Peer Intervention Program

OVERVIEW

The Peer Intervention Program is a school-based program, integrated into a high school driver education course.  Students are empowered to intervene in the drinking and driving behavior of their peers by learning about risks associated with such behavior, as well as the skills and beliefs to feel comfortable taking such action.  An experimental evaluation of the program compared the peer intervention approach with a conventional alcohol education.  The study found that in terms of peer intervention behavior, both groups made significant positive gains, with no difference between groups at post-test.  However, only the treatment group maintained these gains through the follow-up, at which point a significant difference did exist, indicating that the treatment group was more likely to engage in intervention behavior with peers compared with the control group.  There were significant gains in terms of knowledge for both the treatment and control groups that were maintained at the follow-up at the end of the semester 1 to 4 months later, but no significant differences existed between groups at either time.  Significant favorable changes in attitudes were also found for the treatment group at post-test, and a significant difference existed between groups.  A significant difference in attitudes was also present at follow-up, although the gains made by the treatment group were no longer significant.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target Population: Students enrolled in driver’s education

The intervention consists of a nine-hour program, integrated into high school driver’s education classes.  One hour of the program is dedicated to an information presentation that focuses on basic alcohol safety.  This portion consists of four main topics: 1) how alcohol works and its effect on one’s ability to drive, 2) risks of drinking and driving and the relationship between drinking and driving and accidents, 3) methods to keep drinking and driving separate, and 4) methods to control drinking.  The other eight hours of the program are spent learning techniques for intervening in drinking/driving situations, through role playing.  Previously prepared scenes and roles are first given to the students to act out, but students eventually create their own scenes for role play.  Student discussion is encouraged throughout and role-playing activities are designed to teach that intervention is possible and students can feel comfortable in that role.

EVALUATION OF PROGRAM

Evaluated population: Participants consisted of 667 students enrolled in driver education in five Rhode Island high schools.  (Race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and gender composition of the sample were not detailed in the published article.)

Approach: Participants were randomly assigned to either the treatment (N=334) or control group (N=333).  Students in the control condition received regular alcohol instruction based on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s “You…Alcohol and Driving.”  The program was also conducted as part of a driver education course and lasted an equivalent amount of time. 

To measure the effectiveness of the program, data were collected on knowledge of alcohol safety, attitudes towards alcohol, and self-reported intervention behavior in situations with alcohol.  All data were collected at baseline, immediately following program administration, and at a follow-up at the end of the semester (1 to 4 months depending on when the intervention program concluded), and change from the pretest score was assessed at each time.     

Results: For the knowledge measures, while both the intervention and control groups made statistically significant gains that were maintained at follow-up, there were no significant differences between the groups at either the post-test or follow-up.  For attitudes, the peer intervention group had significantly favorable changes in attitudes towards alcohol at post-test, compared with the control group (i.e., the intervention group experienced significant gains, while the control group did not).  Although there were no significant differences between schools, a significant interaction between treatment and schools did exist, suggesting that gains made by the treatment program for attitudes are dependent upon the school in which it is administered.  At follow-up, a favorable significant difference did still exist favoring the treatment over the control group, but the difference was not due to gains in the treatment group, which were no longer significant but were found because the control group showed a significant decline over time. 

In terms of intervention behavior, both the treatment and control groups showed significant gains at post-test, with no significant differences existing between groups.  However, the control group did not maintain the improvement at follow-up, while the treatment group did, and a statistically significant difference did exist between groups.  There was no significant interaction between schools and treatment at post-test or follow-up.      

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References

McKnight, A.J. & McPherson, K. (1986). Evaluation of peer intervention training for high school alcohol safety education. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 18(4), 339-347

KEYWORDS: Adolescents, Youth, High School, Males and Females (Co-Ed), School-Based, Skills Training, Alcohol Use, Other Safety

Program information last updated 11/8/11

© Child Trends 2003