New Model Intervention Program Helps Reach At-Risk Teenagers
Children growing up in an unstable environment have a high propensity for poor mental health, delinquency, poor academic performance, and substance abuse compared to their healthy counterparts. Creating preventive strategies and available intervention resources for at-risk youth during this crucial time of development is very likely to save them from more serious complications in later life. When the home environment is no place to perform an intervention with these at-risk youths, other adults involved in these adolescents’ lives have the ability to provide effective outreach services and support. A recent trial study has found a new personality-targeted intervention program that is delivered by teachers has a high potential to prevent alcohol abuse among at-risk teenagers.
Lead researcher Dr. Patricia Conrod and colleagues performed a randomized, controlled trial study that included participating U.S. schools that chose to implement the new personality-targeted intervention program. Eleven schools adopted use of the intervention program while 7 other schools served as a control group. In total, 2,506 students, with an average age of 13.7 years, were evaluated using the Substance Use Risk Profile scale and a personality questionnaire to determine their increased risk of substance abuse based on such symptoms as anxiety, hopelessness, impulsivity, or sensation-seeking habits. Of the participating students, 1,159 were identified as being at-risk of substance abuse. Within the intervention schools, 696 students participated in the teacher-delivered personality-targeted interventions, while 463 students from the control schools did not receive the treatment.
Meanwhile, the students’ teachers attended a 3-day sensitivity workshop on how to accurately recognize students who may be at high risk, as well as a 4-hour follow-up session regarding how to provide support and supervision. Then, teachers themselves were evaluated on their level of understanding of the goals and techniques of the intervention program, known as "The Adventure Trial."
The teacher-delivered personality-targeted interventions for at-risk adolescents consisted of two 90-minute group sessions led by a professional educational counselor. The intervention program, designed by the researchers, is actually intended to monitor participating students for up to two years regarding their substance use, academic performance, and mental health status, yet the trial study evaluated the outcomes of the participants within the six months following treatment. Participating students were evaluated on four primary at-risk outcomes, including alcohol consumption, binge-drinking behavior, quantity/frequency of alcohol use, and alcohol-related problems.
At a six-month follow-up, the researchers found that high-risk students who received the teacher-delivered personality-targeted interventions had significantly lower alcohol use rates than their non-intervention counterparts. Students who received the intervention had a 40% lowered risk of alcohol consumption and 55% lowered risk of binge-drinking behavior. Additionally, the high-risk students who received the intervention demonstrated lower quantities and frequencies of alcohol use and had less alcohol-related problems than the non-intervention students.
Based on their findings, the researchers conclude that teachers have the capacity to deliver successful interventions to high-risk students following this personality-targeted intervention program. The researchers suggest that the Adventure Trial intervention model has great potential to become permanently integrated into school-based alcohol-use prevention practices. By reaching adolescents who are most in need of help and are at high-risk for multiple personality hazards—including substance abuse and related problems, schools have the power to create lasting positive changes in these children that help teach them self-management skills and can prevent future substance use disorders in adulthood.
The new study appears in the September 2010 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
Source: Medical News Today, Adventure Trial Successfully Lowers Drinking Rates In At Risk Children, August 31, 2010
