Brief Voluntary Alcohol and Drug Intervention for Middle School Youth
Condition: Alcohol Drinking; Cigarette Smoking; Marijuana Smoking
MeSH terms: Marijuana Abuse; Alcohol Drinking; Marijuana Use
Study type: Interventional
Phase: Phase 2

Summary: 
      We are currently working in 16 middle schools across Los Angeles, Santa Monica and Torrance
      to test out a voluntary after school program called Project CHOICE, which focuses on helping
      students decrease their alcohol and drug use. We are conducting surveys in all schools over
      three years and providing the intervention in 8 schools in the 2008-2009 school year and in
      the other 8 schools in the 2011-2012 school year. This is a program we have provided before
      in middle schools and we found that it was effective in curbing alcohol and drug use among
      students who voluntarily attended and among all students at the intervention school.
    

Detailed description: 
      The middle school years are peak years for initiation of alcohol and marijuana (Johnston et
      al., 2007). Unfortunately, most youth who engage in substance use and experience problems are
      unlikely to voluntarily make use of formal prevention services (D'Amico, 2005; Johnson et
      al., 2001; Wu et al., 2003). A small body of recent research suggests that youth may benefit
      from less formal programs that are brief, voluntary, and easily accessible (Brown, 2001;
      D'Amico et al., 2005). However, very few intervention programs of this type have been
      developed (Little and Harris, 2003). Thus, while this approach shows promise, the impact of
      intervention programs that younger teens may choose to attend has not been extensively
      examined. One such intervention, Project CHOICE, was developed and tested by the PI using
      NIAAA funding for developmental work (R21AA13284). Project CHOICE is the only voluntary
      intervention that has been tested for middle school youth and our small quasi-experimental
      study has demonstrated its efficacy in one school setting (D'Amico and Edelen, in press;
      D'Amico et al., 2005). The Project CHOICE intervention addresses several critical gaps in the
      field, including beginning to understand voluntary service utilization among this age group
      and assessing how this type of program may impact school-wide use of alcohol and other drugs
      (AOD). The main objective of the proposed 5-year longitudinal study is to build on our
      initial work by conducting a more rigorous test of Project CHOICE. The study will include 16
      middle schools, located in the ethnically diverse Southern California cities of Los Angeles,
      Santa Monica, and Torrance. These schools will be randomly assigned as intervention (n= 8) or
      control (n = 8). We will first examine individual-level effects by testing whether Project
      CHOICE affects AOD-related outcomes among students who participate in the intervention. We
      will then examine school-level effects by testing whether AOD rates among all students in the
      intervention schools are affected, regardless of participation. We assume that these
      school-level effects will be due to changes in the school environment (e.g., Project CHOICE
      advertising, discussion of Project CHOICE among students, changes in social norms). In
      anticipation of this school-level impact, a secondary objective of this study is to gain a
      better understanding of who participates in Project CHOICE, as well as how these participants
      and changes in the school environment may influence the attitudes and behaviors of those who
      do not participate. This research incorporates a novel methodology for AOD involvement, as it
      emphasizes personal self-change efforts and natural recovery and is appealing to both using
      and non-using youth. The work proposed in this application represents the important next step
      in this line of research: to more critically evaluate Project CHOICE and its potential impact
      on both school-wide and individual outcomes with a larger population of youth.
    

Intervention name(s): Project CHOICE
Intervention type(s): Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Voluntary after school program offered 1 day per week for 30 minutes
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: adolescent; middle school; prevention; alcohol; cigarettes; marijuana