Guide to Effective Programs
for Children and Youth

PROJECT NORTHLAND

OVERVIEW

Project Northland is a school-based, three-year-long, multi-component program designed to discourage substance use and promote positive youth development in adolescents. The program has community, school, peer, and family level components, and is administered to students on a weekly basis from grades 6 to 9. Experimental evaluation, with random assignment of paired schools, shows that Project Northland lowered adolescents’ initiation and use of alcohol, increased their perceived ability to resist peer pressure, and increased their communication about drinking with parents. Participants who were not alcohol-users at the beginning of the program experienced additional impacts, including lower levels of cigarette and marijuana use by 8^th grade.

PROGRAM INFORMATION

Target population: adolescents

Project Northland was a multi-component program designed to discourage substance use and promote positive youth development in adolescents. Training sessions or group activities were administered on a weekly basis from 6^th- to 8^th-grade. Project Northland operated on the family, school, peer, and community levels through components such as parent-child communication sessions, the administration of a social-behavioral curriculum, peer leadership training, and community organizing. The program also addressed community-specific alcohol programs and policies by changing the ease of students’ access to alcohol. Project Northland aimed to increase participants’ bonding, self-efficacy, prosocial involvement, and social, emotional, and behavioral competencies.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

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.

Evaluated population: 1901 students in 20 rural schools in northeastern Minnesota were studied over all three years of the program. (This comprised 81% of the original sample; analyses show that the initial and final samples were not significantly different in baseline alcohol use.) Students were followed from grades 6 to 8, and were 94% Caucasian and 4.5% Native American.

Approach: Ten schools were randomly selected to receive Project Northlands programming or the standard alcohol and drug education program that was normally given. Each year, intervention students received Project Northlands programming tailored to their age and changing environment. The programs had behavioral curriculum, peer leadership and community activities, and a component designed to encourage parental involvement. Written curriculum and parent materials were used to standardize the intervention program. At baseline and years one through three, students completed a questionnaire on alcohol and drug use, peer influences, self-efficacy, parent communication, perceptions of alcohol access, etc. Tendency to use alcohol was also measured.

Results: The study showed that Project Northland had several positive impacts compared with control group students. Participation in the program increased participants’ ability to resist peer influence, increased participants’ likelihood of communication with their parents on drinking-related issues, and lowered participant levels of alcohol use and initiation of alcohol use. Participants who reported not using alcohol at the beginning of the program experienced additional positive impacts by the end of the program, including lower levels of cigarette and marijuana use and higher levels of self-efficacy.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Link to program curriculum: http://www.hazelden.org/web/public/trainingprojectnorthland.page

References

Rissel, C. E., Perry, C. L., Wagenaar, A. C., Wolfson, M., Finnegan, J. R., & Komro, K. A. (1996). Empowerment, alcohol, 8^th grade students and health promotion. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education, 15, 105-119.

Program also discussed in the following Child Trends publication(s):

Hair, E. C., Jager, J., & Garrett, S. B. (2001). Background for community-level work on social competency in adolescence: Reviewing the literature on contributing factors. Washington, DC: Child Trends.

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: 6^th-8^th grade

Program age ranges in this guide: adolescence

Program components: community campaign, parent and family component, school-based

Measured outcomes: social development, behavioral problems

Program information last updated 3/15/07