Behavioral Science and the Prevention of Adolescent Substance Abuse

Abstract

This article reviews the evidence regarding behavioral science approaches to the prevention of substance use disorders. Prevention science grew out of research on family and school-based interventions that were designed to treat common behavioral problems of children and adolescents. That research showed that the amelioration of problems such as aggressive behavior could prevent the development of later problems including substance use, depression, and academic failure. We begin by reviewing evidence regarding the risk factors that contribute to the development of substance use disorders, as well as the protective factors that can reduce their likelihood. We then describe a variety of family, school, and community prevention programs that have been shown to prevent youthful use and abuse of substances. We conclude by describing the progress that has been made in getting these programs widely and effectively implemented, and the challenges we face in getting to the point where most communities are achieving considerable success in prevent substance use and the other common and costly behavioral and psychological problems of children and adolescents.

How substance use prevention research gets used in United States federal policy

“…school [22,[24][25][26], and community [22,27,28]. A vast amount of evidence demonstrating their effectiveness has now been accumulated [19,29,30]. The next challenge, therefore, becomes scaling them up and applying them broadly [29,31].…”

“…A substantial literature base has consistently identified a number of risk factors that influence the development of SU/SUDs and other problem behaviors [18, 19]. Over the last three decades, the field of prevention science developed numerous interventions that target these risk factors at the levels of the individual [20], family [21–23], school [22, 24–26], and community [22, 27, 28].…”

“…Over the last three decades, the field of prevention science developed numerous interventions that target these risk factors at the levels of the individual [20], family [21–23], school [22, 24–26], and community [22, 27, 28]. A vast amount of evidence demonstrating their effectiveness has now been accumulated [19, 29, 30]. The next challenge, therefore, becomes scaling them up and applying them broadly [29, 31].…”

Roles and responsibilities in substance use prevention in the school setting: views among Finnish school personnel representatives

“…In the Nordic countries and Europe at large, adolescents' use of licit and illicit substances and related risk behaviours form a continuing challenge [1]. Strategies to prevent substance use among children and adolescents encompass various interventions and policies, ranging from national policy to school and/or familylevel interventions [2], with varying results shown for intervention effectiveness [3][4][5][6][7]. In contrast to evaluating substance use prevention programs, this study focuses on Finnish school personnel representatives' perceptions of roles and responsibilities in prevention work aimed at children and adolescentswhich bears implications for further development of primary prevention efforts in the school setting.…”

Editorial: Emerging Cultural and Behavioral Systems Science

“…Others still have focused their efforts on systems and cultures with less clear boundaries than those found in traditional organizations-the community (e.g., Biglan 1995;Mattaini 2013), which is sometimes manifested in the efforts of community behavioral psychologists (e.g., Fawcett 1991;Watson-Thompson 2018;Watson-Thompson et al 2017). Often grounded in efforts toward social justice and mitigating systemic challenges such as addictions (Biglan and Ryzin 2019;Silverman et al 2019), violence (e.g., Aspholm and Mattaini 2017;Mattaini 2013), sustainability (e.g., Chance and Heward 2010;Grant 2011;Kaplan et al 2018), and poverty (e.g., Brady and Burton 2016; Fava and Vasconcelos 2017;Valderlon and Elias 2019), the work in this area frequently considers the impact of intervening on one part of a system on the other parts of the system or the system as a whole (or the interdependencies between and across sectors; see Biglan 1995;Mattaini 2013).…”