Botvin LifeSkills Training Produces Lasting Reductions in Drug Use

WASHINGTON - March 19, 2024 - PRLog -- Washington, DC  – A recent webinar sponsored by Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) featured new evidence that Botvin LifeSkills Training (LST), a school-based prevention program, can produce lasting reductions in drug use. Students who received the LST program were not only significantly less likely to use drugs as teens, but were also less likely to use drugs more than a decade later as young adults. These findings are important because few school-based prevention have been shown to be effective, and virtually none have had lasting effects.

The webinar, part of CADCA's Research into Action webinar series, presented long-term follow-up data from a large, well-controlled randomized study involving 56 schools and nearly 6,000 junior high school students. The webinar was presented by Kenneth W. Griffin, Ph.D., professor of global and community health at George Mason University and lead author of the study.

Schools were randomly assigned to either receive the LST program or standard health education. Participating students were assessed annually until the end of high school and again in their mid-twenties for drug use and related risk factors.  Previously reported results obtained during junior and senior high school showed that LST prevented tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use as well as the use of inhalants, narcotics, and hallucinogens.

New evidence from the study reported by Dr. Griffin in the CADCA webinar and published in the Journal of Public Health Research found that young adults who received LST during junior high school were less likely to use illicit drugs or misuse prescription drugs than students who received standard health classes. These findings show that the LST program can produce significant reductions in drug use that last well into young adulthood.

In addition to providing further evidence that LST works, this study has broader policy implications concerning the value of youth prevention programs. According to Dr. Griffin, "these findings show that early prevention programming can have long-term effects on the use of illicit drugs many years later."

About Botvin LifeSkills Training

The LST program is a positive youth development approach to the prevention of substance use and other unhealthy behaviors. A key feature of LST is its focus on skills training and competence-enhancement. The program teaches drug resistance skills, personal self-management skills, and general social skills. LST has been extensively tested and proven to reduce tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drug use by as much as 80%. Visit www.lifeskillstraining.com for more information.