Involving Parents In Teen Anti-Drug Programs

10-22-97
University Park, Pa. --- Involving parents of high-risk teens in drug prevention programs may be extremely challenging, but a Penn State study has shown that it is possible -- with the right strategies -- to achieve participation from many parents.

Tena St. Pierre, associate professor of agricultural and extension education in the College of Agricultural Sciences, and D. Lynne Kaltreider, research associate in Penn State's Institute for Policy Research and Evaluation (IPRE), say their three-year study of the Boys & Girls Clubs' Family Advocacy Network, popularly known as the FAN Club, has identified six successful strategies useful to recruit and retain parents of high-risk youth as allies in the fight against drugs.

The strategies are: 1) identify the right person to lead the program; 2) clearly convey the purpose of the program; 3) build relationships of mutual trust, respect and equality; 4) create parent ownership and group bonding; 5) provide easy access, incentives and reminders; and 6) be flexible but persistent.

St. Pierre, who is also a senior research associate at IPRE, says "The recent upsurge of teen drug use clearly calls for innovative prevention strategies. The FAN Club was directed to and was successful with high-risk, low-income families from severely distressed, high-crime neighborhoods."

The FAN Club is offered to the parents of teens in the Boys & Girls Clubs' drug prevention program. It was designed to strengthen high-risk families by creating a bond between program youth and their parents, reducing maternal isolation, providing opportunities for families to participate in pleasurable activities together, assisting parents to influence their children to lead drug-free lives, and providing social and instrumental support.

The FAN Club offered four types of activities:

Basic Support Activities-- helped families cope with daily life or with particular crises. For example, the FAN Club coordinator accompanied parents to social service agencies and offered support or assisted parents with their children's school.

Parent Support Activities-- these mostly social activities were selected by the parents to combat social isolation. They included pot luck dinners, picnics, crafts, pool parties, coffees and other activities open to parents alone or parents and children.

Educational Program Activities -- these parent-selected activities provided education, knowledge or enrichment experiences through speakers who discussed Black History, Puerto Rican culture, AIDS, gang prevention and health.

Leadership Activities-- parents voluntarily planned and implemented these activities which included monthly meetings, fundraising, club-wide dinners, and the Boys & Girls Clubs' summer lunch program. Families also visited nursing homes and prevention program graduations.

St. Pierre and Kaltreider, with Dr. Melvin Mark, Penn State professor of psychology in the College of the Liberal Arts, examined parent participation and program effects in a study involving 300 young people at 16 Boys & Girls Clubs across the U.S. over a three-year period. They found that 44 percent of youth at clubs offering a FAN Club program had a parent participate in at least one activity (on average) per month and 54 percent attended a FAN Club activity (on average) every other month.

Not surprisingly, results from a youth self-report questionnaire indicated that the most positive anti-drug program effects were found for teens in the study group the offered the FAN Club program. Over the 36 months, youth in the Boys & Girls Clubs that conducted the FAN Club program with the drug prevention program reported increasing ability to refuse alcohol, marijuana, and cigarettes, and increasing negative attitudes toward using marijuana.

The researchers published their strategies for parent participation in the current (September) issue of the Journal of Community Psychology. Earlier this year they described their study in detail in a paper, "Involving Parents of High-Risk Youth in Drug Prevention: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study in Boys & Girls Clubs," in the Journal of Early Adolescence, Vol. 17, Nov. 1, February 1997.

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EDITORS: Dr. St. Pierre is at (814) 865-0399 or tls@psu.edu by email. Lynn Kaltreider is at (814) 863-0192 or dlk6@email.psu.edu by e-mail.

Contacts:
Barbara Hale (814) 865-9481 (office) (814) 238-0997 (home) bah@psu.edu
Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 (office) (814) 238-1221 (home) vyf1@psu.edu