This article reports adolescent substance use outcomes of universal family and school
preventive interventions 5(1/2) years past baseline. Participants were 1677 7th grade
students from schools (N=36) randomly assigned to the school-based Life Skills Training
plus the Strengthening Families Program: For Parents and Youth 10-14 (LST+SFP 10-14),
LST-alone, or a control condition. Self-reports were collected at baseline, 6 months
later following the interventions, then yearly through the 12th grade. Measures included
initiation-alcohol, cigarette, marijuana, and drunkenness, along with a Substance
Initiation Index (SII)-and measures of more serious use-frequency of alcohol, cigarette,
and marijuana use, drunkenness frequency, monthly poly-substance use, and advanced
poly-substance use. Analyses ruled out differential attrition. For all substance initiation
outcomes, one or both intervention groups showed significant, positive point-in-time
differences at 12th grade and/or significant growth trajectory outcomes when compared
with the control group. Although no main effects for the more serious substance use
outcomes were observed, a higher-risk subsample demonstrated significant, positive
12th grade point-in-time and/or growth trajectory outcomes for one or both intervention
groups on all measures. The observed pattern of results likely reflects a combination
of predispositions of the higher-risk subsample, the timing of the interventions,
and baseline differences between experimental conditions favoring the control group.