IS CURRENT DRUG-ABUSE PREVENTION PROGRAMMING GENERALIZABLE ACROSS ETHNIC-GROUPS

Considerable progress has been made over the past two decades in ident ifying effective drug abuse prevention strategies. In particular, much support has been obtained for the effectiveness of a comprehensive so cial influences approach to drug abuse prevention. Given the inclusion of fundamental social psychological principles in comprehensive progr ams, it is possible that currently developed drug abuse prevention pro gramming is generalizable to different ethnic groups. However the empi rical and theoretical evidence is equivocal regarding the extent to wh ich this is true. In this article, the authors present arguments for a nd against the need to develop drug abuse prevention programs specific ally for minority ethnic groups.