Project CHOICE

COUNTRY: UNITED STATES

REGION: AMERICAS

Developer: RAND Corporation

Partners: Funding from National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Program Overview: This voluntary, after school program targets middle school students in an effort to prevent alcohol initiation and reduce escalation in consumption.

Program Design: Project CHOICE is a multicomponent approach which aims to enhance protective factors, reduce risk factors, provide normative feedback, build skills, and increase knowledge. The curriculum was administered voluntarily, after school, in 30 minute sessions administered five times throughout the school year. The program design is based in Social Learning Theory, Decision-Making Theory, and Self-Efficacy Theory. The program encourages life skills, but also uses normative feedback and motivational interviewing. In order to promote this voluntary program posters were placed in the school, the program was mentioned in presentations, and small incentives were given for attending individual sessions and for participating in all five sessions.

Evaluation: A cluster randomized control trial of 16 middle schools used pre and post-tests to evaluated program effectiveness. Questionnaires included items to assess:

• Alcohol consumption
• Intentions
• Self-efficacy
• Perceptions

Key findings¹: At follow up most findings showed effects in the desired direction, however, many did not reach statistical significance. 

• At the school level, program schools showed statistically significant lower odds of lifetime alcohol use
• Analysis by number of sessions attended showed that students who attended more sessions reported significantly higher self-efficacy of resistance skills

References:

1. D’Amico, E. J., Tucker, J. S., Miles, J. N. V., Zhou, A. J., Shih, R. A., & Green, H. D. (2012). Preventing alcohol use with a voluntary after school program for middle school students: Results from a cluster randomized controlled trial of Project CHOICE. Prevention Science, 13(4), 415-425.

2. D’Amico, E. J., Edelen, M. O. (2007). Pilot test of Project CHOICE: A voluntary afterschool intervention for middle school youth. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 21(4), 592-598.

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