ARE SCHOOL-BASED RESISTANCE SKILLS TRAINING-PROGRAMS EFFECTIVE IN PREVENTING ALCOHOL MISUSE

The resistance skill training (RST) program is perhaps the most popular form of alcohol misuse prevention strategy currently used in school. This approach came to dominate school-based prevention in the early 1980s, following the publication of research studies showing the ineffectiveness of exiting ''knowledge-based'' and ''affective'' programs and, perhaps more importantly, through the high profile political support it was able to attract. This paper reviews all published evaluations of school-based RST interventions. The majority of these show that such programs, while not detrimental, have little or no effect upon participants in terms of their drinking behavior at follow-up. In the few studies reporting a positive effect, this is limited to sub-groups of the target population. Reasons why such programs are ineffective are discussed, and suggestions made concerning the direction of future primary prevention research.