Project Northland
Solution types
Psychoeducation
Problems addressed
Alcohol abuse
Drug abuse
Effectiveness

Promising

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Promising

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Life periods served
Teenagers (14 to 17 years)
Where the program was applied
Education establishment
Country of application
United States
Description

This is a school-based program to prevent alcohol consumption among adolescents aged 12 to 18. The intervention lasts six years and starts in the 6th grade of elementary school, implemented in two phases:
1) The first phase provides activities for sixth, seventh, and eighth graders through training to communicate to parents about alcohol consumption; how to deal with peer influence and normative expectations about alcohol; and understanding methods that produce changes in programs and policies related to this substance;
2) The second phase was designed to help maintain the effects in high school, including community organization, parent education, adolescent development, the media, and the school curriculum.

Impact evaluations

Impact evaluation studies have shown statistically significant reductions in the consumption, abuse, and purchase of alcoholic beverages among program participants. However, there was no statistically significant effect in relation to the consumption of illegal substances [1] [2].

Bibliographic reference

[1] Perry, C. L., Williams, C. L., Veblen-Mortenson, S., Toomey, T. L., Komro, K. A., Anstine, P. S., McGovern, P. G., Finnegan, J. R., Forster, J. L., Wagenaar, A. C. & Wolfson, M. (1996). Project Northland: Outcomes of a communitywide alcohol use prevention program during early adolescence. American Journal of Public Health, 86(7), 956–965. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.86.7.956

[2] Komro, K. A., Perry, C. L., Veblen‐Mortenson, S., Farbakhsh, K., Toomey, T. L., Stigler, M. H., ... & Williams, C. L. (2008). Outcomes from a randomized controlled trial of a multi‐component alcohol use preventive intervention for urban youth: Project Northland Chicago. Addiction, 103(4), 606-618.

[2] Perry, C. L., Williams, C. L., Komro, K. A., Veblen-Mortenson, S., Stigler, M. H., Munson, K. A., Farbakhsh, K., Jones, R. M. & Forster, J. L. (2002). Project Northland: Long-term outcomes of community action to reduce adolescent alcohol use. Health Education Research, 17(1), 117–132. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/17.1.117

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