NCJ Number
195632
Journal
Drug and Alcohol Review Volume: 21 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2002 Pages: 7-16
Date Published
March 2002
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This article assesses the impact of an adolescent peer support program on adolescents’ attitudes, use of, and knowledge of alcohol and tobacco.
Abstract
This article assesses the effectiveness of an adolescent peer support program in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Using attitude questionnaires to obtain 12 year old students’ perceptions of their parents’, friends’, and their own use of alcohol and tobacco, this study was conducted at five schools who had peer support programs and five schools that did not. Plotting and analyzing path coefficients for reported alcohol and tobacco use for all participants indicated that overtime both groups increased their levels of alcohol and tobacco use and adopted more lenient attitudes towards these substances. Results from this study suggest that the peer support program did not positively influence adolescents’ use, attitudes, or knowledge of tobacco and alcohol. These researchers put forward that peer support programs need further evaluation to determine their effectiveness in reducing adolescents’ rates of alcohol and tobacco use. 3 Tables, 3 figures, 42 references