This article reports on an evaluation that aimed to determine whether a universal school-based substance abuse prevention program, Take Charge of Your Life (TCYL), prevents or reduces the use of tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana.
A total of 83 school clusters (representing school districts) from six metropolitan areas were randomized to treatment (41) or control (42) conditions. Using active consenting procedures, 19,529 seventh graders were enrolled in the 5-year study. Self-administered surveys were completed by the students annually. Trained Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) police officers presented TCYL in seventh and ninth grades in treatment schools. Analyses were conducted with data from 17,320 students who completed a baseline survey. Intervention outcomes were measured with self-reported past-month and past-year use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana when students were in the 11th grade. Main effect analyses found a negative program effect for use of alcohol and cigarettes and no effect for marijuana use. Subgroup analyses indicated that the negative effect occurred among non-users at baseline, and mostly among White students of both genders. A positive program effect was found for students who used marijuana at baseline. Two complementary papers explored the relationship of the targeted program mediators to the use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana and specifically for students who were substance-free or who used substances at baseline. The negative impact of the program on baseline non-users of alcohol and tobacco indicates that TCYL should not be delivered as a universal prevention intervention. The finding of a beneficial effect for baseline marijuana users further supports this conclusion. The programmatic and methodological challenges faced by the Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention Study (ASAPS) and lessons learned offer insights for prevention researchers who will be designing similar randomized field trials in the future. (publisher abstract modified)