Project Northland: comprehensive alcohol use prevention for young adolescents, their parents, schools, peers and communities.

OBJECTIVE Project Northland is an ongoing prevention trial with the objective of reducing underage drinking and related problems. Phase I focused on early adolescence and this study describes the multiple interventions, highlighting its parent components. METHOD A cohort design was used with sixth graders from 24 school districts (N = 2,35 1: 97% of the eligible population: 51.3% boys), randomly assigned to intervention or reference condition. Phase I ended in eighth grade (N = 1,901: 81% retention rate). Both demand and supply reduction guided the interventions. This study examined Project Northland's impact using MMPI-A scales assessing clinical problems related to adolescents' alcohol and other drug use (Alcohol/Drug Problems Proneness scale; Alcohol/Drug Problems Acknowledgement scale), as well as MMPI-A scales related to school functioning (Adolescent-School Problems Content scale: Adolescent-Low Aspirations Content scale) and family functioning (Adolescent-Family Problems Content scale). RESULTS Results showed significant reductions on the MMPI-A Proneness scale for those exposed to the interventions. The greatest program effects were among baseline nonusers of alcohol. CONCLUSIONS Results suggest that the impact of Project Northland is not only on specifically targeted alcohol and drug use behaviors and their predictive factors, but also on intra-individual and familial factors generally considered precursors of more extensive problem behaviors and more resistant to change. Furthermore, the engaging home-based sixth-grade intervention, the Slick Tracy Home Team Program, is a promising population-based prevention approach that may generalize to other serious problems within a young person's family.