Preventing binge drinking during early adolescence: One- and two-year follow-up of a school-based preventive intervention

The authors examined the effectiveness of a school-based prevention program on reducing binge drinking in a sample of minority, inner-city, middle-school students. Rates of binge drinking were compared among who received the pro & beginning in the 7th grade (n = 1.7i3) and a c&rol gou;(n = 1,328) that did not. The prevention program had protective effects in terms of binge drinking at the l-year (8th grade) and 2-year (9th grade) follow-up assessments. The proportion of binge drinkers wa5 over 50% lower in the intervention group relative to the control group at the follow-up assessments. There were also several significant program effects on proximal drinking variables, including drinking knowledge. pro-drinking attitudes, and peer drinking norms. These findings indicate that a school-based drug abuse prevention approach previously found to be effective among White youth significantly reduced binge drinking among urban minority youth. Notwithstanding the fact that it is illegal for adolescents to purchase alcohol $ beverages, the vast majority of youth have some experience with alcohol. Over 50 % of 8th graders, 70 % of 10th graders, and 80 % of 12th graders report having tried alcoholic beverages at least once (Johnston, O'Malley, & Bachman, 2000)