Adolescents use alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs at alarmingly high rates. Nationally, 24% of 8th graders and over half of high school seniors reported using alcohol in the past 30 days. Almost half of these 8th grade drinkers reported getting drunk, and nearly 65% of drinking seniors got drunk. Cigarette use in the last 30 days among 10th graders decreased slightly from 27.6% in 1998 to 25.7% in 1999, yet this rate was higher than the 20.8% reported in 1991. Almost a third of these 10th grade smokers smoked a half pack or more per day. In non-metropolitan areas, the rates were even higher, with 30.4% of 10th graders reporting cigarette use in the past 30 days. Communities can play an important role in youth substance use prevention, and schools are a primary community for adolescents.

As community members, we can help reduce adolescent substance use. Communities should be involved in youth substance abuse prevention for a number of reasons:

Substances are typically available throughout the community and are not restricted to any certain group of people

Community programs have been more effective than less broad programs

Substance abuse and associated norms are embedded in the community

Involvement in prevention might lead to identification of underlying community causes of substance abuse and assist communities in addressing them.

The following characteristics or norms in schools have been related to adolescent substance use:

Youth autonomy and influence. Schools that allowed for greater student autonomy and influences had students with lower levels of alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco use.

School norms. School norms about illicit drug use are important. Schools with overall low substance use promoted lower substance use among individual students.

School connectedness. High levels of school connectedness (adolescents' sense of belonging and fairness related to their schools) were associated with less frequent alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use. At the same time, other school issues such as attendance, classroom size, dropout rates, and student prejudice were not significantly associated with adolescent substance use.

School sense of community. Greater sense of community at school (caring and supportive interpersonal relationships and student autonomy and influence) were related to lower levels of student drug use, after controlling for student differences in sense of community and other student and school characteristics (e.g., grade, poverty level).

Not surprisingly, in neighborhoods where access to substances is limited, youth report less substance use. Community members can unite in a "no tolerance" approach to adolescent substance use. No tolerance attitudes towards substance use include enforcing regulations to ensure low youth access to substances.

Community policies at the local and state level can also be effective in preventing adolescent substance use. Local law enforcement reduces youth tobacco use. In Woodbridge, Illinois about seventy percent of stores sold cigarettes to minors. After licensing and enforcement legislation were enforced, cigarette sales to minors dropped to five percent, and smoking rates among minors also fell. Young smokers reported that enforcement prevented or made it harder to get cigarettes and chew tobacco.

Interested in substance use prevention resources? The following are helpful websites:

http://www.nnh.org/products/atodcurr.htm sponsored by the national Extension Service, contains a series of reviewed programs. Benefits and drawbacks of the curriculums are also shared for some of the materials.

http://www.nnh.org/Weblinks/atodlk2.htm is also sponsored by the Extension Service. It provides a variety of reviewed links to research-based resources.

http://www.epi.umn.edu/mch/HealthyGenerations/HealthyGenerationsRes.html sponsored by the Maternal and Child Health Program at the University of Minnesota. A variety of materials on adolescent tobacco use are provided.

http://ctb.lsi.ukans.edu/ is sponsored by the University of Kansas. The toolbox provides many resources in rallying communities.

This newsletter was adapted from Meschke, L. L., & Patterson, J. M. (in press). Resilience as a theoretical basis for substance abuse prevention. Journal of Primary Prevention.

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Battistich, V., & Hom, A. (1997). The relationship between students' sense of their school as a community and their involvement in problem behaviors.

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Battistich, V, Schaps, E., Watson, M., & Solomon, D. (1996). Prevention effects of the child development project: Early findings from an ongoing

multisite demonstration trial. Journal of Adolescent Research, 11, 12-35.

Carroll, C. R. (1993). Drugs in modern society (3rd ed.). Dubuque, IA: Brown and Benchmark.

Grossman, M., Chaloupka, F. J., Saffer, H., & Laixuthai, A. (1994). Effects of alcohol price policy on youth: A summary of economic research.

Journal of Research on Adolescence, 4, 347-364.

Hyndman, B., Giesbrecht, D. R., Bernardi, N. C., Dougtlas, R. R., Ferrence, R. G., Gliksman, L., Goodstadt, M. S., Graham, D. G., & Loranger,

P. D. (1992). Preventing substance abuse through multicomponent community action research projects: Lessons from past experiences and challenges for future initiatives. Contemporary Drug Problems, 133-164.

Jason, L. A., Berk, M., Schnopp-Wyatt, D., & Talbot, B. (1999). Effects of enforcement of youth access laws on smoking prevalence.

American Journal of Communty Psychology, 27, 143-160.

Jason, L. A., Billows, W. D., Schnopp-Wyatt, D. L., & King, C. P. (1996). Long-term findings from Woodridge in reducing illegal cigarette sales

to older minors. Evaluation and the Health Professions, 19, 3-13.

Johnston, L. D., O'Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G. (Dec. 1999). [On-line]. Available:http://www.monitoringthefuture.org; accessed 04/03/00.

Resnick, M. D., Bearman, P. S., Blum, R. W., Bauman, K. E., Harris, K. M., Jones, J., Tabor, J., Beuhring, T., Sieving, R. E., Shew, M.,

Ireland, M., Bearinger, L H., & Udry, J. R. (1997). Protecting adolescents from harm: Findings from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health. Journal of the American Medical Association, 278, 823-832.

This issue of the Ups & Downs was contributed by Laurie L. Meschke, PhD, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota. Ups & Downs is edited by Rosalie J. Bakken, Ph.D., Adolescent Development Specialist, University of Nebraska- Lincoln.