Long‐Term Impact of the Gatehouse Project on Cannabis Use of 16‐Year‐Olds in Australia

Abstract

This study examined the impact of a school-based preventive intervention on cannabis use in adolescence, using a cluster-randomized trial of a multilevel intervention aimed at improving social relationships within schools by promoting change in school environment. Four waves of data were collected at baseline (1997, Year 8: mean age 13 years) and six, 18, and 30 months later (1999, Year 10: mean age 16 years). Self-reported substance use, school engagement, and sociodemographic data were collected using computer-administered questionnaires. Some 2.678(74%) Year 8 students participated (wave 1) with minimal attrition (10% by wave 4). Adjusting for baseline use, weak evidence existed for an intervention effect on the prevalence of any use at Year 10 (OR 0.75, 95% CI 0.54, 1.05) and incident weekly use (OR 0.72, 95% CI 0.39, 1.33). These effects were reduced after adjusting for confounders. Moderate evidence suggested an interaction effect between intervention group and tobacco use (p = 0.04), suggesting the intervention was more effective for non-smokers at baseline (Adj. OR 0.50, 95% CI 0.26, 0.98). This study indicates that a multi-level school-based program may provide an innovative direction for sustainable school interventions with the potential to reduce substance use.

Adolescents and risks: Why not change our paradigm?

“…The Gatehouse project, which has been run for several years in Melbourne, Australia, is a good example of an intervention that focuses on resources, connectedness, and well-being instead of problems and risks [33]. Interestingly, this approach seems to reduce substance use in those schools that have implemented the program, in comparison with control schools [34].…”

School-Based Prevention of Depression: A 2-Year Follow-up of a Randomized Controlled Trial of the beyondblue Schools Research Initiative

“…Schools in each pair were randomly allocated to the intervention or comparison group by a research assistant who was blind to the groups to which schools were being allocated. Data collected from the Gatehouse Project [26] were used to inform the required sample size for the project [18].…”

Student- and school-level belonging and commitment and student smoking, drinking and misbehaviour

“…This was developed in Australia (Sawyer et al, 2010) using items from the Gatehouse, (Bond et al, 2004) Quality of School Life, (Epstein and McPartland, 1976) Patterns of Adaptive Learning, (Roeser et al, 1996) Manitoba School Improvement Survey (Earl and Lee, 1998) and Psychological Sense of School Membership (Goodenow, 1993) questionnaires. Cronbach's alphas for the lack of belonging and academic commitment sub-scales of 0.85 and 0.82 were reported for a sample of similar age (personal communication Lyndal Bond 21 July 2011).…”