Preventing alcohol misuse: The impact of refusal skills and norms

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which refusal skil ls and norm setting mediated the impact of a school-based prevention progra m from the Alcohol Misuse Prevention Study (AMPS) on adolescent alcohol ove rindulgence. The AMPS is a randomized, pre-post, experimental-control study . Respondents in the present study included 6th through 10th graders Cns ra nged from 232 to 371). Structural equation modeling analyses using EQS indi cated that norm setting mediated the effect of the intervention on alcohol overindulgence at the 7th through the 8th grade and at the 8th through the 10th grade. In contrast, although the prevention program served to increase refusal skills, refusal skills did not mediate the effect of the program o n alcohol misuse.