Effects of Health Education on Substance Use in Adolescence: Implications for Policy

Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the annual conference of American Educational Research Association, April 16-19, 1999, Western Psychological Association, April 29-May 2, and American Society of Addiction Medicine, November 7-9, 1998.The pattern of tobacco addiction, alcohol addiction, and drug addiction typically begin in teenage years. Young people begin smoking tobacco, drinking alcohol, and using substances for various psycho-social reasons. The first priority of policy-makers should be to prevent first use, and educate adolescents about addiction and health consequences of substance use. Social influences-based community prevention programs can significantly delay the onset of the tobacco and other substance use, and slow the rate of increase in substance use prevalence among whole populations of early adolescents. In this paper the effects of social influences-based community prevention programs is investigated from the longitudinal perspective. The analyses demonstrated the community prevention program positively affected adolescent substance use behavior. It was shown that the community based prevention trial resulted in a smaller rate of increase in substance use behavior in adolescence across all waves