Guiding Good Choices

This is a parenting skills development program implemented in five sessions lasting two hours each to improve parent-child interaction and reduce the risk of early drug abuse in children.
The program is implemented in schools by trained facilitators who work with groups of parents, with an average of 10 families.
The first session is with the children and adolescents, focusing on the skills needed to resist peer pressure to use drugs.
The other four sessions are aimed at parents to improve family protection processes through the development of effective parenting practices, such as establishing clear rules about substance use, monitoring adolescent behavior, reducing and managing anger and family conflicts, and expressing positive feelings and developing bonds.

Impact evaluations

Impact evaluation studies have shown that the program had a statistically significant impact on the development of parenting skills and social and emotional skills, as well as a reduction in alcohol use, criminal behavior, depression, and illicit drug use [1] [2] [3] [4].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Spoth, R., Trudeau, L., Guyll, M., Shin, C. & Redmond, C. (2009). Universal intervention effects on substance use among young adults mediated by delayed adolescent substance initiation. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 77(4), 620–632. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016029

[2] Spoth, R., Redmond, C., Haggerty, K. & Ward, T. (1995). A Controlled Parenting Skills Outcome Study Examining Individual Difference and Attendance Effects. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 57(2), 449. https://doi.org/10.2307/353698

[3] Spoth, R., Reyes, M. L., Redmond, C. & Shin, C. (1999). Assessing a public health approach to delay onset and progression of adolescent substance use: Latent transition and log-linear analyses of longitudinal family preventive intervention outcomes. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 67(5), 619–630. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.67.5.619

[4] Park, J., Kosterman, R., Hawkins, J. D., Haggerty, K. P., Duncan, T. E., Duncan, S. C. & Spoth, R [R.] (2000). Effects of the "Preparing for the Drug Free Years" curriculum on growth in alcohol use and risk for alcohol use in early adolescence. Prevention Science: The Official Journal of the Society for Prevention Research, 1(3), 125–138. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010021205638

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