Reaching adolescents who drink harmfully: Fitting intervention to developmental reality

Abstract

Alcohol use usually starts in early adolescence. While the greater proportion of young people develop adaptive patterns of drinking, many drink at harmful levels and may be at risk for future alcohol-related problems. Findings from the empirical literature suggest that universal prevention programs may delay onset of drinking among low-risk baseline abstainers; however, there is little evidence supporting their utility for at-risk adolescents. Further research is needed on how risk and protective factors interact to determine substance use trajectory, and intervention outcomes that take substance use trajectories into account may capture change more effectively than the use of absolute measures of substance use. Indicated prevention programs may benefit from modulations that account for adolescent individuation and identity formation. It is argued that motivational interviewing within a harm reduction framework is well suited to adolescents.

Drinking Motives in the Prospective Prediction of Unique Alcohol-Related Consequences in College Students

“…As others have noted, it is more effective to target high-risk youths in intervention efforts than it is to target a more general population (Gottfredson and Wilson, 2003;Masterman and Kelly, 2003). In our study, coping motives demonstrate the most long-term risk regardless of one's levels of drinking.…”

Effects of Motivational Interviewing for Incarcerated Adolescents on Driving Under the Influence after Release

“…22 Masterman and Kelly 23 indicate that MI may be particularly well-suited to adolescents given their sensitivity and resistance to adult attempts to control or direct their behavior 24 -features not uncommonly found among delinquent adolescents.…”

Harm reduction: An approach to reducing risky health behaviours in adolescents

“…Several studies (15,16) have demonstrated that this program was nonefficacious in reducing substance use. Two examples of programs that have been successfully implemented and evaluated based on a harm reduction philosophy are the Alcohol Misuse Prevention Study (AMPS) (17) in the United States, and the School Health and Alcohol Harm Reduction Project (SHAHRP) in Australia (18).…”

“…Evaluation of this program has demonstrated significant reductions in alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harms in those students participating in the program compared with controls (17).…”