Strengthening African American Families (SAAF)
Again, with colleagues at the University of Georgia, we are continuing a preventive-intervention
with a sample of 10-year old African American adolescents and their parents
that is intended to delay onset of drinking, and promote healthy behavior
(e.g., sexual abstinence). The program is based, in part, on Gibbons and
Gerrard’s cognitive model of adolescent health risk behavior, the prototype/willingness
model. Parents in the prevention program are taught nurturant-involved
parenting practices; children discuss the (negative) characteristics of young
drinkers and the positive images of young non-drinkers. Results indicate that
the youth in the SAAF program report less favorable prototypes of the “typical
user,” less willingness to drink and lower drinking rates.
This study is funded by the National
Institute of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse
