Program Profile: Active Parenting of Teens: Families in Action

This is a family-based alcohol prevention program for families with middle school-aged children. The program is rated Promising. Students in the program reported fewer family fights; higher family cohesion, and school attachment; and more negative views on underage alcohol consumption, compared with control group students. Parents in the program reported greater opposition to underage alcohol consumption, compared with control group parents. These differences were statistically significant.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

Program Goals/Theory

Active Parenting of Teens: Families in Action is a family-based alcohol-, tobacco-, and other drug (ATOD) abuse–prevention program that targets families with children entering middle school. The specific goals of Active Parenting of Teens: Families in Action are to 1) increase youths’ positive attachment to their families and their schools, 2) increase their positive peer relations, 3) promote unfavorable attitudes toward the use of ATODs, and 4) increase self-esteem. The goals for parents are very similar: 1) increase positive attachment to their families; 2) increase positive involvement in their children’s schools; and 3) promote unfavorable attitudes toward the use of ATODs by minors.

The program is based on a social developmental model that emphasizes the contributions of family, school, and peers to adolescent development and proposes that if a youth bonds with prosocial individuals and social groups he or she is less likely to use ATODs. The program teaches a combination of general life skills and social resistance techniques and provides opportunities for youths to practice these skills. It also incorporates modules promoting self-esteem, since Active Parenting of Teens: Families in Action staff hypothesized that youths who feel good about themselves are more likely to feel that they can succeed in school and make friends.

Target Population

The program serves both parents and their children, specifically concentrating on families with children entering middle school or between the ages of 11 and 14. The program can be used with both males and females.

Program Activities

The Active Parenting of Teens: Families in Action program includes several components or modules, which promote youths’ attachment to their family, school, and prosocial peers. These address a wide range of topics, including parent–child communication, positive behavior management, adolescent alcohol and tobacco use, interpersonal relationships for adolescents, school success, family fun activities, and enhancement of adolescent self-esteem.

The program is offered several times each year in middle and junior high schools as an afterschool activity. There are six 2½-hour sessions. Sessions are administered once a week for 6 weeks. Typically, the sessions are held in classrooms on weekday evenings, with groups ranging from 5 to 12 families. The core instructional component is the use of videotaped vignettes that show different families handling a variety of problems. There is also a parent handbook and an accompanying student handbook and curriculum.

Sessions 1 and 2 concentrate on positive thinking and on using positive, rather than negative, strategies to reach behavioral goals. The sessions also discuss normal adolescent development and emphasize maintaining self-esteem during this difficult period. Sessions 3 and 4 teach interpersonal communication skills and demonstrate the logical consequences of individual actions as part of a family management style. Youths are taught that their actions have consequences; parents are taught how to help their children make appropriate choices. Sessions 5 and 6 focus on applying the resistance skills and concepts from the first four sessions to the prevention of ATOD usage, early sexual activity, and violence. Every session is designed to teach children and parents separately and then bring them together for group activities. Skills are taught through role-playing activities and group discussion of how to handle different situation.

Study

Abbey and colleagues (2000) used a quasi-experimental design with nonequivalent comparison groups to evaluate the effectiveness of the Active Parenting of Teens: Families in Action program at preventing alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use (ATOD). Four schools in a rural county of northeastern Michigan were used in the evaluation. Almost the entire population in the county was white (96 percent), and 21 percent of the families were below the poverty line.

A baseline survey was administered in fall of the school year to all students; the same survey was administered 1 year later as a follow-up. Participation in Active Parenting of Teens: Families in Action was completely voluntary. Those families who participated in the program served as the treatment group, and those families who did not participate acted as the comparison group. The treatment group had 37 students and 38 parents; the comparison group had 268 students and 134 parents. Parents were mailed a survey with a stamped-and-addressed return envelope to send back to the research team. Treatment students were not significantly different from students in the comparison group. However, treatment parents had significantly lower scores at baseline on attitudes toward tobacco, age at which parents considered it acceptable for their children to drink, and family cohesion. They also reported higher levels of family fighting. That is, the baseline difference favored the comparison group, as the treatment group parents reported more lenient attitudes toward substance use and higher levels of family fighting.

There were several multi-item scales used to measure student and parent attitudes and behavior. Family measures included family cohesion and fighting. Family cohesion was measured with a 9-item subscale from the Family Environment Scale. Family cohesion assessed the degree of commitment, help, and support that family members provided one another, with higher scores reflecting greater cohesion. Family fighting was measured with a 4-item scale created by the research team, including questions such as, “How many times have you yelled at your child (parent)?” School attachment was measured with a 10-item subscale from the Effective School Battery. Attitudes toward alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use, rather than actual ATOD use, were measured with a seven-item scale that was adapted from previously existing scales. Students and parents both were asked about their attitudes toward ATOD use by minors.

Self-esteem was measured only for students. Perceptions of friends’ supportiveness were measured with a 15-item subset of the Inventory of Peer Attachment. Self-esteem was measured with the 16-item behavior subscale from the Piers–Harris Children’s Self-Concept Scale. All survey items and scales used had high Cronbach coefficient alphas and are considered reliable.

One-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were used to determine the significant differences between program participants (treatment group) and nonparticipants (comparison group). Baseline differences were accounted for in all of the analyses by treating baseline scores and demographics as covariates. No subgroup analysis was conducted.

Information on Active Parenting training opportunities is available on the Active Parenting™ Publishers website: http://www.activeparenting.com/training .

Leader Training Workshops, Online Leader Training Workshops, and Training of Trainers Workshop are available for anyone interested in implementing the program.

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

These sources were used in the development of the program profile: