Prevention Works!

Family-Based Prevention Approaches

Prevention programs that positively affect the family environment have proven successful in preventing or curtailing substance abuse among youth. Family programs aimed at developing the knowledge and skills of parents can empower them to guide their children and deal competently with problems. Strong parent-child relationships and positive family climates can serve as protective factors for youth and provide buffers for later peer influences.

Research points to the following principles for effective family management and parenting skills programs that can strengthen families:

• Parent/family interventions are most effective when designed to change risk and protective factors within the family domain.
• Providing assistance with transportation, snacks, child care, and other supportive services facilitates and encourages parent participation.
• Cultural sensitivity in program development, planning, and implementation can help ensure that the needs of the local population will be addressed in the appropriate context and that activities will be meaningful and relevant.
• Parent/family interventions are most effective when a drug education component is included to educate parents about substance abuse, related behaviors, and consequences.
• Parent/family interventions are most effective when delivered early in the family life cycle. This means targeting families with school-aged children in an effort to prevent negative behaviors and family problems.
• Parent/family interventions are most effective when adjusted to the developmental stages of the child/youth. The skills being taught should be age-appropriate to address the intellectual and emotional development of the targeted youth population.
• Parent training programs are most effective when offered over the long term (of sufficient duration to effect changes).
• Family-based interventions must allow enough time and opportunities for the participants to practice the new skills and receive feedback. Booster sessions should be offered after completion of the training to ensure sustained effects.
• Media campaigns may be used to educate parents about appropriate parenting styles and encourage increased supervision and monitoring of adolescents.
• Programs targeting families should refer families with specific needs to appropriate services in the community. Consideration should be given to both assistance for families already experiencing problems and the relevance of systems that are in place to support those families.

Putting these principles to use in your current family-based prevention programs, or in new programs you develop, will help to create more successful and effective programs for families.

Source: Research-Based Principles for Developing Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug Prevention Programs, Center for Prevention Research and Development for Illinois Prevention 2000.

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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