Alcohol and Drugs: Preventing Misuse

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Alcohol and Drugs: Preventing Misuse

Community-based organizations, schools and other organizations that work with youth can help prevent or delay substance misuse through strategies based on scientific research. These strategies include using prevention interventions that can create a more supportive and healthier environment for youth.

Young people are more likely to misuse alcohol and drugs if they are exposed to certain risk factors.

Risk Factors

Risk factors are behaviors, attributes, characteristics or exposures that increase the likelihood of substance misuse. Such risk factors include:

Parents who misuse substances

Poor impulse control

Receiving harsh discipline

Rejection from peers

Easy access to alcohol

Protective Factors

Community groups and organizations can promote protective factors in order to prevent substance misuse in their communities. Such protective factors include:

Work and school opportunities that appeal to a young person's interests

Clear expectations from their family about acceptable behavior and values

Strong peer relationships and an ability to make friends

Physical and psychological safety

Types of Interventions

Organizations can choose among the following types of prevention interventions based on their capacity to respond to community needs. Each intervention type aims to reduce risk factors while increasing protective factors within the population it is serving.

Many popular strategies have not been proven to actually lower substance misuse. Be sure you choose a prevention intervention based on scientific evidence.

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Universal Prevention Interventions

This type of prevention intervention seeks to address risk factors across a large population with broad changes to their environment, through:

Enacting and enforcing laws, regulations and policies

Media messaging

Changing cultural attitudes toward substance use

School-based programs that build social and emotional skills

Selective Prevention Interventions

Selective interventions focus on groups that experience risk factors. Examples of this kind of intervention include:

Programs that develop life skills for youth who are exposed to multiple risk factors

Peer support groups for adults who have a history of substance misuse

Parenting classes for families that have experienced domestic violence or homelessness

Indicated Prevention Interventions

This type of intervention is focused on people who are already using substances. Mentoring and brief counseling are forms of indicated prevention.

Additional Resources

Wondering How to Talk to Your Child or Teen About Alcohol and Other Drugs? (PDF)

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Fentanyl Fact Sheet (PDF)
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Applying the Strategic Prevention Framework

Principles of Substance Abuse Prevention for Early Childhood

Guide to Community Preventive Services

Drug Use among Youth in New York City Public High Schools, by Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, 2015 (PDF)

Alcohol Consumption among Youth in New York City Public High Schools, by Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, 2015 (PDF)

More Information

Alcohol and Drug Use Main Page

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