Preventing Alcohol Use with a Universal School-Based Intervention: Results from an Effectiveness Study
Permanent link
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/7690Date
2015-04-09Type
Journal articleTidsskriftartikkel
Peer reviewed
Author
Strøm, Henriette Kyrrestad; Adolfsen, Frode; Handegård, Bjørn Helge; Natvig, Henrik; Eisemann, Martin; Martinussen, Monica; Koposov, Roman AAbstract
Background: The effectiveness of the universal school-based alcohol prevention program “Unge & Rus” [Youth &
Alcohol] was tested by an independent research group. The program aims to prevent alcohol use and to change
adolescents’ alcohol-related attitudes. The main outcome measure was frequency of monthly alcohol use, favorable
alcohol attitudes, perceived behavioral control (PBC), positive alcohol expectancy and alcohol-related knowledge.
Methods: Junior high school students (N = 2,020) with a mean age of 13.5 years participated in this longitudinal
pre, post and one-year follow-up study with a quasi-experimental design, involving an intervention group and a
comparison group recruited from 41 junior high schools in Norway. Multilevel analysis was used to account for the
repeated observations (level 1) nested within students (level 2) who in turn were clustered within school classes
(level 3).
Results: Results showed an increased level of alcohol-related knowledge in the intervention group (p < .005) as
compared to the comparison group at one-year follow-up. However, no significant difference in change was found
between the intervention group and the comparison group in frequency of monthly alcohol use, alcohol-related
attitudes, PBC or alcohol expectancy at one-year follow-up.
Conclusions: This study offers adequate data on the effectiveness of a school-based alcohol prevention program widely implemented in Norway. Under its current method of implementation, use of the program cannot be supported over the use of standard alcohol curriculum within schools.
Publisher
BioMed CentralCitation
BMC Public Health (2015) 15:337Metadata
Show full item recordCollections
The following license file are associated with this item: