Effects of a brief alcohol preventive intervention for youth attending school sports physical examinations

This pilot study examined the feasibility and efficacy of a brief alcohol misuse preventive intervention for 178 7th-9th grade junior high school students attending sports physical examinations at three schools during the Summer of 1997. At 6-month posttest, fewer suburban intervention youth intended to use alcohol during the next 6 months (chi(2) = 7.01, 1 df, p = .01), and fewer rural intervention youth used alcohol during the past 30 days (chi(2) = 4.65, 1 df, p = .04), compared to control youth. When suburban and rural school samples were collapsed, intervention youth had significantly lower alcohol use on three of four measures than control subjects (p's < .05).