Selecting and Designing an Effective Prevention Program: Lessons from Project Northland

1. Selecting and Designing an Effective Prevention Program: Lessons from Project Northland Carolyn L. Williams, Ph.D. Division of Epidemiology University of Minnesota

2. Criteria of Successful Alcohol Prevention Programs • Research/based/theory driven • Social learning theory used in PN • Goals • Encourage teens not to drink • Reduce alcohol availability • Modify community attitudes about youth drinking

3. Criteria of Successful Alcohol Prevention Programs • Developmentally appropriate information • 6th grade focus on parents • 7th grade focus on peer leadership • 8th grade developed peer action teams • 11th grade more complex curriculum

4. Criteria of Successful Alcohol Prevention Programs • Social resistance skills training • Susceptibility to peer pressure peeks in 6th-8th grades • 7th grade curriculum focused on resisting peer pressure

5. Criteria of Successful Alcohol Prevention Programs • Normative education • Changes in community norms needed to enhance healthy adolescent choices • PN focused on changes community norms from 6th through 12th grades

6. Criteria of Successful Alcohol Prevention Programs • More broadly based skills training and comprehensive health education • Strong focus on alcohol issues • Enhance program with emphasis on leadership, communication, and stress management skills

7. Criteria of Successful Alcohol Prevention Programs (cont.) • Interactive teaching techniques • Active learning holds youth’s attention • Examples: peer leaders, role plays, comics, games, etc.

8. Criteria of Successful Alcohol Prevention Programs (cont.) • Teacher training and support • Training helps insure that the program is being implemented as planned for success • Half to full day training occurred for PN staff

9. Criteria of Successful Alcohol Prevention Programs (cont.) • Adequate coverage and sufficient follow-up • Duration of 2 years, minimum • Minimum of 2 years of booster sessions

10. Criteria of Successful Alcohol Prevention Programs (cont.) • Cultural sensitivity • Program reflects the values and beliefs of target audience • Sensitivity to a broad definition of culture • Location • Ethnicity • Size of population

11. Criteria of Successful Alcohol Prevention Programs (cont.) • Additional components • Simultaneously incorporate multiple levels of intervention • Family • Community • Mass media

12. Criteria of Successful Alcohol Prevention Programs (cont.) • Evaluation • Design • Randomized comparison groups • Data collection: observation, surveys, interviews, purchase attempts • Measurement • Focus on outcomes of interest – those you expect to change

13. Success of Project Northland • Reduced adolescent alcohol use • Changed the functional meaning of alcohol use • Reduced peer norms and peer influence to use • Introduced skills to resist peer influences • Increased parent-child communication about the consequences of drinking