ASSESSMENT OF ADOLESCENT REFUSAL SKILLS IN AN ALCOHOL MISUSE PREVENTION STUDY

Although many substance abuse prevention programs seek to enhance the ability of adolescents to refuse offers of alcohol and other drugs, fe w report assessments of refusal skill ability or its relationship to s ubstance use. This report describes a procedure to assess the ability of adolescents to refuse the offer of a beer, and presents the finding s of those assessments as well as their relationships to alcohol misus e prevention knowledge, susceptibility to peer pressure, internal heal th locus of control, self-esteem, and alcohol use and misuse. A one-th ird random sample (n = 1012) of 10th graders participating in a longit udinal evaluation of an alcohol misuse prevention curriculum was asses sed individually. Students rated their own refusals, which were also r ated by trained female and male raters. The results indicated that ado lescents refuse the offer of a beer only somewhat convincingly. Those adolescents with better refusal skills had higher levels of alcohol mi suse prevention knowledge, especially regarding resisting pressures to use alcohol and the application of knowledge to typical alcohol-relat ed situations. They also reported less susceptibility to peer pressure , greater internal health locus of control and self-esteem, and less a lcohol use and misuse. The results provide support for teaching refusa l skills in substance abuse prevention programs and for assessing refu sal skills in the evaluation of such programs.