Mentoring: Drug and Alcohol Use

Mentoring relationships help reduce substance use among youth.  Little Brothers and Little Sisters were 46 percent less likely than peers in a control group to initiate drug use during the study period (18 months).  An even stronger effect was found for minority Little Brothers and Little Sisters, who were 70 percent less likely to initiate drug use than other similar minority youth.^BBS1  Little Brothers and Little Sisters were 27 percent less likely than youth in a control group to initiate alcohol use during the study period, and minority Little Sisters were about half as likely.^BBS1

Students with mentors in the Across Ages program had significantly better reactions to situations involving drug use than those not participating in the program.^AA1 

They were also less likely to initiate marijuana use six months after the program ended.^AA2  However, in the short term, they did not use substances less frequently than the control group (this may be due to overall low levels – an average 0.16 on a 0-5 scale).^AA1  Results from additional participants of the Across Ages program repeat this pattern for short-term marijuana use.^AA2