Research shows that student-athletes, whether at the high school or collegiate ranks, experience higher rates of alcohol consumption than their non-athlete student counterparts. However, one population that has not been studied is the community college student-athlete. Traditional community college students have different risk categories and needs than traditional 4-year university students. In this study, community college student-athletes provided their views and perceptions on drugs and alcohol. To obtain data, a qualitative narrative analysis was completed by interviewing 13 community college student-athletes to identify their views and opinions on drugs and alcohol. Once the interviews were completed, transcription and coding were completed to identify the themes and nuances of the narratives. The major themes identified within the study included varying perspectives in how student-athletes view drugs and the perceived effects that drugs have on athletic performance. Researchers have found that collegiate student-athletes experience unique stressors, when compared with other college students, such as balancing athletics and academics. However, in this study, an additional stressor outside of previous research was discovered in that community college, student-athletes struggle with the transition to the community college environment. Additional research is needed on community college student-athletes, including the possible development of tailored interventions to meet those targeted needs.

This dissertation explored a number of themes associated with adolescent drug and alcohol prevention among culturally diverse Northern Australian adolescents. It was undertaken because important differences are often associated with specific cultural groups and local knowledge is often needed as a means of informing effective prevention programs. Five studies are presented, each, with its own hypotheses, results and conclusions that examine influences on the common dependent variable of adolescent substance use. In consultation with teachers a new universal school-based drug and alcohol prevention program was developed addressing the four most commonly used substances among Australian adolescents, namely alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis and inhalants. The program was predicated on the social influence and alcohol harm minimisation models and was successful in reducing alcohol initiation and increasing cannabis and inhalant refusal self-efficacy among non-initiates. Program delivery is equally as important and program content and prevention programs utilising interactive teaching have been found to be more effective in preventing adolescent substance use than those delivered in a didactic or non-interactive style. The implementation evaluation found that teachers delivered less of the interactive program contents (49%) compared with the non-interactive components (84%). Quality of program delivery may have explained the limited efficacy of the school program to reduce cigarette use and to deter use among those who had already initiated substance use. Additionally three descriptive studies explored variables representing risk and protection for adolescent substance use. Key finding were that cultural identity was observed to be protective of both Indigenous and Non-Indigenous alcohol initiation but was associated with risk for Indigenous youth who had any number of drinking friends; that drinking parents had a strong direct effect on adolescent drinking independent of friends’ use; and a lack of school connectedness was associated with increased adolescent smoking and drinking. This dissertation demonstrated that a school drug education program in its self cannot effectively prevent adolescent drug use. While improvements can be made to current teaching practices, school curricula need to be supplemented with multi-modal programs that aim to selectively reduce parental substance use and improve the school experience for all students.