Six-month outcomes of an alcohol prevention program for inner-city youth

Alcohol continues to be the most frequently used drug among children and ad olescents. National data from the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System ( YRBSS) showed that over 80% of adolescents had had at least one drink of al cohol during their lifetime, with over half (52%) having had at least one d rink of alcohol during the past 30 days and one-third (33%) having engaged in heavy episodic drinking (five or more drinks of alcohol at one time) dur ing the past 30 days.(1) Unfortunately, most studies evaluating alcohol pre vention programs have targeted suburban youth, leaving a gap in our underst anding of the effectiveness of interventions for inner-city children and ad olescents. The stages of initiation of alcohol and other drug use have been recently i dentified as a model for matching prevention content to specific levels of adolescent risk.(2,3) The present study examined outcomes of the STARS for Families preventive intervention targeting children at two inner-city middl e schools, 6 months after program implementation. STARS for Families (Start Taking Alcohol Risks Seriously) is a research project designed to test the effectiveness of stage-based strategies for preventing alcohol use among y outh using primary health care providers.