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You have found 70 entries after clicking the GO button or a search link in a hot topic. Starting with analyses of the most recently published documents, the list shows in orange the type of entry, year the original document was published (or if one of our own documents, the year last updated), and the type of file you will download when you click on the title. In blue is the document’s title followed by a brief description.

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STUDY 2008 HTM file
School-based smoking prevention: popular peers can help

A UK study successfully harnessed respected peers to prevent smoking, but not through classroom activities. Instead the 12-13-year-olds simply exerted their influence in normal social interactions with same-age school mates.

STUDY 2008 HTM file
Substance use outcomes 5½ years past baseline for partnership-based, family-school preventive interventions

Two of the most widely recommended US school and family prevention programmes retarded growth in some forms of substance use, especially among youngsters who had already used by their early teens, but there are some methodological concerns over the findings.

REVIEW 2007 HTM file
A review of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions delivered in primary and secondary schools to prevent and/or reduce alcohol use by young people under 18 years old

The review which underpinned official UK guidance on alcohol education and advice in schools finds most programmes unsupported by adequate evidence and a dearth of analyses which would enable an assessment of whether the more successful programmes represent value for money.

DOCUMENT 2007 HTM file
Interventions in schools to prevent and reduce alcohol use among children and young people

Official guidance for England says alcohol education should be integral to national science and personal, social and health education curricula, but schools should go beyond this to develop a 'whole school' approach and partner with relevant non-education services and authorities.

STUDY 2006 PDF file 139Kb
Harm reduction lessons on smoking improve on abstinence-based skills education

Despite the comparator being an innovative skills-based curriculum, half as many pupils in 30 Australian secondary schools became regular smokers if instead the lessons had been based on harm reduction principles.

STUDY 2006 PDF file 224Kb
Choose peer education groups carefully

Fascinating study which suggests that peer-led substance use prevention curricula which involve interactive exploration of sensitive topics work best when pupils are grouped with the peer leaders they look up to, creating workgroups who respect and like each other.

STUDY 2006 PDF file 114Kb
Harm reduction education successfully extended to illegal drugs

A small sample of Canadian schools generally endorsed the appropriateness of harm reduction education for older teenagers, and in the two which implemented the programme, substance use and related damage and risk were curbed compared to other local schools.

STUDY 2005 PDF file 102Kb
School programme successfully revised to focus more on harm reduction

Rare for an early adolescence school programme to focus on harm reduction, and very rare in the USA. In the face of patchy outcomes, Project ALERT took that route and found the intended improvements in smoking and drinking risk reductions.

STUDY 2005 PDF file 156Kb
High-risk youngsters respond to coherent, consistent and interactive after-school activities

Analyses of 48 US government-funded after-school and youth work projects for 9–18-year-olds at high risk of drug problems found that only interactive, well structured projects with supported and engaged staff curbed progression to more frequent substance use.

STUDY 2005 PDF file 104Kb
Drug prevention best done by school's own teachers not outside specialists

An evaluation of the US All Stars programme for early secondary school provided a rare opportunity to test whether drug prevention is best done by outside specialists or a school's own teachers; the teachers won out, despite needing less training.


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