Quality of Research
Documents Reviewed
The documents below were reviewed for Quality of Research. The research point of
contact can provide information regarding the studies reviewed and the availability
of additional materials, including those from more recent studies that may have been conducted.
Study 1Sussman, S., Dent, C. W., Stacy, A. W., & Craig, S. One-year outcomes of Project Towards No Drug Abuse. Preventive Medicine, 27, 632-642 (erratum, 766). Study 2Dent, C. W., Sussman, S., & Stacy, A. W. Project Towards No Drug Abuse: Generalizability to a general high school sample. Preventive Medicine, 32, 514-520. Study 3Sussman, S., Sun, P., McCuller, W. J., & Dent, C. W. Project Towards No Drug Abuse: Two-year outcomes of a trial that compares health educator delivery to self-instruction. Preventive Medicine, 37, 155-162. Study 4Sun, W., Skara, S., Sun, P., Dent, C. W., & Sussman, S. Project Towards No Drug Abuse: Long-term substance use outcomes evaluation. Preventive Medicine, 42, 188-192. Study 5Simon, T. R., Sussman, S., Dahlberg, L. L., & Dent, C. W. Influence of a substance abuse prevention curriculum on violence-related behavior. American Journal of Health Behavior, 26, 103-110.
Supplementary Materials Bachman, J. G., Johnston, L. D., & O'Malley, P. M. The Monitoring the Future project after 27 years: Design and procedures. (Monitoring the Future Occasional Paper No. 54). Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research.
Dent, C. W., Sussman, S., Hennesy, M., Galaif, E. R., Stacy, A. W., Moss, M., et al. Implementation and process evaluation of a school-based drug abuse prevention program: Project Towards No Drug Abuse. Journal of Drug Education, 28, 361-375.
Sussman, S., Rorhbach, L., & Mihalic, S.. Blueprints for Violence Prevention. Book Twelve: Project Towards No Drug Abuse. Boulder, CO: Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado.
Outcomes
| Outcome 1: Alcohol and tobacco use |
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Description of Measures
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Self-reported frequency of alcohol and tobacco use in the past 30 days was measured at pretest, immediately after the Project TND intervention, and yearly for up to 5 years after the intervention. In some analyses, students who were high alcohol users at pretest were compared across conditions, and the data from males and females were analyzed separately when interactions were found.
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Key Findings
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At 1-year follow-up across three studies, students in Project TND schools who used alcohol prior to the intervention exhibited a reduction in alcohol use prevalence of between 7% and 12% (p < .05) relative to similar students in control schools.
At 1-year follow-up of a study using an expanded 12-session TND curriculum, students in Project TND schools exhibited a reduction in cigarette use of 27% (p < .05) relative to students in control schools.
At 2-year follow-up, students in Project TND schools were about half as likely to use tobacco (p = .016) when compared with students in control schools.
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Studies Measuring Outcome
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Study 1, Study 2, Study 3, Study 4
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Study Designs
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Experimental
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Quality of Research Rating
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3.3
(0.0-4.0 scale)
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| Outcome 2: Marijuana and "hard drug" use |
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Description of Measures
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Self-reported frequency of marijuana and hard drug use in the past 30 days was measured at pretest, immediately after the Project TND intervention, and yearly for up to 5 years after the intervention. In some analyses presented, the measures were coded as "user" or "nonuser," high pretest users were examined separately, and males and females were examined separately.
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Key Findings
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At 1-year follow-up across three studies, students in Project TND curriculum schools exhibited a 25% reduction in rates of hard drug use relative to students in control schools (p < .05).
At 1-year follow-up of a study using an expanded 12-session TND curriculum, students in Project TND schools exhibited a reduction in marijuana use of 22% (p < .05) relative to students in control schools.
At 2-year follow-up, students in Project TND schools were about one fifth as likely to use hard drugs (p = .02) and, among males who were nonusers at pretest, about one tenth as likely to use marijuana (odds ratio = 0.12, p = .03), relative to similar students in control schools.
At 4- to 5-year follow-up, students in Project TND schools were less likely to report using hard drugs than students in control schools (p = .02).
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Studies Measuring Outcome
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Study 1, Study 2, Study 3, Study 4
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Study Designs
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Experimental
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Quality of Research Rating
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3.4
(0.0-4.0 scale)
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| Outcome 3: Risk of victimization |
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Description of Measures
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This outcome was measured by self-reported frequency of victimization in the past 12 months (e.g., being physically struck, threatened with a weapon, or injured with a weapon). Six response options ranged from "never" to "five or more times."
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Key Findings
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In one study, males in Project TND schools were about two thirds as likely as males in control schools to report victimization at 1-year follow-up (p = .03).
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Studies Measuring Outcome
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Study 5
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Study Designs
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Experimental
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Quality of Research Rating
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3.0
(0.0-4.0 scale)
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| Outcome 4: Frequency of weapons-carrying |
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Description of Measures
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This outcome was measured by self-reported frequency of weapons-carrying in the past 12 months. Six response options ranged from "never" to "five or more times."
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Key Findings
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In two studies, male students who participated in Project TND exhibited a 19%-21% relative reduction in weapons-carrying at 1-year follow-up.
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Studies Measuring Outcome
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Study 2, Study 3, Study 4, Study 5
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Study Designs
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Experimental
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Quality of Research Rating
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2.9
(0.0-4.0 scale)
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Study Populations
The following populations were identified in the studies reviewed for Quality of
Research.
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Study
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Age
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Gender
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Race/Ethnicity
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Study 1
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13-17 (Adolescent)
18-25 (Young adult)
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62% Male
38% Female
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46% Hispanic or Latino
37% White
8% Black or African American
4% Asian
3% American Indian or Alaska Native
2% Race/ethnicity unspecified
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Study 2
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13-17 (Adolescent)
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53% Female
47% Male
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38% Hispanic or Latino
34% White
26% Black or African American
2% Race/ethnicity unspecified
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Study 3
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13-17 (Adolescent)
18-25 (Young adult)
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54% Male
45% Female
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45% White
42% Hispanic or Latino
7% Asian
5% Black or African American
1% Race/ethnicity unspecified
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Study 4
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13-17 (Adolescent)
18-25 (Young adult)
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55.4% Male
44.6% Female
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49.5% Hispanic or Latino
31.6% White
9% Black or African American
9% Race/ethnicity unspecified
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Study 5
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13-17 (Adolescent)
18-25 (Young adult)
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55% Male
45% Female
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49% Hispanic or Latino
34% White
9% Black or African American
4% Asian
3% American Indian or Alaska Native
1% Race/ethnicity unspecified
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Quality of Research Ratings by Criteria (0.0-4.0 scale)
External reviewers independently evaluate the Quality of Research for an intervention's
reported results using six criteria:
For more information about these criteria and the meaning of the ratings, see Quality of Research.
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Outcome
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Reliability
of Measures
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Validity
of Measures
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Fidelity
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Missing
Data/Attrition
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Confounding
Variables
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Data
Analysis
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Overall
Rating
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1: Alcohol and tobacco use
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3.5
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3.0
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3.3
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2.5
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3.8
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3.8
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3.3
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2: Marijuana and "hard drug" use
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4.0
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3.0
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3.3
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2.5
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3.8
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3.8
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3.4
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3: Risk of victimization
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2.5
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2.0
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3.3
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2.5
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3.5
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4.0
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3.0
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4: Frequency of weapons-carrying
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2.0
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2.0
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3.3
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2.5
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3.5
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4.0
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2.9
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Study Strengths Sound implementation of a randomized field experiment supports a high level of internal validity. The authors used state-of-the-art measures and appropriate analytic methods across studies and handled unit-of-analysis issues well (e.g., comparing schools, subsets of samples, and users across conditions). Training and observation were adequate, and students and teachers provided useful ratings on program content and delivery.
Study Weaknesses The reliability of the 30-day alcohol use measure was limited to short-term test–retest. Authors did not comment on well-known biases associated with different data collection modalities (i.e., person-to-person survey versus telephone survey) in assessing ATOD use. The authors consistently evaluated the similarity of initial samples and follow-up samples but did not describe approaches used to model missing data.
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