Abstract
In this pioneering effort, editors Tolan, Szapocznik, and Sambrano present seven programs that systematically target four critical childhood factors for preventing adolescent substance use: parenting and family relationships, child social competence, self-regulation, and school achievement. For each empirically tested program, the authors show how the program works and how to implement it correctly. After introducing the settings and developmental factors that affect risk for substance use, the contributors provide a general framework for translating prevention research into practice. Chapters describing each intervention contain user-friendly explanations of the theory, methods, and implementation of each program and summarize how it was shown to reduce risk for substance abuse. Illustrative case examples are woven throughout the text, showing the benefits gained from the approach. Programs described include interventions that apply to participants at differing developmental periods (from ages 4-14), programs for the general population, programs for high-risk youth and families, and programs developed and tested for a variety of ethnic and cultural groups across varying locations. This volume is a strong example of the often-desired but infrequently accomplished translation of research into useful form for practice. It can be used as a text for professional training as well as a guide for health and human service providers, school superintendents, prevention scientists, and others who evaluate or administer substance abuse prevention programs in their communities.
The editors make it clear that the problem no longer is a lack of science-based models of prevention. They present a collection of chapters on evidence-based programs that work. The book reviews only programs that were tested as part of a specific federal project, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's Predictor Variables Initiative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved)