Mentoring adolescents to prevent drug and alcohol use

Abstract

All four RCTs were in the US, and included "deprived" and mostly minority adolescents. Participants were young (in two studies age 12, and in two others 9-16). All students at baseline were non-users of alcohol and drugs. Two RCTs found mentoring reduced the rate of initiation of alcohol, and one of drug usage. The ability of the interventions to be effective was limited by the low rates of commencing alcohol and drug use during the intervention period in two studies (the use of marijuana in one study increased to 1% in the experimental and to 1.6% in the control group, and in another study drug usage rose to 6% in the experimental and 11% in the control group). However, in a third study there was scope for the intervention to have an effect as alcohol use rose to 19% in the experimental and 27% in the control group. The studies assessed structured programmes and not informal mentors.

Interventions for Adolescent Substance Abuse: An Overview of Systematic Reviews

“…We report findings from three systematic reviews evaluating individual-targeted interventions for substance abuse among adolescents; these included mentoring [71] , counseling, or psychotherapy [72] , [73] . Review evaluating mentoring suggested limited evidence to conclude that the intervention was effective [71] .…”

“…We report findings from three systematic reviews evaluating individual-targeted interventions for substance abuse among adolescents; these included mentoring [71] , counseling, or psychotherapy [72] , [73] . Review evaluating mentoring suggested limited evidence to conclude that the intervention was effective [71] . The review evaluating counseling and psychotherapy to treat alcohol and other drug use problems in school-aged youth suggested that the effects of counseling and psychotherapy for drug abuse are consistently significant at termination, but follow-up effects yielded inconsistent results [72] .…”

Practitioner Review: Evidence‐based practice guidelines on alcohol and drug misuse among adolescents: a systematic review

“…Evidence‐based practice in the field of prevention of substance misuse appeared even more challenging. Although several Cochrane reviews are available that evaluated effects of prevention interventions, conclusions are rather general, providing few indications on the effective elements of prevention programs (Gates et al., ; Thomas et al., ; Faggiano et al., ; Foxcroft & Tsertsvadze, ,b,c). This hampers the process of making recommendations on effective prevention practice.…”

Developing a typology of mentoring programmes for young people attending secondary school in the United Kingdom using qualitative methods

“…A range of systematic reviews have been undertaken to scrutinise the available evidence on mentoring with regard to a range of different outcomes including academic, health, relational, and social outcomes of young people. Whereas only some reviews focussed solely on randomised control trial evaluations ( Thomas, Lorenzetti, & Spragins, 2011 ; Thomas, Lorenzetti, & Spragins, 2013a ; Thomas, Lorenzetti, & Spragins, 2013b ), others included a variety of study designs. The majority of reviews were based on programmes in the United States of America (USA) where most studies have been undertaken.…”

“…For instance, no statistically significant effects was found in the health domain in DuBois's systematic review ( DuBois et al, 2011 ) nor was any effect of mentoring observed on academic attitude, achievement and attendance in Randolph's review of school-based programmes ( Randolph & Johnson, 2008 ). Meta-analyses have reported no statistical significant effect of mentoring on young people's evaluation of psychological stress and strain ( Eby et al, 2008 ), motivation or involvement ( Eby et al, 2008 ), helping others ( Eby et al, 2008 ), measures of aggression ( Tolan et al, 2013 ), smoking ( Thomas et al, 2013b ) and there have been mixed findings with regard to young person's drug use or alcohol use ( Thomas et al, 2011 ; Thomas et al, 2013a ).…”