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SAMHSA Releases New Guide on Family-Centered Prevention Approaches

SAMHSA has released a new publication entitled Preventing Substance Abuse Among Children and Adolescents: Family-Centered Approaches; it is the second in a series of guidelines developed by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) through the Prevention Enhancement Protocols System (PEPS). Under the PEPS program, expert panels review the literature on prevention research and practice and then develop guidelines based on the evidence of effectiveness of various interventions. This second guideline continues the PEPS tradition of synthesizing and disseminating science-based recommendations for substance abuse prevention. Targeting State agencies, prevention programs, practitioners, and researchers, the guides provide an essential resource for planning effective program initiatives and directing future research.

Three Prevention Approaches

This publication evaluates research and practice in three family-centered approaches:

• Parent and Family Skills Training. PEPS reviewers found strong evidence that family skills training can help prevent substance abuse by most children. Interventions such as curriculum-based training, discussions, role-playing, modeling, skills practice, and therapeutic counseling can stabilize or improve the conditions that contribute to various risk factors, such as poor parent-child communication, children’s problem behavior, inadequate parenting skills, and parental substance abuse.
• Family In-Home Support. The panel found moderate evidence that in-home support--including direct services (food, cash, transportation) and social services (counseling, crisis intervention, behavior management counseling, substance abuse treatment referrals)--reduces juvenile criminal activity and the number of rearrests, improves family relationships, and prevents out-of-home placement in families at high risk.
• Family Therapy. Family therapy focuses on improving family functioning and reducing juvenile delinquency, recidivism, child abuse, and other strong antisocial behaviors. The panel reviewed studies in which therapists and foster care caseworkers used therapy for families with children who were seriously delinquent, were juvenile offenders, or had adjustment disorders. The panel found strong evidence that family therapy reduced the rates of recidivism in delinquent teenagers. There is also some evidence that family therapy improves family interaction by enhancing parenting skills with adolescents, helping parents to reduce adolescents’ antisocial behavior, facilitating communication, and improving parents’ and adolescents’ attitudes toward each other.

Preventing Substance Abuse Among Children and Adolescents: Family-Centered Approaches is available in three versions. The Reference Guide is a comprehensive text intended for national, State, and local organizations and researchers. The Practitioner’s Guide is a shorter version, designed for practitioners and program planners. The Family and Community Guide is an informational brochure for concerned citizens.

To receive a complimentary copy of this PreventionAlert, call SAMSHA's National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information (NCADI) @ 1-800-729-6686, TDD 1-800-487-4889 (for the hearing impaired.) PREVENTIONAlert is supported by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and may be copied without permission with appropriate citation. For information about PREVENTIONAlert, please contact CSAP by phone (301) 443-0581 or e-mail gensley@samhsa.gov

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