TAG in Action: LifeSkills Training Program 

As part of its national call to action, Adolescent Health: Think, Act, Grow® (TAG), the Office 

of Adolescent Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has identified a 

number of successful strategies for improving adolescent health throughout the country.

The Goal Botvin LifeSkills Training program is an evidence-based curriculum designed to teach youth 

healthy alternatives and skills that reduce risky behaviors, such as smoking, substance use,

and violence. 

The Game 

Plan 

Botvin LifeSkills Training (LST) is an interactive and flexible curriculum that helps youth to 

develop skills to resist negative peer pressure, build confidence and self-mastery, and cope 

with social anxiety. LST also increases youth’s knowledge of the immediate and long-term 

consequences of substance abuse. LST is designed for upper elementary, middle, and high 

school students, and can be taught either on an intensive schedule (two to three times a 

week), or on a more extended schedule (once a week) until the program is complete.

More than 35 rigorous studies, conducted over a 30-year period, have demonstrated that 

the LST program reduces tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use by as much as 80%. In 

additional to other outcomes, a recent evaluation by the National Institute on Drug Abuse 

reported that LST specifically helps youth avoid misusing prescription opioids throughout 

their teen years. Multiple studies have also found that LST effects on drug use can last for 

up to 12 years -- through high school and college and even into young adulthood. As a 

result, communities more than recoup the program’s costs in reduced health, social, and 

other expenditures related to teen risky behavior. 

In 2017, in response to the opioid crisis, LST released a Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention 

Module to further help youth avoid the misuse/abuse of opioids and prescription drugs. The 

new module is designed for school districts, community-based organizations, and agencies 

serving students ages 11 – 14, and can be delivered either online or in a classroom. The 

module can be used in conjunction with the existing LST program or can be integrated into 

other prevention programming.

The 

Winning 

Ways 

Paulina Kalaj, Director of Communications for LST, shared, “LST works because rather than 

merely teaching about drugs, violence, and other risky behaviors, we help youth develop 

the skills they need to navigate adolescence. We build their confidence and self-mastery to 

reject negative social pressures. LST has been shown to work with a broad range of youth, 

including various multi-ethnic and socioeconomic groups. This is particularly important 

within the current context of the opioid crisis, which is hitting every demographic. We 

developed the new module on prescription drug use in order to reinforce prevention of 

opioids in our already-effective LST program, and to reach an even broader audience of 

youth.”

Learn 

More

Botvin LifeSkills Training Program

https://www.lifeskillstraining.com/

HHS Office of Adolescent Health | Website: http://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/TAG Twitter: @TeenHealthGov Email: TAGTEAM@hhs.gov