Biomedical subjects

R Maharg

Publications and source records attributed to R Maharg.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1996

Effectiveness of a high school alcohol misuse prevention program.

An alcohol misuse prevention curriculum for tenth-grade students was developed, implemented, and evaluated through twelfth grade with 1041 students from four school districts. The curriculum emphasized social pressures resistance training, immediate effects of alcohol, risks of alcohol misuse, and social pressures to misuse alcohol. There were desirable program effects on alcohol misuse prevention knowledge (p < 0.001), alcohol misuse (p < 0.02), and refusal skills (p < 0.09). Gender by occasion differences were found on alcohol use, alcohol misuse, and driving after drinking, with boys' rates increasing more than those of girls. Exposure to a sixth-grade, as well as the tenth-grade, program did not result in better outcomes. Despite high levels of alcohol use among high school students, a tenth-grade curriculum can result in some desirable effects. Creative approaches are needed, however, especially for boys who tend to use and misuse alcohol at rates that increase more steeply than those of girls.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed1994

Longitudinal evaluation of an enhanced alcohol misuse prevention study (AMPS) curriculum for grades six-eight.

For students progressing from sixth to eighth grade, an enhanced Alcohol Misuse Prevention Study (AMPS) curriculum that emphasized social pressure resistance training, peer support, and norm-setting was developed, implemented, and evaluated. Schools were randomly assigned within communities to curriculum or control groups. Students were pretested early in sixth grade before the intervention and posttested at the end of sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Results indicated the curriculum was effective in increasing students' knowledge of curriculum material, and among the subgroup of students who had used alcohol unsupervised by adults before the pretest, in reducing the rate of increase of alcohol misuse. The findings result from a replication of the analytic approach used with the initial AMPS cohort data.

Adolescent↗

PubMed1993

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, few report assessments of refusal skill ability or its relationship to substance use. This report describes a procedure to assess the ability of adolescents to refuse the offer of a beer, and presents the findings of those assessments as well as their relationships to alcohol misuse prevention knowledge, susceptibility to peer pressure, internal health locus of control, self-esteem, and alcohol use and misuse. A one-third random sample (n = 1012) of 10th graders participating in a longitudinal evaluation of an alcohol misuse prevention curriculum was assessed individually. Students rated their own refusals, which were also rated by trained female and male raters. The results indicated that adolescents refuse the offer of a beer only somewhat convincingly. Those adolescents with better refusal skills had higher levels of alcohol misuse prevention knowledge, especially regarding resisting pressures to use alcohol and the application of knowledge of typical alcohol-related situations. They also reported less susceptibility to peer pressure, greater internal health locus of control and self-esteem, and less alcohol use and misuse. The results provide support for teaching refusal skills in substance abuse prevention programs and for assessing refusal skills in the evaluation of such programs.

Adolescent↗