The Alcohol Misuse Prevention Study (AMPS) curriculum was implemented and evaluated in 10th grade classes in six school districts in southeastern Michigan between 1988 and 1990 (Shope, Elliot, Raghunathan, & Waller, 2001). Classes were randomly assigned to the program or control groups. The AMPS curriculum consisted of five 45-minute sessions over five consecutive days, and was designed to raise student awareness of the short-term repercussions of alcohol use, of the risks associated with alcohol misuse, and of commonly encountered alcohol use situations and social pressures. The program also aimed to teach students useful skills for dealing with these common pressures and situations. Curriculum activities and materials included worksheets, pamphlets, games, class discussions, role plays, and use of audio-visual materials. Participants who procured a driver's license by June, 1997 were included in the present analysis of state-reported outcome data for traffic offenses and MVCs between 1986 and 1997. These 4,635 students were 83% white and 17% nonwhite, and the vast majority obtained their driver's licenses within one year of the intervention, on average at age 16.4. During the first year of licensure only, program students experienced fewer serious offenses when compared with control students. Relevant offenses included those that involved alcohol, were classified as "serious" by the Secretary of State's office (such as reckless driving or vehicular homicide), led to the assignment of three or more points to the driver, or concerned drug offenses not associated with driving. The program effect was stronger among students who reported drinking less than one drink per week at baseline and among the small minority of students whose parents had not shown disapproval of alcohol use. The dissipation of impact after the first year of licensure suggests that booster sessions may be indicated.

Plan a Safe Strategy (PASS) is another program designed to prevent drinking and driving behaviors and targeted to 10th graders (Sheehan, et al., 1996). The evaluation of the PASS program was carried out in Australia, where 1,774 10th grade students, ages 14 to 15 years and 59% female, were randomly assigned to program and control groups and followed up three years later. The PASS program included 12 lessons designed to modify attitudes toward drinking and driving, beliefs about drinking and driving risks, perceived norms about drunk driving attitudes, and perceived control over drinking and driving and passenger behaviors. The program activities included role playing and other interactive activities, which emphasized pressure-resistance skills and the development of plans to use alternatives in drunk driving and passenger situations. While there were no significant program effects on drinking and driving at the three-year follow-up, analyses did suggest a program effect on continued patterns of riding with a driver who had been drinking. Among those participants who reported having ridden with a drinking driver at baseline, program students were less likely than were control students to report having ridden with a drinking driver in the month before the follow-up survey, three years later. These findings are promising, although it should be noted that a sizable fraction of the students who originally participated in the study were not available to complete the follow-up survey. Moreover, cultural differences may affect the generalizability of these findings from Australia to the U.S.

A third program was peer-based and integrated into a high school driver education course (McKnight & McPherson, 1986). Participants included 667 students, enrolled in driver education in five Rhode Island high schools, who were randomized to the "Peer Intervention Program" or a conventional, information-oriented program control group. (The ethnic and gender compositions of the sample were not detailed in the published article.) The Peer Intervention Program was nine hours long and included one hour of instruction in fundamental alcohol safety and eight hours of role playing and discussion regarding intervention in drinking and driving situations. Immediately after the program implementation, students in the program and control groups showed significant increases in self-reported intervention in the drinking and driving behavior of others. At follow-up one to four months later, only students in the program condition continued to show a sustained increase in self-reported intervention in drinking and driving situations. The authors conclude that the Peer Intervention Program had desirable effects on the behavior of participants in drinking and driving situations, sustained over the short-term, while any desirable effects of the standard information-based program dissipated almost immediately. These findings are indeed suggestive; however, further study will be needed to assess the longer-term effects of this program and to evaluate the extent to which self-reported behaviors might have biased the present findings.