Longitudinal Test of Project ALERT |
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| Project ALERT is a school-based program designed to prevent cigarette smoking, alcohol use, and marijuana use among seventh and eighth graders. It is based on the social influence model. It aims to help young people develop reasons to not use drugs, identify social and internal pressures to use drugs, learn methods for resisting peer pressure and say no to offers to use drugs, understand that most people do not use drugs, and recognize the benefits of resisting peer pressure. The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of Project ALERT. The study was conducted in 30 different schools. Changes in students' alcohol consumption, cigarette smoking, and marijuana use over a two-year period was tracked. Ten of the schools did not receive the program and served as a control group. Ten of the schools received Project ALERT from an adult health educator. The remaining ten schools received the curriculum from teen leaders who were high school assistants who helped regular classroom teachers deliver the program. The program included an eight-session curriculum delivered in seventh grade and booster sessions delivered in eighth grade. |
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| Alcohol The project reduced drinking among nondrinkers, experimenters, and regular drinkers immediately after the program was completed. The onset of drinking was most deterred among the group of students who received the program from the teen leader and classroom teacher. During the eighth grade year, the use of alcohol greatly increased. The positive effects of the program disappeared. Cigarettes Project ALERT had little effect on students who were nonsmokers prior to the program. Most of these students remained non-smokers. However, students who were experimenting with cigarettes in the seventh grade benefitted from the program. Current smoking (monthly, weekly, and daily) declined after the booster sessions in both the health educator and teen leader schools. Smoking increased for students who were regular smokers prior to the program. Smoking increased the most among regular smoking students who were exposed to the teen leaders. Interestingly, smoking decreased among smokers in the control group. Marijuana Students receiving Project ALERT who had never used marijuana had lower initiation rates and current use than did the control students. The booster sessions helped to maintain these effects. Monthly use among students who were already smoking marijuana was also suppressed, an effect that was maintained nine months after the program. Among students who had the most prior experience with marijuana, weekly use of marijuana was about 50% less among students in the teen leader schools than among those in the control schools. This reduction almost disappeared 12 months after the program. |
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| Project ALERT, which is based on the social influence model, was successful at preventing and reducing cigarette and marijuana use among both low- and high-risk students. It was not successful at reducing smoking among students who were already smoking prior to the program. In addition, alcohol use was not affected by the program. Booster sessions proved to be important for maintaining early program effects. The findings regarding the use of older teen leaders as teaching assistants are equivocal. The fact that this study included a broad range of socioeconomic and ethnic groups demonstrates the program's potential for decreasing substance use among a diversity of adolescents. |
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| Ellickson, P. L., and Bell, R. M. (1990). Drug prevention in junior high: A multi-site longitudinal test. Science, 247, 1299-1305. |
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