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.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/254018 |
| Creators | Nicki Gazis |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Detected Language | English |
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