Dm. Gorman, ARE SCHOOL-BASED RESISTANCE SKILLS TRAINING-PROGRAMS EFFECTIVE IN PREVENTING ALCOHOL MISUSE, Journal of alcohol and drug education, 41(1), 1995, pp. 74-98
The resistance skill training (RST) program is perhaps the most popula
r form of alcohol misuse prevention strategy currently used in school.
This approach came to dominate school-based prevention in the early 1
980s, following the publication of research studies showing the ineffe
ctiveness of exiting ''knowledge-based'' and ''affective'' programs an
d, perhaps more importantly, through the high profile political suppor
t it was able to attract. This paper reviews all published evaluations
of school-based RST interventions. The majority of these show that su
ch programs, while not detrimental, have little or no effect upon part
icipants in terms of their drinking behavior at follow-up. In the few
studies reporting a positive effect, this is limited to sub-groups of
the target population. Reasons why such programs are ineffective are d
iscussed, and suggestions made concerning the direction of future prim
ary prevention research.