deliver the program will be developed. (4) A pilot study will be conducted. Approximately 400 students will be randomly assigned by class to treatment or control conditions. Results are expected to demonstrate that this approach will improve targeted mediators among college-bound students.