Adolescent exposure to substance use prevention messages declining

Exposure to drug or alcohol use prevention messages decreased among adolescents since 2002, according to a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“Providing adolescents with credible, accurate, and age-appropriate information about the harm associated with substance use is a key component in prevention programming,” Rachel N. Lipari, PhD, of SAMHSA, wrote. “Prevention programming can be made more effective by gaining a better understanding of the ways in which adolescents are given prevention messages. Similarly, prevention programming can be better targeted to address underserved populations if the characteristics of adolescents not exposed to prevention messages or programs are known.”

To assess trends in adolescent exposure to substance use prevention messages, researchers analyzed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health for 2002 to 2015.

The percentage of adolescents exposed to drug or alcohol use prevention messages in the past year by talking with parents, through media or school sources were generally lower in 2015, compared with years between 2002 and 2012, and were comparable with 2013 and 2014.

In 2015, approximately three out of four adolescents aged 12 to 17 were exposed to substance use prevention messages in the media or at school and approximately one out of two talked with their parents about substance use.

Adolescents aged 14 to 15 years had the greatest exposure (76.4%) to substance use prevention messages in school, while those aged 16 to 17 years had the lowest (67.9%).

In 2015, female adolescents were more likely to be exposed to prevention messages in the past year through media sources, school sources and talking with parents.

“Although the majority of adolescents are receiving prevention messages, practitioners, policymakers, educators and parents may also want to consider the percentage of adolescents who were not exposed to prevention messages through these sources. For example, 27.3% of in-school adolescents did not see or hear prevention messages through school sources,” Lipari wrote. “These findings suggest the need for continued monitoring of exposure to prevention messaging to assess whether the nation’s adolescents are seeing or hearing substance use prevention messages.” – by Amanda Oldt

Reference:

Lipari RN. CBHSQ report: Exposure to substance use prevention messages among adolescents. Available at: http://www.samhsa.gov/data. Accessed June 13, 2017.

Disclosure: Lipari reports no relevant financial disclosures.