A theory-based motivational approach for reducing alcohol/drug problems in college. Preventing drug abuse among adolescent girls: outcome data from an internet-based intervention. Influence of a nationwide social marketing campaign on adolescent drug use. Avoiding the boomerang: testing the relative effectiveness of antidrug public service announcements before a national campaign. A brief, web-based personalized feedback selective intervention for college student marijuana use: a randomized clinical trial. Assessing media campaigns linking marijuana non-use with autonomy and aspirations: "Be Under Your Own Influence" and ONDCP's "Above the Influence". Television campaigns and adolescent marijuana use: tests of sensation seeking targeting. Targeting norm-related beliefs about marijuana use in an adolescent population. Preventing substance use among early Asian-American adolescent girls: initial evaluation of a web-based, mother-daughter program. Exposure to the Above the Influence antidrug advertisements and adolescent marijuana use in the United States, 2006-2008. Explicit and implicit effects of anti-marijuana and anti-tobacco TV advertisements. The effectiveness of gateway communications in anti-marijuana campaigns. Internet-based prevention for alcohol and cannabis use: final results of the Climate Schools course. Combining in-school and community-based media efforts: reducing marijuana and alcohol uptake among younger adolescents.
The Campuswide Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Program (CADAPP) was implemented and evaluated over a 1.5-year span at the University of New Mexico (UNM). Drawing on self-regulation theory as a basis for understanding motivation for change, the program was designed to increase risk perceptions and thereby reduce the use of alcohol and other drugs among university students. The program was evaluated from 1988 to 1989 through repeated anonymous random sample surveys of all enrolled students on the UNM campus and on a similar control campus not implementing new prevention efforts during the same period. As predicted, relative to the control campus, students on the CADAPP campus after the program showed significantly higher perceived risks from substance use and significantly reduced levels of alcohol and marijuana use. These findings provide encouraging evidence for this theory-based approach to primary and secondary prevention. This study developed and tested an Internet-based gender-specific drug abuse prevention program for adolescent girls. A sample of seventh, eighth, and ninth grade girls (N = 236) from 42 states and 4 Canadian provinces were randomly assigned to an intervention or control group. All girls completed an online pretest battery. Following pretest, intervention girls interacted with a 12-session, Internet-based gender-specific drug prevention program. Girls in both groups completed the measurement battery at posttest and 6-month follow-up. Analysis of posttest scores revealed no differences between groups for 30-day reports of alcohol, marijuana, poly drug use, or total substance use (alcohol and drugs). At 6-month follow-up, between-group effects were found on measures of 30-day alcohol use, marijuana use, poly drug use, and total substance use. Relative to girls in the control group, girls exposed to the Internet-based intervention reported lower rates of use for these substances. Moreover, girls receiving the intervention achieved gains over girls in the control group on normative beliefs and self-efficacy at posttest and 6-month follow-up, respectively. In this study, we examined whether awareness (recall) of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (NYADMC) benefited youth by attenuating their drug use. Data were obtained from the National Survey of Parents and Youth (NSPY), an evaluative survey tool designed to monitor campaign progress over 4 years. A growth modeling strategy was used to examine whether change in message recall or campaign brand awareness was related to declining patterns of drug use. Two distinct growth trajectories were modeled to account for growth among younger (12 to 14) versus older (15 to 18) youth. Growth trajectories indicated steady and positive increases in alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use over time. During the early portion of adolescence, youth reported more "brand" awareness, remembered more of the video clips depicting campaign messages, recalled more media stories about youth and drugs and more antitobacco ads, and reported more radio listening and less television watching. When they were older, these same youth reported declines in these same awareness categories except for specifically recalling campaign ads and radio listening. Models positing simultaneous growth in drug use and campaign awareness indicated mixed findings for the campaign. Overall early levels of campaign awareness had a limited influence on rates of growth, and in a few cases higher levels were associated with quicker acquisition of drug use behaviors. When they were younger, these youth accelerated their drug use and reported increasing amounts of campaign awareness. When they were older, increasing awareness was associated with declines in binge drinking and cigarette smoking. No effects for marijuana were significant but trended in the direction of increased awareness associated with declining drug use. The findings are discussed in terms of how they depart from previous reports of campaign efficacy and the potential efficacy of social marketing campaigns to reach a large and impressionable youthful audience with strategically placed advertisements. This study examined the relative perceived effectiveness of 30 antidrug public service announcements (PSAs) and assessed the extent to which judgments of effectiveness are related to judgments of realism, amount learned, and positive and negative emotional responses.
                Data were obtained from 3608 students in grades 5 through 12 in 10 schools. The ethnically diverse sample was 50.8% male. Students in 5 experimental conditions viewed sets of 6 antidrug PSAs and filled out a brief evaluation questionnaire following each PSA. Those in the control condition viewed a non-drug-related television program.
                The relative perceived effectiveness of the 30 PSAs varied considerably. Sixteen were rated as significantly more effective, and 6 as significantly less effective, than the control program. Relative rated effectiveness was highly related to realism (r =.87), amount learned (r =.88), negative emotion (r =.87), and positive emotion (r = -.35).
                Evaluative research is necessary to prevent broadcast of PSAs that could have a negative impact. PSAs should point out the negative consequences of drug use behavior rather than telling adolescents to "just say no." Despite clear need, brief web-based interventions for marijuana-using college students have not been evaluated in the literature. The current study was designed to evaluate a brief, web-based personalized feedback intervention for at-risk marijuana users transitioning to college. All entering first-year students were invited to complete a brief questionnaire. Participants meeting criteria completed a baseline assessment (N = 341) and were randomly assigned to web-based personalized feedback or assessment-only control conditions. Participants completed 3-month (95.0%) and 6-month (94.4%) follow-up assessments. Results indicated that although there was no overall intervention effect, moderator analyses found promising effects for those with a family history of drug problems and, to a smaller extent, students who were higher in contemplation of changing marijuana use at baseline. Implications of these findings for selective intervention of college marijuana use and web-based interventions in general are discussed.
                (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved). Two media-based interventions designed to reduce adolescent marijuana use ran concurrently from 2005 to 2009. Both interventions used similar message strategies, emphasizing marijuana's inconsistency with personal aspirations and autonomy. "Be Under Your Own Influence" was a randomized community and school trial replicating and extending a successful earlier intervention of the same name (Slater et al. Health Education Research 21:157-167, 2006). "Above the Influence" is a continuing national television, radio, and print campaign sponsored by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). This study assessed the simultaneous impact of the interventions in the 20 U.S. communities. Results indicate that earlier effects of the "Be Under Your Own Influence" intervention replicated only in part and that the most plausible explanation of the weaker effects is high exposure to the similar but more extensive ONDCP "Above the Influence" national campaign. Self-reported exposure to the ONDCP campaign predicted reduced marijuana use, and analyses partially support indirect effects of the two campaigns via aspirations and autonomy. This study evaluated the effectiveness of targeted televised public service announcement campaigns in reducing marijuana use among high-sensation-seeking adolescents.
                The study used a controlled interrupted time-series design in 2 matched communities. Two televised antimarijuana campaigns were conducted in 1 county and 1 campaign in the comparison community. Personal interviews were conducted with 100 randomly selected teenagers monthly in each county for 32 months.
                All 3 campaigns reversed upward developmental trends in 30-day marijuana use among high-sensation seekers (P < .002). As expected, low-sensation seekers had low use levels, and no campaign effects were evident.
                Televised campaigns with high reach and frequency that use public service announcements designed for and targeted at high-sensation-seeking adolescents can significantly reduce substance use in this high-risk population. The integrative model of behavior prediction and priming theory were used to evaluate the effects of anti-marijuana advertisements in an experimental context. In 1 original study and 2 replications, 435 adolescents were randomly assigned to condition, and those in the experimental condition viewed 3 ads that challenged undesirable normative beliefs about marijuana use. The results showed that ad exposure had small but positive (anti-drug) effects on adolescents' considerations of the outcomes of using marijuana and their perceptions of the social normative climate surrounding marijuana use. Priming effects also were observed but generally ran counter to predictions. Implications of the findings for anti-drug campaigns are discussed. Potential explanations for the unexpected priming effects also are offered. This study examined the efficacy and generalizability of a family-oriented, web-based substance use prevention program to young Asian-American adolescent girls.
                Between September and December 2007, a total of 108 Asian-American girls aged 10-14 years and their mothers were recruited through online advertisements and from community service agencies. Mother-daughter dyads were randomly assigned to an intervention arm or to a test-only control arm. After pretest measurement, intervention-arm dyads completed a 9-session web-based substance use prevention program. Guided by family interaction theory, the program aimed to improve girls' psychological states, strengthen substance use prevention skills, increase mother-daughter interactions, enhance maternal monitoring, and prevent girls' substance use. Study outcomes were assessed using generalized estimating equations.
                At posttest, relative to control-arm girls, intervention-arm girls showed less depressed mood; reported improved self-efficacy and refusal skills; had higher levels of mother-daughter closeness, mother-daughter communication, and maternal monitoring; and reported more family rules against substance use. Intervention-arm girls also reported fewer instances of alcohol, marijuana, and illicit prescription drug use, and expressed lower intentions to use substances in the future.
                A family-oriented, web-based substance use prevention program was efficacious in preventing substance use behavior among early Asian-American adolescent girls.
                Copyright © 2010 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. We examined the relationship between exposure to the Above the Influence antidrug campaign in 210 US media markets and adolescent marijuana and alcohol use from 2006 to 2008.
                We analyzed monthly advertising exposure (targeted rating points) data from the Office of National Drug Control Policy and drug use data from the Monitoring the Future study. We estimated multivariate logistic regression models of marijuana use for students in grades 8, 10, and 12, with controls for individual, family, and media market characteristics and year and regional fixed effects.
                For eighth-grade adolescent girls, greater exposure to antidrug advertisements was associated with lower rates of past-month marijuana use (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.67; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.52, 0.87) and lower rates of lifetime marijuana use (AOR = 0.76; 95% CI = 0.62, 0.93), but not alcohol use (AOR = 1.00; 95% CI = 0.84, 1.19). Associations were not significant for adolescent boys or for students in grades 10 and 12.
                Antidrug advertising may be an effective way to dissuade eighth-grade adolescent girls from initiating marijuana use. Effects of anti-tobacco and anti-marijuana TV advertisements on explicit (i.e., semantic differential ratings) and implicit (i.e. Implicit Association Test, IAT) attitudes toward tobacco and marijuana were compared. Two hundred twenty nine, 18- to 19-year-old U.S. college students were randomly assigned to anti-tobacco or anti-marijuana PSA viewing conditions. Participants completed a short survey on attitudes to tobacco and marijuana. Afterwards they watched 15 PSAs embedded in a 15-min science program. At the end, all participants completed IAT for marijuana, IAT for tobacco and the assessment of explicit attitudes. Results of ANCOVA revealed a significant interaction between type of TV PSAs watched and implicit attitudes, F(1,223)=7.12, p<0.01 when controlling for preexisting attitudes to both substances; the implicit attitudes were more negative toward the substance that corresponded to the content of advertisements watched (i.e., anti-tobacco or anti-marijuana). However, analogical analysis on explicit measures showed that attitudes to marijuana became less negative among students that watched anti-marijuana ads than the group with anti-tobacco ads, F(1,222)=5.79, p<0.02. The discussion focused on the practical and theoretical implications of the observed dissociation between implicit and explicit attitudes to marijuana after the exposure to anti-marijuana PSAs. Successful anti-marijuana messages can be hypothesized to have two types of effects, namely persuasion effects, that is, a change in people's beliefs about using marijuana, and priming effects, that is, a strengthened correlation between beliefs and associated variables such as attitude and intention. This study examined different sets of anti-drug advertisements for persuasion and priming effects. The ads targeted the belief that marijuana is a gateway to stronger drugs, a belief that is often endorsed by campaign planning officials and health educators. A sample of 418 middle and high school students was randomly assigned to a control video or one of three series of ads, two of which included the gateway message in either an explicit or implicit way. Results did not support the use of the gateway belief in anti-marijuana interventions. Whereas no clear persuasion or priming effects were found for any of the ad sequences, there is some possibility that an explicit gateway argument may actually boomerang. In comparison to the control condition, adolescents in the explicit gateway condition tended to agree less with the gateway message and displayed weaker correlations between anti-marijuana beliefs and their attitude toward marijuana use. The results suggest that the gateway message should not be used in anti-drug interventions. To establish the long-term efficacy of a universal internet-based alcohol and cannabis prevention programme in schools.
                A cluster-randomized controlled trial was conducted to assess the effectiveness of the Climate Schools: Alcohol and Cannabis Course. The evidence-based course, aimed at reducing alcohol and cannabis use, is facilitated by the internet and consists of 12 novel and curriculum consistent lessons delivered over 6 months.
                A total of 764 year 8 students (13 years) from 10 Australian secondary schools were allocated randomly to the internet-based prevention programme (n = 397, five schools), or to their usual health classes (n = 367, five schools).
                Participants were assessed at baseline, immediately post, and 6 and 12 months following completion of the intervention, on measures of alcohol and cannabis knowledge, attitudes, use and related harms.
                This paper reports the final results of the intervention trial, 12 months following the completion of the Climate Schools: Alcohol and Cannabis Course. The effectiveness of the course 6 months following the intervention has been reported previously. At the 12-month follow-up, compared to the control group, students in the intervention group showed significant improvements in alcohol and cannabis knowledge, a reduction in average weekly alcohol consumption and a reduction in frequency of drinking to excess. No differences between groups were found on alcohol expectancies, cannabis attitudes or alcohol- and cannabis-related harms. The course was found to be acceptable by teachers and students as a means of delivering drug education in schools.
                Internet-based prevention programs for school-age children can improve student's knowledge about alcohol and cannabis, and may also reduce alcohol use twelve months after completion. This study tests the impact of an in-school mediated communication campaign based on social marketing principles, in combination with a participatory, community-based media effort, on marijuana, alcohol and tobacco uptake among middle-school students. Eight media treatment and eight control communities throughout the US were randomly assigned to condition. Within both media treatment and media control communities, one school received a research-based prevention curriculum and one school did not, resulting in a crossed, split-plot design. Four waves of longitudinal data were collected over 2 years in each school and were analyzed using generalized linear mixed models to account for clustering effects. Youth in intervention communities (N = 4,216) showed fewer users at final post-test for marijuana [odds ratio (OR) = 0.50, P = 0.019], alcohol (OR = 0.40, P = 0.009) and cigarettes (OR = 0.49, P = 0.039), one-tailed. Growth trajectory results were significant for marijuana (P = 0.040), marginal for alcohol (P = 0.051) and non-significant for cigarettes (P = 0.114). Results suggest that an appropriately designed in-school and community-based media effort can reduce youth substance uptake. Effectiveness does not depend on the presence of an in-school prevention curriculum.
Overall the available evidence does not allow conclusions about the effect of media campaigns on illicit drug use among young people. We conclude that further studies are needed.