Blueprints for Violence Prevention Promising Programs

Project ALERT

BPP13

Updated 11/2009
REMOVED FROM PROMISING LIST (click for removal rationale)

Program Overview:
Project ALERT is a focused, classroom-based adolescent substance abuse prevention program. The program was designed to motivate students against drug use, to provide skills and strategies for resisting use, and to establish non-use attitudes and beliefs. The program addresses tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and inhalants, the substances teens are most likely to use.

Program Targets:
The program is designed for middle grade students, ages 12-14, in rural and urban settings and in both schools with low and high minority populations. The program typically begins in the seventh grade and ends in the eighth grade.

Program Content:
The Project ALERT two-year core curriculum consists of 11 lessons, plus 3 booster lessons that should be delivered during the following year. The program strives to invest students with a clear understanding of the pressures, both external and internal, to use drugs and the reasons not to use drugs, as well as skills in how to resist these pressures and recognition of the benefits of resisting drug use. The content of the lessons is delivered via small group activities, role-playing exercises, real life videos, and guided classroom discussions.

References

Ellickson, P.L., & Bell, R.M. (1990, March 16). Drug prevention in junior high: A multi-site longitudinal test. Science, 247 (4948), 1299-1305.

Ellickson, P.L. (1998). Preventing Adolescent Substance Abuse: Lessons from the Project ALERT Program. In J. Crane (Editor), Social Programs That Work (pp. 201-257). New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation.

Ellickson, P.L., & Bell, R.M. (1990, March 16). Drug prevention in junior high: A multi-site longitudinal test. Science, 247 (4948), 1299-1305.

Ellickson, P.L., Bell, R.M., & Harrison, E.R. (1993). Changing Adolescent Propensities to Use Drugs: Results from Project ALERT. Health Education Quarterly, 20, 227-242.

Ellickson, P.L., Bell, R.M., & McGuigan, K. (1993, June). Preventing Adolescent Drug Use: Long-Term Results of a Junior High Program. American Journal of Public Health, 83(6), 856-861.

Ellickson, P.L, McCaffrey, D.F., Ghosh-Dastidar, B., & Longshore, D.L. (2003, November). New Inroads in Preventing Adolescent Drug Use: Results From a Large-Scale Trial of Project ALERT in Middle Schools. American Journal of Public Health, 93(11), 1830-1836.

Ghosh-Dastidar, B., Longshore, D.L., Ellickson, P.L., & McCaffrey, D.F. (2004, June). Modifying Pro-Drug Risk Factors in Adolescents: Results From Project ALERT. Health Education and Behavior, 31(3), 318-334.

Gorman, D.M. (1994, March). Preventing Adolescent Drug Use: The Effectiveness of Project ALERT. American Journal of Public Health, 84(3), 500-501.

Orlando , M., Ellickson, P.L., McCaffrey, D.F., & Longshore, D.L. (2005, March). Mediation Analysis of a School-Based Drug Prevention Program: Effects of Project ALERT. Prevention Science, 6(1), 35-46.

Contact Project ALERT