Drug prevention in middle school can reduce risky sexual behavior
by young adults
It has been well established that drug prevention programs targeted at adolescents can reduce substance use over the short and long term. Because different problem behaviors may encourage each other or have common antecedents, it has been suspected that drug prevention programs might reduce other risky behaviors. A recent DPRC study confirms that is the case with regard to risky sexual behavior.
DPRC researchers conducted a survey of the drug use and sexual behavior of unmarried, sexually active 19- and 21-year-olds who had participated in Project ALERT—a drug prevention program developed at RAND and previously found to be effective against alcohol and other drug use. They simultaneously surveyed similarly aged members of a control group established at the time of the intervention. Project ALERT participants reported lower levels of engaging in unprotected sex because of drug use than the control group and lower levels of sex with more than one partner over the course of a year. These differences were partially explained by lower levels of alcohol and drug use. (In one risky behavior—use of condoms only "usually" or less often—the two groups did not differ.)
Some Project ALERT participants received the program only in middle school, whereas others were given a high school "booster" program as well. The latter did not reduce sexually risky behavior any more than the middle-school-only program. This suggests that relatively modest investments in effective middle school drug prevention programs can result in reductions in other risky behaviors years later.
Source:
"Long-Term Effects of Drug Prevention on Risky Sexual Behavior Among Young Adults," Journal of Adolescent Health, Ellickson PL, McCaffrey DF, Klein DJ
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