Drug Abuse Prevention Programming Do We Know What Content Works?

This article summarizes the theoretical underpinnings, substantive contents, and limitations of comprehensive social-influences-based drug abuse prevention programming. This type of programming has produced the most consistently successful preventive effects. There is some evidence that one major part of these programs, changing social norms, is an essential ingredient for successful drug abuse prevention programming. Research suggests that these effects may not be contingent on the use of refusal assertion training, a prototype activity of social-influences-based prevention programs. Because programs, when disseminated to the public, often contain only a subset of lessons from the social influences curriculum, there remains the potential error of implementing a combination of lessons that may not be effective. Further, there is evidence that other types of prevention programming, such as physical consequences programming, may be successful in some situations. Finally, social-influences-based programming may not be as effective with some subpopulations such as high-risk youths

Longitudinal Study of Daily Hassles in Adolescents in Arab Muslim Immigrant Families

This study investigated which daily hassles (i.e., Parent, School, Peer, Neighborhood, and Resource) were perceived by Arab Muslim immigrant adolescents as most stressful over a three-year time period and according to child's gender and mother's immigration status (i.e., refugee or non refugee). Data were collected at three time points during adolescence and analyzed using doubly multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) with linear and quadratic trends. School and Parent hassles were greater than other hassles at every time point. Main effects of time, immigration status, and father's employment, but not child's gender, were statistically significant. School and Parent hassles increased while Peer and Resource hassles decreased over time. Adolescents with refugee mothers reported greater School and Neighborhood and fewer Parent hassles than those with non refugee mothers. Adolescents with unemployed fathers reported significantly more School and Neighborhood hassles. Study findings identify two at risk subgroups: those adolescents with refugee mothers and/or those adolescents with unemployed fathers; and pinpoint problematic daily hassles. Additional research is needed to explore vicarious trauma effects as a potential underlying reason for the pattern of daily hassles noted in adolescents with refugee mothers