HOME

Graphic of cover for Community How To Guide On Prevention & Education

 

Introduction


Community How To Guide On…PREVENTION & EDUCATION

The Need for Prevention

Why Prevent Underage Drinking

The Changing Field of Prevention

Current Prevention Theories and Practices

Risk and Protective Factors

Public Health Model

Underage Drinking Prevention Strategies

Community-Based Strategies

School-Based Strategies

Family-Based Strategies

Individual/Peer Group Strategies

Comprehensive Prevention Programs

Conclusion


Appendices

Appendix #1 – Prevention Program Classification Checklist

Appendix #2 – Tips on Establishing Diversion and Court Watch Programs

Appendix #3 – Characteristics of Effective After-School Programs

Appendix #4 – Alcohol and Other Drug Policy Checklist

Appendix #5 – Recommendations for Working With Parents

Appendix #6 – Prevention Program Matrix

Appendix #7 – Prevention Principles Checklist


Resources

Resources Cited in Community How To Guide

Other Prevention Resources

 

INTRODUCTION

Underage drinking prevention has two goals: prevent harm to the individual drinker and prevent harm to society. Modern prevention programs should be measured not by their intentions, but by their consequences: reducing the number of criminal events (drinking, DWI, date rape, etc.), reducing the amount of harm to individuals (injuries, alcohol overdoses, teen pregnancies, etc.), and reducing the harm to society (criminal and juvenile justice costs, medical and addiction treatment expenses, etc.)

This Community How To Guide on Prevention and Education discusses the importance of preventing underage drinking and provides an overview of recent advances in prevention planning. In some cases, certain prevention programs have demonstrated considerable effectiveness in reducing one form of substance abuse, such as smoking, but have been less effective in preventing underage drinking.

This booklet includes some of the research and experience of strategies that have proven to be effective in curbing underage drinking as well as other promising strategies that have not yet been evaluated, but appear to be effective. Universal, selective and indicated prevention strategies are discussed within the framework of risk and protective factors to assist communities in developing successful programs.


Community How To Guide On…
PREVENTION & EDUCATION

This Community How to Guide on Prevention and Education was written primarily for traffic safety specialists and for community groups that are launching or expanding underage drinking prevention programs. The guide provides an overview of recent advances in prevention planning, but does not attempt to provide detailed information on all of the programs that have demonstrated effectiveness, nor does it contain extensive citations from research reports. Readers who would like to obtain more extensive information about theory, particular programs or the results of specific research projects should consult the Resource Section of this guide.

Some of the programs or strategies highlighted in this booklet are discussed in greater detail in the other guides that are part of this comprehensive approach to the problem of underage drinking. These programs and strategies are being used in this guide to demonstrate how all aspects of an underage drinking program involve prevention.

The goal of underage drinking prevention is to delay, deter, or eliminate the onset of illegal underage drinking among minors. For the purposes of this booklet, prevention is defined as programs, policies, or activities that are designed to keep youth from using alcohol before they attain the minimum legal drinking age.


The Need for Prevention

In the past, programs designed to prevent minors from drinking often focused primarily on short term goals, such as preventing high school students from driving impaired during prom and graduation season. Recent research into alcohol abuse, underage drinking, and addiction has expanded links between underage drinking, adult alcoholism, and problem drinking. We now know that preventing young people from drinking may not only save them from harm in their youth, it may prevent them from embarking on a lifetime of alcohol-and drug related problems.

The expanded understanding of the origins and impact of underage drinking has changed the emphasis for many underage drinking prevention programs from short term safety programs to programs that not only emphasize safety, but recognize the proven links between illegal underage drinking and other problems, including adult alcoholism, crime, and health problems. This change in emphasis has created a bridge between the traffic safety and prevention programs and given them a shared goal – working with communities to develop and implement effective programs to prevent underage drinking.

Underage drinking prevention efforts must recognize the alcohol issue may be part of a larger substance abuse prevention effort. It is important, therefore, to insure the underage drinking issue does not become lost but remains on the agenda. As this booklet points out, underage drinking can be linked to many youth and adult problem behaviors.

Underage drinking prevention has two goals: prevent harm to the individual drinker and prevent harm to society. Modern prevention programs should be measured not by their intentions, but by their results. These results include reducing the number of criminal events (drinking, DWI, date rape, etc.), reducing the amount of harm to individuals (injuries, alcohol overdoses, teen pregnancies, etc.), and reducing the harm to society (criminal and juvenile justice costs, medical and addiction treatment expenses, etc.).


Why Prevent Underage Drinking?

Drinking alcohol is particularly dangerous for young people because their bodies are still developing.

When the physical effects of alcohol are coupled with emotional immaturity and inexperience, the effects on young drinkers can be devastating. Alcohol is a depressant and a neurotoxin. Alcohol alters and kills brain cells and can adversely affect an individual’s ability to form new memories. This can be especially significant for young people who are in school and should be assimilating new information daily.

Females take special risks when they drink because they lack a stomach enzyme that males possess and because they have a lower total body water content. As a result of these physiological differences, females are affected more quickly and more strongly than males who ingest the same amount of alcohol.

Alcohol impairs physical and mental coordination.

When impairment is linked with the risky activities young people sometimes undertake when they are drinking, such as driving, walking on balcony railings, or swimming, tragedy often results. Sometimes, intoxicated youth injure or kill themselves in fires, falls, boating accidents, or other tragedies that might have been avoided if they were sober.

In 1991, the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services released a series of reports that detailed the problems associated with underage alcohol use. The report entitled, “Youth and Alcohol: Dangerous and Deadly Consequences” revealed that more than half of the underage males who drown had been drinking when they died.

Underage drinking is also linked to reckless sexual behavior, including date rape and unprotected sex that can lead to pregnancy and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases including Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Alcohol is linked to violence and crime.

The Inspector General’s “Youth and Alcohol: Dangerous and Deadly Consequences” report also linked alcohol use to other crimes by minors including vandalism, property damage, and robbery. According to the 1998 Alcohol and Crime Report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, college students reported about 463,000 violent victimizations in 1995 in which alcohol use by the offender was a factor. An estimated 22% of the alcohol-involved incidents were perceived to have also involved offender drug use.

Many young people do not realize that ingesting too much alcohol can be fatal.

Binge drinking (consuming five or more drinks on one occasion) is a particularly dangerous form of drinking. According to the 1999 Monitoring the Future study of substance use, conducted on behalf of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), more than 30% of U.S. high school seniors report they are binge drinkers and binge drinking is a widely recognized problem on college campuses. Many young people ingest large amounts of alcohol at one time and drink very rapidly, which can also create dangerous overdoses of alcohol and lead to death.

Underage drinking can impede one of the most critical tasks of adolescence — the development of coping skills.

As they grow older, young people must learn how to deal with the ordinary stresses of everyday life and with occasional crises. If they substitute the sedative effects of alcohol (or any other mind-altering drug) for the development of coping skills, they will actually impair their emotional development. Even if young people, who drink heavily, stop drinking, they will still lack the coping skills.

Alcohol is a depressant, which alters behavior and reactions.

Drinking can cause individuals to lose their inhibitions and be willing to engage in behavior they might not embrace if they were sober, including experimentation with marijuana, cocaine, and other drugs.

When young people begin to drink illegally, they often keep that behavior a secret from their parents and other adults. Experts believe that engaging in covert behavior may contribute to young people being more willing to break other “taboos,” including using other drugs.

The “gateway” hypothesis of substance abuse is based on evidence that among young people, tobacco use often precedes alcohol use and alcohol use usually precedes the use of marijuana. The “gateway” hypothesis first became well known during the late 1980s and pointed out that the use of alcohol and tobacco at an early age is associated with progression to illicit drug use and greater involvement with drugs at older ages. (DHHS, 1993; Robins & Przybeck, 1985 Preventing Substance Abuse Among Children and Adolescents, pages 1-18)

The earlier young people start drinking, the greater the chances of developing alcohol dependence.

Research released by the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse (NIAAA) in 1998 shows that young people who drink before they reach age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcohol dependence (alcoholism) than those who begin drinking at age 21. The likelihood of such young drinkers later becoming alcohol abusers (which repeatedly causes life problems, but without addiction) is doubled.

Today, many young people are drinking heavily in middle school, long before they reach age 15. According to the 1999 NIDA Monitoring the Future Study, 24% of 8th graders report using alcohol and 9.4% have been impaired in the past thirty days. Some of those young people are experiencing serious problems with alcohol by the time they enter high school. Preventing young people from drinking as minors may keep them from becoming adult problem drinkers whose alcohol-related behavior could affect their workplaces, families, and adult driving. Preventing underage drinking by minors today may also help to reduce long-term health care costs and criminal justice costs to society by reducing the crimes, injuries, and crashes.

The expanding science of prevention seeks to stop the tragedies associated with underage drinking before they occur by creating a climate in which young people do not drink alcohol before they attain the minimum drinking age of 21. With so many lives at stake, the effort devoted to prevention is clearly worthwhile.


The Changing Field of Prevention

The explosion in drug and alcohol use in America during the last half of the 20th Century and the resulting problems sparked new interest and research into effective ways to prevent substance abuse, including underage drinking. Many of the programs that have been studied were designed to prevent a broad spectrum of substance abuse problems, including smoking, underage drinking and illegal drug use. Results of these programs vary.

In some cases, certain prevention programs have demonstrated considerable effectiveness in reducing one form of substance abuse, such as smoking, but have been less effective in preventing underage drinking. Fortunately, research and experience have confirmed that some effective strategies already exist to prevent or curb underage drinking. Other promising strategies have not yet been evaluated, but appear to be effective and may be validated in the future. This Community How to Guide will discuss strategies in both categories.

Less Effective Strategies

As in other fields of study, expanding research and practice sometimes require that old strategies be discarded in favor of newer, more effective approaches. This is certainly true of some of the underage drinking prevention strategies that became popular in the last twenty years and that must now be reevaluated by underage drinking prevention coalitions and organizations.

In the early 1980s, some school-based anti-drug programs focused on providing extensive information about drugs, including reasons why people were attracted to drug and alcohol use. Although many of those programs were very popular, evaluation of their long-term effectiveness demonstrated that they produced a measurable increase in students’ knowledge about drugs, but had negligible effects on the students’ substance abuse related attitudes and behavior.

Having individuals in recovery from drug and alcohol abuse speak to youth was another well intentioned, but misguided, strategy that has been popular. Although young people will often appear to be moved by a recovering user’s story, there is no evidence that these presentations have any long-term impact on use. In some cases, the presentations seem to result in “glamorizing” the alcohol and drug-using behavior.

During the 1980s, some prevention programs expressed the idea that children could be “taught” self-esteem and that increasing their self-esteem would prevent them from using drugs. A panel of experts convened by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention in 1994 reviewed all the available evidence and concluded that improving adolescent self-esteem does not necessarily protect them against substance abuse and that poor self-esteem alone is not predictive of future substance abuse.

Many of the findings on less effective strategies is taken from a 1997 study conducted by the National Institute of Justice, “Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn’t, What’s Promising.” The study, which was mandated by Congress, examined hundreds of different strategies used in communities, families, schools, labor markets, by police, and criminal justice systems to determine which ones succeeded, and to what extent.


Current Prevention Theories and Practices

During the last fifteen years, theories and practices in prevention have evolved dramatically. Effective prevention programs no longer focus only on reaching individuals and providing knowledge about alcohol and drugs. Newer efforts emphasize programs and policies that shape knowledge, beliefs and behavior by changing the environment in which the target audience lives, as well as providing information. In substance abuse prevention, the environment is not the natural environment of land and seas, but the community, school, family, and cultural environments.

The timing of prevention efforts has changed dramatically during the last ten years. In the past, many prevention programs did not recognize that alcohol and other drug use frequently begins long before children enter high school. Today, experts recognize that efforts to prevent substance abuse should begin early and continue through adolescence.

Risk and Protective Factors

Research into prevention has identified an array of biological, psychological, social, economic, and other factors that may contribute to whether or not an individual uses or abuses alcohol or other drugs. These factors are known as risk and protective factors. The risk and protective factor approach to prevention has become central to prevention planning for many communities and government agencies. They also provide the framework for the strategies discussed in this booklet.

Risk and protective factors first came to prominence as a result of the Framingham Heart Study launched in the 1960s to examine how and why some people suffer cardiovascular disease. From the study, researchers learned that certain aspects of an individual’s lifestyle (a high-fat diet or smoking) or other factors (heredity) could predispose the individual to heart disease, while other things (a low fat diet, regular exercise) might “protect” the individual. Researchers in mental health have discovered that certain factors appear to protect individuals from behavioral health problems even though they appear to be at high risk. These individuals are considered to be resistant or “resilient” and research into resiliency and substance abuse prevention is continuing.

Researchers in substance abuse prevention have examined how risk, protective, and resiliency factors relate to substance abuse, including underage drinking. A child of an alcoholic, for instance, is at heightened risk of engaging in negative alcohol-related behavior. Male children of alcoholics appear to be at particular risk of becoming alcoholics themselves. Risk and protective factors are related not only to alcohol and other drug use, but also to other negative behaviors, including violence. Children who are exposed to violence in their homes, for instance, are at higher risk to become involved in crimes and violence as adults, as well as more likely to abuse alcohol.

The concept of risk and protective factors is not new to many of the key target groups involved in underage drinking. For instance, a bar owner requires food servers to wash their hands. This is a protective factor to reduce the risk of disease. Explaining the concept of risk and protective factors to the bar owner in those terms makes it easier for that individual to understand that checking IDs reduces the risk of impaired driving by underage youth.

Risk and protective factors are organized into four general categories and include the following:


RISK FACTORS

  Community Risk Factors

  • Drugs/alcohol are easy to obtain
  • Drugs/underage drinking laws are inadequate or poorly enforced
  • Community is disordered

  School Risk Factors

  • Early and persistent antisocial behavior
  • Academic failure beginning in late elementary school
  • Lack of commitment to school

  Family Risk Factors

  • Parental drug use
  • Neutral or favorable parental attitude toward drug/alcohol use
  • A family history of substance abuse
  • Family structure and function problems

  Individual/Peer Risk Factors

  • Biological predisposition
  • Shy, aggressive and irritable temperament at a young age
  • Mental disorders
  • Sensation seeking personality and behaviors
  • Low sense of self-esteem
  • Alienation and rebelliousness; anti-social attitudes
  • Early alcohol, tobacco and other drug use
  • Underestimation of the harm of drug/alcohol use
  • Friends who use drugs/alcohol, who favor drug/alcohol use, and/or have anti-social norms or attitudes


PROTECTIVE FACTORS

  Community Protective Factors

  • Opportunities for bonding with and engaging in activities with family, school and community
  • Anti-drug/anti-underage drinking community norms
  • Community norms on alcohol that de-glamorize its use, restrict advertising
  • Awareness of laws
  • Low prevalence of neighborhood crime

  School Protective Factors

  • Academic success
  • The reinforcement of life skills and drug/alcohol refusal skills
  • Strong student bonds to the school
  • Students have an identity and sense of achievement

  Family Protective Factors

  • Strong bonds with the family
  • Parental monitoring with clear rules of conduct within the family unit
  • Involvement of parents in the lives of their children

  Individual/Peer Protective Factors

  • Effective socialization skills
  • Positive peer relationships
  • Self-esteem
  • Involvement in religious and pro-social activities


A risk and protective factors chart appears in the appendix of the Community How to Guide on Needs Assessment and Strategic Planning. Underage drinking prevention coalitions and organizations can use this chart to conduct an assessment of the risk and protective factors in their community as well as examine the risk, protective, and potential resiliency factors for specific groups of young people and incorporate them into their planning. It will also help examine the resources that are available for prevention programs.

Research into risk and protective factors indicates that strengthening families, improving parenting skills, and helping families to establish strong, consistent norms about alcohol and other drug use can help prevent substance abuse, including underage drinking, as well as violence and other related problems. Today, many of the most effective prevention programs based on the risk and protective factor model may never mention “alcohol” or “substance abuse.” Instead, they are designed to offset risk factors and strengthen the protective factors that help to prevent underage drinking and other problems.

Public Health Model

The public health model classifies programs based on the “agent-host-environment” model of classification.

For many years, underage drinking prevention programs tended to focus on just two of the three major elements of the public health model: the agent (alcohol) or the host (the young person). Recently, the focus has shifted to how the agent and the host interact with the third element in the model – the environment.

Prevention research has developed a new way of describing prevention programs. Called the Institute of Medicine (IOM) model, prevention programs are described as universal (programs that target everyone), selective (programs that target specific, defined groups of people), or indicated (programs directed at individuals and their families).

Since the majority of current prevention programs use the universal, selective or indicated description, following are the general characteristics for each area:

Appendix #1 is a Prevention Program Classification Checklist that will help coalitions and organizations determine what level of prevention program they need. Planners should also consider which population category they are trying to target and then determine which approach is most likely to fit their community’s needs. Most communities will employ a variety of programs.


Underage Drinking Prevention Strategies

Following is a description of a variety of prevention strategies that are categorized according to the risk and protective factor framework.


Community Based Strategies (CB)

Underage drinking community based prevention strategies need to address the following issues. Organizations with limited resources will need to determine which strategies are most important and prioritize these activities.

  1. Reduce access to alcohol.

  2. Establish community laws and norms that disapprove of underage drinking.

  3. Increase awareness about the nature and extent of underage drinking.

  4. Mobilize communities to develop neighborhoods where atmosphere, appearance, and safety are important.

  5. Increase supervision of young people.

  6. Provide opportunities for youth to contribute to the community.

The following are “best practices” or suggested strategies for preventing underage drinking. Again, it will be necessary to prioritize based on available resources. Many of these strategies are discussed in greater detail in the Community How To Guides on Underage Drinking Enforcement, Public Policy and Media Relations. There is a wealth of data and information that supports the effectiveness of these strategies and practices.

CB 1  Reduce access to alcohol

CB 2  Establish community laws and norms that disapprove of underage drinking.

Special permission will need to be granted to attend a juvenile hearing since most are not open to the public.

Appendix #2 includes Tips on Establishing Diversion and Court Watch Programs supplied by the Combating Underage Drinking Program in Maryland. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) also has information on establishing a court watch program.

CB 3  Increase awareness about the nature and extent of underage drinking.

More information on media is available in the Community How to Guide on Media Relations.

Several studies have been published about informing students of normative behavior that differs from the perception. More information is available in an article entitled, Designing Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Programs. Information on obtaining the article is included in the Resource Section of this book.

CB 4  Mobilize communities to develop neighborhoods where atmosphere, appearance and safety are important.

CB 5  Increase supervision of young people

Appendix #3 lists some of the Characteristics of Effective After-School Programs taken from the U.S. Department of Education’s Safe and Smart program which included information from the 1998 “Beyond Prevention Curricula: A Guide to Developing Alternative Activities.”

CB 6  Provide opportunities for youth to contribute to the community


School Based Strategies

Underage drinking school based strategies need to address the following issues:

  1. Policies that encourage an alcohol free life-style.

  2. Classroom curricula that develops good interpersonal skills and social competence.

  3. The community and schools working together.

  4. Positive behavior management.

  5. Accurate information on the role(s) of alcohol in life.

SB 1  Policies that encourage an alcohol free life-style.

SB 2  Classroom curricula that develops good interpersonal skills and social competence.

Recent studies indicate that curricula emphasizing the harm caused by substance abuse and countering perceptions that youthful substance abuse is universal can reduce the incidence of alcohol and other drug use. Some educational curricula that focuses on life skills and other normative objectives rather than “neutral” information about drugs can also reinforce attitudes opposing substance use among youth.

Generic “life skills” include problem-solving, decision-making, resistance skills against adverse peer influences, and social and communication skills. Most of these programs are designed as general substance abuse prevention programs and although some have demonstrated some success in preventing or reducing underage drinking, others have been more successful in preventing smoking and other drug use.

SB 3  The community (including parents) and schools working together

SB 4  Positive behavior management.

SB 5  Accurate information on the role(s) of alcohol in life.


Family Based Strategies

Underage drinking family based prevention strategies need to address the following issues:

  1. Parent education to influence attitudes and behavior toward underage drinking.

  2. Family structure and function problems, such as how to set limits in age appropriate ways.

  3. Family conflict, including substance abuse, violence, divorce, and illness.

FB 1  Parent education to influence attitudes and behavior toward underage drinking.

Broad-based parenting education programs may substitute for parenting education that in previous generations was supplied by family members. Parent education can be delivered by the media, through health promotion strategies, in large group settings such as church groups, parent education nights at schools, or through the development of parent networks.

When the issue is underage drinking, many parents do not think it is a serious problem and view it as a “right of passage.” They also may not see how their own attitude and behavior towards adult alcohol use shapes the attitudes and behaviors of their children. Topics to cover in a parenting education effort could include information on the dangerous consequences of underage drinking, how to be a good role model, what to look for when your child needs help, the normal “rules testing,” and the need for children to have opportunities to experience risk without breaking the law.

FB 2  Family structure and function problems, such as how to set limits in age appropriate ways.

FB 3  Family conflict, including substance abuse, violence, divorce, and illness.

Appendix #5 is a list of Recommendations for Working With Parents taken from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention’s (CSAP) Monograph 5 “Prevention Primer: Parents and Prevention,” 1997, for underage drinking prevention coalitions and organizations who want to work with parents.


Individual/Peer Group Based Strategies

Underage drinking individual and peer/group based prevention strategies need to address the following issues:

  1. Building personal competence (decision making, “people skills”).

  2. Mentoring programs.

  3. Appropriate use of time (healthy ways to take risks).

  4. Individual reasons for underage drinking (self-medication, testing the rules, etc).

IB 1  Building personal competence (decision making, “people skills”).

IB 2  Mentoring programs

Mentoring programs that link high-risk youth with caring adults have demonstrated some success in reducing substance abuse among youth. If a young person bonds with a caring adult who is a positive role model and consistent presence in the child’s life, that bond is a significant protective factor for the child.

IB 3  Appropriate use of time (healthy ways to take risks).

IB 4  Individual reasons for underage drinking (self-medication, testing the rules, etc).

Appendix #6 is a Prevention Program Matrix of the various community, school, family and individual based strategies described in the preceding pages.


Comprehensive Prevention Programs

Modern prevention involves all segments of the community and infuses prevention into the community, family and social environment. As Dr. Alan Leshner, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse says, “Simple strategies do not work. You need to have a comprehensive strategy with multiple goals to be accomplished simultaneously. We need to have comprehensive approaches that involve the whole community. Families, schools, whole communities and the media need to work together.”

Designing and implementing an underage drinking prevention program can seem to be an overwhelming task, especially in a community where many people — including those in positions of power or influence — may view underage drinking as a “rite of passage.” In addition, the growing problem of alcohol use among youth and shrinking resources can make the task of assessing a current program’s effectiveness and planning for future needs appear to be difficult. Appendix #7, Prevention Principles Checklist, adapted from the 1999 “Preventing Drug Use Among Children and Adolescents,” is designed to help prevention planners determine whether specific programs include research-based prevention principles.


Conclusion

Thanks to a growing recognition of the importance of preventing underage drinking and its consequences, knowledge about effective prevention strategies is constantly expanding. There is no “silver bullet” to prevent the problem — no single program has yet been identified that will prevent drinking by all youth — but research and experience have revealed that carefully targeted, consistently applied prevention programs do work.

Years of prevention and practice show that:

Every community across America is unique in its makeup, needs and resources. By employing effective prevention strategies targeted to the unique profile of each community and its residents, prevention practitioners can reduce the onset of underage drinking, curb the terrible toll that underage drinking exacts on the highways and in other settings and, ultimately, prevent young people from enduring a lifetime of alcohol-related problems.

 

APPENDICES


Appendix 1 -- Prevention Program Classification Checklist

PDF -- Prevention Program Classification Checklist


Appendix 2 -- Tips on Establishing Diversion and Court Watch Programs

PDF -- Tips on Establishing Diversion and Court Watch Programs


DIVERSION PROGRAMS

1. All agencies involved in the justice process (police, juvenile service, probation/parole, etc.) should be involved from the beginning. Juvenile court hearings are normally closed so special permission must be granted. This group will determine the following:

2. A police staff person or social worker sets aside cases that fit the criteria (no felonies, first offenders).

3. Instead of referring a case to the juvenile justice system (or to the prosecutor’s office, if they are over 18), the staff person schedules an appointment with the screening unit of the health department to determine if the youth needs mental health or substance abuse treatment.

4. After the screening, the youth is assigned to treatment, education or punishment as appropriate. If the individual is a juvenile (as defined by state law), the program and consequences for non-compliance are explained to both the juvenile and his or her parents.

5. If the assignment is completed, the charges are dropped.

6. If the assignment is not completed, the case is referred back to the justice system for further action as defined in the initial program design.


COURT WATCH PROGRAMS

A court watch program is conducted by an outside organization (with or without the cooperation of the court) that observes the proceedings of court and provides a record of actions in court by police, prosecutors, judges, defense attorneys, agencies involved in diversion, punishment, education and/or treatment of offenders.

1. Find a neutral non-profit or multi-agency organization to be the sponsor. It is important that this group have the ability to write a report and handle media inquiries. Some of the recommendations from the program may be perceived to be negative and the group must also be able to handle the reactions of the courts, the criminal justice system, parents or others.

2. Obtain funding, if necessary.

3. Develop a flow chart or outline of the justice process that identifies all the players and their roles. Ask the agencies involved in the justice process to provide a description of their role and their views on the roles of others.

4. Meet with the leaders of all the agencies involved in the court system (police, judges, prosecutors, parole and probation, health department, juvenile services) to determine what each would consider valuable in evaluating the effectiveness of their role. (A survey of past offenders may also provide information.)

5. Select from this list those actions which can be observed during court proceedings.

6. Develop an observer’s form that will report observations in a standard format on the following items.

7. Determine when alcohol cases will be heard either by obtaining an advance copy of the court docket or by establishing a designated alcohol day in court.

8. Establish a time frame to do the observations that will allow enough cases, and cases per judge, to gain an accurate picture of trends in handling cases.

9. Recruit and train volunteers.

10. Schedule observers in pairs.

11. After each person has observed once, schedule a meeting to assess the process and adjust, if necessary.

12. After all the observations have been completed, write a report summarizing findings. The report can include praise and/or recommendations for change.


Appendix 3 -- Characteristics of Effective After-School Programs

PDF -- Characteristics of Effective After-School Programs


Appendix 4 -- Alcohol and Other Drug Policy Checklist for Schools

PDF -- Alcohol and Other Drug Policy Checklist for Schools


QUESTION

  1. Do the current policies support the school’s mission, goals and principles?

  2. Are current policies consistent with federal, state and local laws?

  3. Are the current policies comprehensive, covering all aspects of student life?

  4. Do they cover students, administration, faculty, staff and visitors?

  5. Do they address on- and off-campus behavior?

  6. Do they address both individual and group behavior and events?

  7. Do they cover all campus property as well as all campus events?

  8. Do the policies take into account the health risks associated with alcohol and other drug use?

  9. Do the policies address recovering students’ needs?

  10. Do the policies attempt to influence the availability of alcohol?

  11. Have issues related to advertising and promotion been taken into consideration?

  12. Do the policies reflect an environmental approach? (see Public Health model)

  13. Are the policies understandable to a lay person, or are they written in legal or bureaucratic language?

  14. Do the policies reflect the input of all relevant stakeholders, such as faculty and student handbooks and admissions publications?

  15. Do the policies included in official documents, such as faculty and student handbooks and admissions publications?

  16. Are the policies distributed to all relevant individuals and groups?

  17. Are the policies enforceable?

  18. Are the policies being enforced uniformly?

  19. Is the authority of those charged with enforcing the policies clearly defined?

  20. Do possible sanctions include intervention and referral as well as punishment?

  21. Is there an effective procedure in place for assessing the policies’ implementation and impact?

YES

                       

 

Appendix 5 -- Recommendations for Working with Parents

PDF -- Recommendations for Working with Parents

1. Take advantage of milestone transitions, such as the following:

2. Communicate with parents during other life events such as moving or family breakups.

3. Use mini-transitions to communicate with parents.

4. Increase parents’ awareness and knowledge of potential risks.

5. Increase parents’ knowledge and understanding of parenting skills.

6. Develop materials for parents.

7. Create resource centers in libraries.

8. Create resource packets for intermediaries to distribute.

9. Use intermediaries having direct access to parents in transitions.

10. Work with local media.

11. Influence the mass media to help reach parents.

12. Conduct research on the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of parents.


Appendix 6 -- Prevention Program Matrix

PDF -- Prevention Program Matrix


Appendix 7 -- Prevention Principles Checklist

PDF -- Prevention Principles Checklist


The following checklist can assist in determining whether specific programs include research-based prevention principles.


PREVENTION PRINCIPLES FOR COMMUNITY-BASED PROGRAMS

1. To be comprehensive, does the program have components for the individual, the family, the school, the media, community organizations and health providers? Are the program components well integrated in theme and content so that they reinforce each other?

2. Does the prevention program use media and community education strategies to increase public awareness, attract community support, reinforce the school-based curriculum for students and parents, and keep the public informed of the program’s progress?

3. Can the program components be coordinated with other community efforts to reinforce prevention messages (for instance, can training for all program components address coordinated goals and objectives)?

4. Are interventions carefully designed to reach different populations at risk, and are they of sufficient duration to make a difference?

5. Does the program follow a structured organizational plan that progresses from needs assessment through planning, implementation and review to refinement, with feedback to and from the community at all stages?

6. Are the objectives and activities specific, time-limited, feasible (given available resource), and integrated so that they work together across program components and can be used to evaluate program progress and outcomes?


PREVENTION PRINCIPLES FOR SCHOOL-BASED PROGRAMS

1. Do the school-based programs reach children from kindergarten through high school? If not, do they at least reach children during the critical middle school or junior high years?

2. Do the programs contain multiple years of intervention (all through the middle or junior high years)?

3. Do the programs use a well-tested, standardized intervention with detailed lesson plans and student materials?

4. Do the programs teach drug-resistant skills through interactive methods (modeling, role playing, discussion, group feedback, reinforcement, extended practice)?

5. Do the programs foster pro-social bonding to the school and community?

6. Do the programs:

a. Teach social competence (communication, self-efficacy, assertiveness) and drug resistance skills that are culturally and developmentally appropriate;

b. Promote positive peer influence;

c. Promote anti-drug social norms;

d. Emphasize skills-training teaching methods; and

e. Include an adequate “dosage” (10 to 15 sessions in year one and another 10 to 15 booster sessions)?

7. To maximize benefits, do the programs retain core elements of the effective intervention design?

8. Is there periodic evaluation to determine whether the programs are effective?


PREVENTION PRINCIPLES FOR FAMILY-BASED PROGRAMS

1. Do the family-based programs reach families of children at each stage of development?

2. Do the programs train parents in behaviorial skills to:

a. Reduce conduct problems in children;

b. Improve parent-child relations, including positive reinforcement, listening and communication skills, and problem solving;

c. Provide consistent discipline and rulemaking; and

d. Monitor children’s activities during adolescence?

3. Do the programs include an educational component for parents with drug information for them and their children?

4. Are the programs directed to families whose children are in kindergarten through 12th grade to enhance protective factors?

5. Do the programs provide access to counseling services for families at risk?


YES

                   


RESOURCES

Resources Cited In
Community How To Guide

Alcohol and Crime
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Office of Justice Programs
810 Seventh Street, NW
Washington, DC 20531
202-307-0765
Web site: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs

Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
230 North 13th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
215-567-7000
Fax: 215-567-0394
E-mail: national @bbbsa.org
Web site: http://www.bbbsa.org

Bry’s Behavioral Monitoring and Reinforcement Program
Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology
152 Frelinghuysen Road
Piscataway, NJ 08854-8085
732-445-2189
E-mail: bbry@gandalf.rutgers.edu

Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Monograph Series
National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI)
P.O. Box 2345
Rockville, MD 20747-2345
800-729-6686
Web site: http://www.health.org

Coalition Against Billboard Advertising of Alcohol and Tobacco (CABAAT)
65 Cadillac Square, Suite 3200
Detroit, MI 48226

Combating Underage Drinking Program in Maryland
Executive Director
Governor’s Office of Crime Control & Prevention
300 East Joppa Road, Suite 1105
Baltimore, MD 21286-3016
410-321-3521
Fax: 410-321-3116
Web site: http://www.cesear.umd.edu/goccp/ drinking/drinking.htm

Communities That Care
Developmental Research and Programs
130 Nickerson Street, Suite 107
Seattle, WA 98109
800-736-2630
E-mail: moreinfo@drp.org
Web site: http://www.drp.org

Denounce the 40 Ounce Media Campaign
Detroit City Council Task Force
on Substance Abuse
1340 City-County Building
Detroit, MI 48226
313-224-1645
Fax: 313-224-1787
E-Mail: A-Tinsley-Williams@ci.detroit.mi.us

Designing Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Programs in Higher Education — Bringing Theory into Practice
U.S. Department of Education, 1997
Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention
55 Chapel Street
Newton, MA 02158-1060
800-676-1730
Fax: 617-928-1537
E-mail: HigherEdCtr@edc.org
Web site: http://www.edc.org/hec/

Drawing the Line on Underage Alcohol Use
Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services
8630 Fenton Street, 10th Floor
Silver Spring, MD 20910
240-777-1123
240-777-3054
E-mail: nancy.rea@co.mo.md.us
Web site: http://www.co.mo.md.us/services/hhs/ pubhlth/dtl/dtl.html

Drug Abuse Prevention: What Works
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 5213
MSC 9561
Bethesda, MD 20892
301-443-6245
Web site: http://www.nida.nih.gov

Functional Family Therapy
1329 Behavioral Science
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT 84112
801-581-6538
E-mail: jfafft@pysch.utah.edu

Life Skills Training (LST)
Institute for Prevention Research
Cornell University Medical Center
411 East 69th Street
Room KB 201
New York,NY 10021
212-746-1270
Fax: 212-746-8390
E-mail: ipr@mail.ned.cornell.edu
Web site: http://www.lifeskillstraining.com

Living/Learning Contract
Yakima Valley Community College
Student Resident Center
1113 South 14th Avenue
Yakima, WA 98902
509-574-4887
Web page: http://www.yvcc.cc.wa.us

Maryland Hospitality Education Foundation
Executive Director
7113 Ambassador Road
Baltimore, MD 21244
410-298-0011 or 800-874-1313
Fax: 410-298-0299
E-mail: ram03@erols.com
Web site: http://www.marylandrestaurants.org

Monitoring The Future
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 5213
MSC 9561
Bethesda, MD 20892
301-443-6245
Web site: http://www.nida.nih.gov

Montana State University – Bozeman
Assistant Director for Health Promotion
Student Health Services
Bozeman, MT 59717
406-994-7337
Web page: http://www.montana.edu

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD)
511 East John Carpenter Freeway, Suite 700
Irving, TX 75062
214- 744-6233
800-GET-MADD
Web site: http://www.madd.org

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
6000 Executive Boulevard, Suite 409
Bethesda, MD 20892-7003
301-443-3860
Web site: http://www.niaaa.nih.gov

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
6001 Executive Boulevard, Room 5213
MSC 9561
Bethesda, MD 20892
301-443-6245
Web site: http://www.nida.nih.gov

Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services
State of New York
1450 Western Avenue
Albany, NY 12203-3526
518-485-2132
Fax: 518-485-2142
E-mail: barnetw@casas.state.ny.us

Office of the Inspector General
Office of the Secretary
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
200 Independence Avenue, SW
Washington, DC 20201
202-619-0257
Toll Free: 877-696-6775
Web site: http://www.dhhs.gov

Parenting Adolescents Wisely
Psychology Department, Ohio University
Athens, OH 45701
740-593-2074
E-mail: gordon@ohiou.edu
Web site: http://www.familyworksinc.com

Parents and Children Videotape Series – The Incredible Years
1411 8th Avenue, West
Seattle, WA 98119
206-285-7565
E-mail: incredibleyears@seanet.com
Web site: http://www.incredibleyears.com

Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn’t, What’s Promising.
By Lawrence W. Sherman, Denise C. Gottfredson, Doris L.
MacKenzie, John Eck, Peter Reuter, and Shawn D. Bushway
July 1998
National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS)
P.O. Box 6000
Rockville, MD 20849-6000
Tel: 800-851-3420 or 301-519-5500
Web site: http://www.ncjrs.org

Preventing Sales of Alcohol to Minors: What You Should Know About Merchant Education Programs
The Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation
11140 Rockville Pike, 6th Floor
Rockville, MD 20852
301-984-6500
Fax: 301-984-6559
Web site: http://www.pire.org/udetc

Preventing Substance Abuse Among Children and Adolescents: Family Centered Approaches Reference Guide
Prepar