Adolescent health briefBrief Intervention for Substance Use among At-Risk Adolescents: A Pilot Study
Section snippets
Methods
Participants were recruited from three morning classes at two continuation high schools in the greater Los Angeles area. Continuation high schools enroll students who are unable to attend regular high schools for various reasons including conduct problems and drug use. The prevalence of drug use at these schools is nearly twice that of regular high schools, and therefore, these youth are considered relatively high risk for substance abuse [5]. The University IRB approved the recruiting
Results
Of the 59 students invited to participate, 26 agreed to participate, six declined to participate, and 27 failed to return the consent forms. Of the 26 who consented, four were not available for assessment at Time 1 and four were not available for assessment at follow-up, leaving 18 participants in the study. Demographic information and the prevalence of drug use at Time 1 are shown in Table 1. The control group appeared to be slightly older, at a higher grade level, and used more club and hard
Discussion
This initial study successfully implemented a one-to-one, brief intervention among at-risk students at continuation high schools, showing that the approach is quite feasible in a field setting. Students were willing to discuss their drug use and were engaged in the interview process. The number of students that did not return consent forms was high, but there was no indication of an adverse opinion of the program. Some incentives probably are necessary to encourage students to return the forms
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (DA16094), the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development Council (ZONMw; 31000065), and the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). The authors gratefully acknowledge the work of Sara Smucker Barnwell and Jed Grodin as interviewers in this study. The authors also would like to thank Amy Custer, Hee-Sung Shin, and James Pike for their support on this project.
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