Emerging findings from high-risk youth prevention programs

✍ Scribed by Soledad Sambrano; Mary A. Jansen; Stephania J. O'Neill

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 45 KB
• Volume: 25
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0090-4392
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6629(199709)25:5<371::aid-jcop1>3.0.co;2-w

✦ Synopsis

Substance abuse by our nation's youth continues to be a major national concern. Recent statistics from the National Household Survey on Drug Abuse (NHSDA) reveal that progress in combating substance use among youth ages 12 to 17 during the 1980s has stalled or reversed during the 1990s (Department of Health and Human Services, July 1994). Negative attitudes toward drug use have declined among adolescents and actual drug use (tobacco and marijuana) has increased. Adolescents are inclined to discount the harm that drugs can do. What is particularly alarming about these trends is the fact that the most significant increases in drug use are among the youngest adolescents, many of whom face a myriad of negative economic, social, and emotional influences.

Since 1987, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) has funded more than 400 High-Risk Youth (HRY) demonstration projects targeting youth at risk for substance abuse. The location of the projects has been in a diversity of settings, community-based organizations, public and private schools, housing projects, and residential facilities. The majority of the projects combine multiple prevention strategies and approaches targeted at both highrisk youth and their families.

These demonstrations have substantially increased the nation's knowledge about developing and implementing innovative programs for the prevention of substance abuse among youth. The shift in focus from program service demonstration to knowledge de-