The short term effects of a developmentally based substance abuse program with incarcerated youth

The purpose of this study was to provide a group experience to a high risk population which addressed the problems of chemical use. The study attempted to evaluate the impact of a developmentally focused prevention program on the range of developmental skills in a population of high risk youth.;The subjects for this study were drawn from a population of young adolescent boys who had been committed to the State Department of Corrections and placed at Barrett Learning Center. Subjects were randomly selected from those youth who entered the institutional population between November 1, 1981 and February 1, 1982.;Twenty-four subjects were randomly selected from the population and randomly assigned to one of three groups, two treatment groups and a control group. The subjects in the treatment groups participated in the developmental skills program, the eight subjects in the control group received no treatment other than participation in the regular program of the institution.;It was hypothesized that the subjects who had completed the developmentally oriented prevention program would show a greater knowledge of alcohol and drugs, would show greater gains in self concept, would exhibit a greater frequency of appropriated interpersonal behaviors as selected in ratings by the institutional counselors using the Adaptive Behavior Scale and selected scales of the Adjective Checklist, and would show greater improvements in overall adjustment to institutionalization than those subjects in the control group.;It was concluded that the subjects who participated in the developmental skills program demonstrated a greater understanding of basic information on the effects of alcohol and other drugs than those subjects in the control group. A significant difference was found in ratings by counselors of the subjects on Domain 15- Mannerisms of the Adaptive Behavior Scale. The data did not support the other hypothesis conclusively.;Further study is recommended to evaluate the relative effectiveness of this model of prevention in comparison with other selected prevention models. Evaluation of the long term effects of the program, the application of this proram to other high risk populations of youth, and additional suggestions for further research are proposed