Effectiveness of School-Based Family and Children's Skills Training for Substance Abuse Prevention Among 6-8-Year-Old Rural Children

This research tested the effectiveness of a multicomponent prevention program, Project SAFE (Strengthening America's Families and Environment), with 655 1st graders from 12 rural schools. This sample was randomly assigned to receive the I Can Problem Solve (ICPS) program ( M. B. Shure & G. Spivack, 1979 ), alone or combined with the Strengthening Families (SF) program ( K. L. Kumpfer, J. P. DeMarsh, & W. Child, 1989 ), or SF parent training only. Nine-month change scores revealed significantly larger improvements and effect sizes (0.35 to 1.26) on all outcome variables (school bonding, parenting skills, family relationships, social competency, and behavioral self-regulation) for the combined ICPS and SF program compared with ICPS-only or no-treatment controls. Adding parenting-only improved social competency and self-regulations more but negatively impacted family relationships, whereas adding SF improved family relationships, parenting, and school bonding more.