A Meta-Analysis of the California School-Based Risk Reduction Program

Abstract

Prominent nonquantitative reviews of research evaluating school-based interventions designed to deter adolescents from the use of tobacco, alcohol and other drugs found the methodology to be flawed and thus little evidence existed that the interventions had the desired impact [1, 2]. Recent meta-analytic reviews indicate that information-focused interventions have more impact upon knowledge but less upon attitudes and behavior whereas alternative interventions have less impact upon knowledge but more upon attitudes and behavior [3–5]. This result is replicated by the current meta-analysis performed upon eight risk-reduction programs meeting six standard methodological requirements for evaluation research.