Positive Youth Development Program

OVERVIEW

The Positive Youth Development Program is designed to enhance general social competence and to prevent substance use in adolescents.  The program curriculum is delivered in the classroom, and comprises lessons on stress management, self-esteem enhancement, problem-solving, health information, assertiveness, and the use of social support networks. An experimental evaluation found that, at post-test, program participants had significantly greater improvements than the control group in terms of stress management, alternative solution thinking, self-rated problem-solving efficacy, and teacher-ratings of impulse control, popularity, and conflict resolution skills.  Both the program and control groups had significant increases in intentions to use marijuana, wine, and cigarettes, but the intentions of control students to use beer and hard-liquor were significantly higher than for those in the program group.  A significant difference between groups did exist in regards to changes in excessive alcohol use, with control group students reporting significantly greater increases in frequency of having three or more drinks on a single occasion, frequency of having too much to drink, and in the amount of liquor, wine, or beer consumed on a single occasion.   

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Young Adolescents

The school-based program is designed to develop personal and social competence, as well as substance use prevention.  Students attend 50-minute class sessions, twice per week, for a total of 20 sessions to cover the entire program curriculum.  Each class session is co-taught by classroom teachers and master’s level health educators, both of whom are trained through six 2-hour workshops, delivered by program developers.  This is a very structured program, and, in the evaluation study, weekly on-site visits by the developers provided further levels of coaching and feedback once the curriculum has begun.

Over the course of the program, there are six main units of focus: stress management (looking at the causes and symptoms of stress and adaptive methods of coping), self-esteem (improving self-concept through examinations of positive personal goal-setting for healthy living), problem solving (teaching a social problem-solving framework), substances and health (detailing the negative social, physical, and legal consequences of substance use), assertiveness (emphasizing behavioral strategies to effectively resist pressure and communicate assertively), and social networks (encouraging students to use and consider support resources available to them in their schools, communities, and homes). 

The program begins by focusing on general social competence and works towards having students use the skills and knowledge they have acquired to dilemmas involving drug and alcohol use.  Each session builds off of what was covered previously, so as to develop a sequential and integrated learning process.  Because the skills being taught and highlighted in the program are meant to be applicable to a broad range of circumstances, real-life social tasks (relevant to each session’s students) are the focus of session discussions.  Several techniques are used to teach skills, including videotapes, class discussions, work sheets, didactic instruction, small-group role-plays, homework assignments, and diaries.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Evaluated population: A total of 282 students ages 11 to 14 were recruited for participation in this study.  Participants were taken from classes within one inner-city and one suburban middle school in south-central Connecticut (both considered to be representative of such a school setting).  After hearing the program described, interested teachers’ classes were stratified within ability groupings.  In the inner city sample, 55 percent were male, 90 percent were black, 8 percent were Hispanic, and 2 percent were mixed ethnic origin.  In the suburban sample, 54 percent were male, 99 percent were white, and 1 percent were Hispanic.

Approach: Participants were randomly assigned to either the youth development program (N=109) or a control group (N=173).  Students in the control condition received normal academic science lessons, which included instructions highlighting physical effects resulting from drug use. There were no significant differences between groups in terms of demographics at baseline. However, at pretest students in the program group generated a significantly larger number (and higher quality) of coping strategies to hypothetical stressful situation, as well as a significantly greater number of alternatives solutions to a peer-pressure problem.  Also, teachers rated program students as being significantly less popular than those in the control condition.  Analyses including pretest scores as covariates did not affect the findings.

To measure the effectiveness of the program, data were collected on coping skills (alternative solution thinking and stress management), social and emotional adjustment (conflict resolution with peers, impulse control, popularity, and assertiveness with adults, both self- and teacher-rated), and self-reported intentions, attitudes, and use of drugs and alcohol.  Data were collected at baseline and at post-test immediately following program completion.  A weakness of the design is that teachers co-taught the classes and provided ratings of students.   

Results: At post-test, a statistically significant improvement existed for those in the program group compared with the control group, in terms of both the quantity and effectiveness of solutions to peer pressure problem and the quantity and adaptiveness of stress management strategies.  Significant improvements relative to the control group were found for the program group in terms of teacher-rated social and emotional adjustment for three categories (conflict resolution with peers, popularity, and impulse control).  However, a significant difference did not exist between groups in terms of assertiveness with adults.  Self-rated gains for the program group versus the controls were also found for feelings of problem-solving efficacy. 

In terms of intentions to use drugs and alcohol, both the program and control groups had significant increases in intentions to use marijuana, wine, and cigarettes.  However, intentions of control students to use beer and hard-liquor were significantly higher than for those in the program group.  There were no significant differences between groups in terms of attitudes towards drinking and smoking, and there were no significant differences in terms of self-reported changes in frequency of substance use.  However, a significant difference between groups was found for changes in excessive alcohol use.  Students in the control group increased significantly (compared with the program group) in frequency of having three or more drinks on a single occasion, frequency of having too much to drink, and in the amount of liquor, wine, or beer consumed on a single occasion.  Results were similar for the inner city and suburban samples.    

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References:

Caplan, M., Weissberg, R. P., Grober, J. S., Sivo, P. J., Grady, K., & Jacoby, C. (1992). Social competence promotion with inner-city and suburban young adolescents: Effects on social adjustment and alcohol use. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 60(1), 56-63.

KEYWORDS: Children, Adolescents, Middle School, Males and Females (Co-Ed), Black/African American, Urban, Suburban, School-Based, Skills Training, Social Skills/Life Skills, Self-Esteem/Self-Concept, Tobacco Use, Marijuana/Illicit/Prescription Drugs, Alcohol Use

Program information last updated 12/12/11

© Child Trends 2003