Life Skills Training in Substance Abuse Treatment

Universal drug prevention programs have been taught in schools for years in an effort to reduce substance abuse among our youth. The Life Skills Training Program takes a different approach to increase drug prevention and awareness. The following paper is gives a description and critique of the Life Skills Training Program.

Life Skills Training Program
Most drug prevention programs are taught in the schools throughout the United States. The most common drug prevention programs are universal interventions and are geared to reach students before they begin use of tobacco, alcohol, or drugs. These programs have historically distributed the information about the dangers of alcohol, tobacco, and drug abuse in order to evoke fear. According to Botvin & Botvin (1992), these universal informational programs “do not change tobacco, alcohol, or drug use behavior or intentions to use substances in the future. Information may help to change knowledge or attitudes, but it is not sufficient to change behavior.” The most effective universal programs are contemporary approaches that focus primarily on the risk and protective factors regarding initiation and early stages of substance use (Hawkins, Catalano, & Miller, 1992). The following is a description and critique of a universal program currently taught in middle schools called Life Skills Training (LST) Program.

Description
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA, 2003) describes the LST program as a universal program that concentrates on a wide variety of risk and protective factors. LST accomplishes this by teaching personal and social skills, normative education, and drug resistant skills. It is a three-year prevention curriculum for middle school and junior high school students.

Three-year Curriculum
The three-year curriculum is different each year. The first year consists of fifteen sessions, with 10 booster sessions the second year, and five booster sessions the third year. The major content areas covered in the LST program include (1) normative education, (2) self-management and social skills, and (3) drug resistant skills (NIDA, 2003).

Normative Education
Many adolescents have the misconception that everyone is doing it; meaning smoking, drinking, and using drugs. Normative education includes material to help combat this perception. Research demonstrates that teenagers overestimate the prevalence of tobacco, alcohol, and drug use among adolescents. Changing this belief is accomplished by using surveys of national data and by conducting classroom and school surveys that convey actual prevalence rates of substance abuse among their peers and age group in general. This approach teaches the student that everyone is not doing it and they do not have to smoke, drink or use drugs to fit in with their peers (Botvin and Griffin, 2007).
Self-management and Social Skills

The content in this section is designed to empower each student by teaching generic social and personal skills such as decision-making skills, interpersonal communication skills, assertiveness skills, and skills for coping with anxiety and anger. This teaches the student to identify their feelings and encourages healthy communication of how they are feeling rather than acting out (Botvin and Griffin, 2007).

Drug Resistance Skills
Social influences promoting substance use come from a variety of sources including peers, parents, siblings, and the media. Adolescents who are among family and friends that smoke drink, and use drugs are far more likely to use substances themselves because of their need for peer acceptance, modeling of behavior, and increased availability of substances. Also bombarding teenagers is the media by the promoting substance abuse by advertising smoking and drinking as fun and acceptable in our society (Botvin and Griffin, 2007).

Drug resistant skill training teaches teens to identify peer pressure situations to smoke, drink, or use drugs and how to avoid these high-risk situations. If a peer pressure situation arises, students are taught techniques including what to say, even the specific content of a refusal message, and how to communicate it in the most effective way possible. They are also taught techniques used by advertisers to promote substance use and arguments that confront the deception of advertising (Botvin and Griffin, 2007).

Program Effectiveness
The LST program has been studied over a twenty-year period showing a reduction of the use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs. There was a fifty to eight-seven percent reduction of substance use compared with the controls in the study. When combined with the booster sessions, the study showed a sixty-six percent reduction in substance use that continued long term, even after school years (NIDA, 2003).

Critique
The Life Skills Training Program has several positive aspects that contribute to the programs effectiveness in reducing substance abuse among adolescents. These aspects include:
1) The age range of students the LST program focuses on attempts to reach the adolescents before they start using substances. Now that the age range of the initiation of substance use is younger, they are beginning the LST program in elementary schools.
2) The length of the program reinforces the concepts of the program and the booster classes continue to remind the students that they have the power to face the peer pressure and make positive choices for themselves.
3) Scare tactics do not reduce the initiation of substance abuse. The LST program focuses on a new approach to teach adolescents about the dangers of substance abuse and their power of choice.
4) The normative education lets the student know that they do not have to use drugs to fit in with their peers.
5) The social skills and empowerment training is taught at a crucial time in a child’s life that assist them in developing a positive self-esteem. It also teaches them to communicate their needs and helps them to believe in themselves.
6) Teaching drug resistant skills lets a teenager know that they can say no to substance use and avoid risking situations. It also teaches them to beware of the media and the message that it conveys.
7) The effectiveness of reducing substance abuse among teenagers over a twenty-year period is significant.

Conclusion
Teenagers are faced with peer pressure and tough choices to make everyday about smoking, drinking, and drug use. Historically, scare tactics were used to keep them away from substance use, which failed at reducing the initiation of substance use. The LST program has a different approach that has a proven track record over twenty years showing a significant reduction in the initiation of substance use among our youth. Life Skills Training has assisted many adolescents in making the choice to say no to substance use and changing the direction of their life for a positive future.

References
Botvin, G. J., & Botvin, E. M. (1992). School-based and community-based prevention approaches. In J. Lowinson, P. Ruiz & R. Millman (Eds.), Comprehensive textbook of substance abuse (pp. 910–927). Baltimore: Williams & Wilkins.
Botvin, G., & Griffin, K. (2007, December). School-based programs to prevent alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use. International Review of Psychiatry, 19(6), 607-615. Retrieved March 24, 2009, doi:10.1080/09540260701797753
Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Miller, J. Y. (1992). Risk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: Implications for substance abuse prevention. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 64–105. Retrieved March 20, 2009 from Academic Search Premier database.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (2003). Preventing drug abuse among children and adolescents. A research-based guide for parents, educators, and community leaders, (2nd ed) Ch 4, 28-29. NIH Publication No. 04-4212(A).