Journal of Drug Education: Substance Use Research and Prevention

Research has shown that students respond more favorably to drug prevention programs when they see their culture and themselves represented in the prevention message. Additionally, studies highlight important ethnic differences in drug behaviors and attitudes, indicating that students' ethnic culture should be considered in the creation of prevention programs. Because there are few effective, culturally grounded programs, new approaches are needed, particularly among Mexican American youth. This need inspired the Drug Resistance Strategies Project (DRS) to develop and test the keepin' it R.E.A.L. curriculum serving ethnically diverse seventh grade students residing in a large southwestern city. This article describes development of the keepin' it R.E.A.L. curriculum, focusing on the methods used to ensure cultural grounding. The article also reviews literature on cultural approaches in prevention, presents a theoretical framework, summarizes key outcomes of the curriculum evaluation, and concludes with recommendations for the development of prevention programs for ethnically diverse youth.

The current article is concerned with the use of focus group interviews in understanding staff perceptions of training to work with drug users during the different stages of change from addiction to rehabilitation in the Therapeutic Community model. The article discusses the use of the focus group interview as the most appropriate method for the scope of this study, based on the assumption that trainees are aware of their own needs and demands from training. Methodological issues relevant to the use of focus groups and the individual responses to the training program are discussed. The content and structure of the training program are also discussed. The article concludes that gaining information on people's own perceptions and experiences from the training process can contribute significantly to program improvement.

The utility of brief interventions with at-risk college drinkers would be enhanced if they could also be delivered in group settings without the need for risk prescreening. The current study therefore explored whether components of brief interventions could be effectively administered to mixed groups of drinking and non-drinking students. Specifically, the outcomes of two methods aimed toward increasing motivation for change were compared to controls. One intervention focused on enhancing actual-ideal drinking behavior discrepancy through a structured group discussion, while the other focused on enhancing self-norm drinking behavior discrepancy through the provision and discussion of didactic information. Among at-risk drinkers, significant reductions in heavy drinking episode frequency at four-week follow-up were found for the self-norm (S-N) group only, while reductions in alcohol problems were obtained in both the S-N and control groups. Results suggest that self-norm discrepancy enhancement strategies may be more effective than actual-ideal discrepancy strategies when used with a mixed drinking group.

Despite alcohol server training programs and legal liability aimed at controlling intoxication, server intervention appears to be rare. Given the difficulty in assessing intoxication, it can be assumed that improvement in assessment skills would increase the likelihood of intervention. Unfortunately, little is known regarding practices servers use to identify intoxication. In order to build a more informed base for policy formation and server training, the focus of this inquiry was to examine practices used by servers to assess intoxication. The analysis was based upon questionnaires mailed to a random probability sample of licensed servers from one state (N = 822). Indicators found to be most important were examined in relation to a variety of occupational characteristics. Implications for training curricula, policy formation, and future research are discussed.

The use of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA or “ecstasy”) appears to be increasing worldwide, with “rave” attendees being one high-risk population. To date, however, only one study has collected ecstasy use information from rave attendees in the United States. To address this limitation, we collected self-report drug use information from 70 adult “club rave” attendees within the Baltimore-Washington corridor in April and May 2002. Data collection was scheduled between 12 A.M. and 5 A.M. Participation rates were high, with 85 percent of the club rave attendees completing the interview. Eighty-six percent of the respondents reported lifetime ecstasy use, 51 percent reported 30-day use, and 30 percent reported using ecstasy within the two days preceding the interview. While past-year ecstasy users were comparable to non-users with respect to a host of demographic and drug use variables, non-ecstasy users were significantly more likely than past-year users to perceive risks associated with the regular use of alcohol and ecstasy. Not surprisingly, non-ecstasy users were significantly more likely than past-year users to perceive harmful long-term physical and psychological effects associated with ecstasy ingestion. These findings suggest that rave attendees may be an important population for ecstasy-related prevention efforts.

Use of latex condoms is a primary form of sexual risk reduction, and consequently many intervention programs have focused efforts on increasing condom use among high-risk populations. Use alone, however, will not fully protect the individual if condoms are not used correctly. The objective of this study was to describe the development and properties of a scale measuring demonstrated condom use skill using a sample of 261 drug-using women. Guttman's coefficient of reproducibility and Jackson's Plus Percentage Ratio (PPR) were used to determine the scalability of the Condom Skill Scale (CSS). Analysis of scale scores revealed high levels of condom skill among the population, although there was reduced performance for three items. Preliminary analysis suggests that the CSS is a potentially valid and reliable instrument, and may have application as a tool assessing condom skill level.