Identifying the Outcomes of Prevention: Results of a Longitudinal Study in a Small City School District

Abstract

This article reports on the results of three successive surveys of fifth through twelfth grade students conducted over a five year period, 1986 through 1991. During the time covered by the surveys, these adolescents were exposed to an eclectic variety of both school and community-based prevention and intervention programs. The surveys indicate that younger students have increasingly delayed their entry into use of alcohol and other drugs; older students also show some declines in use, comparable to those reported nationally, but heavy, regular use of both marijuana and alcohol persists as well among a substantial minority. The article concludes with consideration of the perceived effectiveness of the community's prevention efforts, the justifications for these judgments, and the implications of these for further programming efforts.