Practice Profile: Formal Mentoring to Prevent Youth Substance Use

Evidence Rating for Outcomes

Drugs & Substance Abuse | Alcohol

Drugs & Substance Abuse | Multiple substances

Date: This profile was posted on April 17, 2023

This practice encompasses programs that provide youths with formal supportive relationships and various positive, community-based activities and experiences to reduce their need to use alcohol and/or drugs. The practice is rated Effective for reducing the likelihood of alcohol initiation and reducing the likelihood of drug use initiation.

Practice Goals/Target Population

Research has found that by senior year of high school, almost 70 percent of students in the United States will have tasted alcohol, about half will have taken an illegal drug, and more than 20 percent will have used a prescription drug for a nonprescribed purpose (Erdem and Kaufman 2020). One method to prevent youth substance use is through mentoring, defined as “a relationship over a prolonged period of time between two or more people where an older, caring, more experienced individual provides help to the younger person as [they go] through life” (Center for Substance Abuse Prevention 2000, 2). The goal of mentoring programs that are designed specifically to prevent youth substance use is to reduce the time youths have to associate with users of alcohol and drugs, and give youths less need to use drugs and alcohol to alter their mood or please their peers.

Practice Components

Mentoring can affect targeted youth through a variety of programming and activities. To prevent youth substance use, mentoring programs often involve frequent contact with mentors; the training of mentors, who also receive ongoing supervision; and the behavioral change techniques designed to target specific problem behaviors that produce negative consequences. Programs also generally offer an array of activities linked to mentoring, to ensure that the mentee is involved often in positive community experiences.

Mentoring programs typically match youths with mentors and encourage mentors to meet regularly with mentees for support in various aspects of life; to educate mentees on health and substance abuse; to work with mentees to improve coping, problem-solving, and communication skills; to involve mentees in community service activities, such as visiting the elderly; and to offer cultural activities and educational services/tutoring. The underlying strategies are to keep the mentees busy and involved in positive experiences, and to provide them feedback and encouragement from the positive mentors with whom they bond.

Key Personnel

Mentors are “formal,” meaning they are assigned to youths as part of a program. The mentor–mentee relationship is often a symmetrical one of sharing ideas and experiences, with the mentor guiding the mentee to achieve behavior or goals that they define together.

Meta-Analysis Snapshot
	Literature Coverage Dates	Number of Studies	Number of Study Participants
Meta Analysis 1	1970-2011	4	1194

Meta Analysis 1

Thomas, Lorenzetti, and Spragins (2011) identified four randomized controlled trials that evaluated formal mentoring interventions to prevent drug and alcohol use in adolescents ages 13 to 18. All mentoring programs with the goal of deterring alcohol and drug use that used any type of mentor, regardless of theoretical intervention, were included in the search. Counseling and parenting skill programs were excluded.

A comprehensive search was conducted for published and unpublished studies produced between 1950 and July 2011. Searches were conducted on Cochrane CENTRAL (issue 4), MEDLINE (1950 to July 2011), EMBASE (1980 to July 2011), 11 gray literature and 5 other electronic databases, 10 websites, and reference lists, and with experts in addictions and mentoring. A detailed search strategy was developed that combined medical subject headings and text words specific for substance abuse. There were no language restrictions. The primary outcomes of interest included abstinence (never starting to use illegal or legal drugs and/or alcohol); monthly use of alcohol or drugs; reduction in consumption of drugs and/or alcohol; not progressing in use of drugs/alcohol; and not being involved in alcohol- or drug-related aggression or accidents.

Results of the search identified 2,113 abstracts; of these, 233 were selected for full-text review, and four randomized controlled trials met criteria for inclusion. The four identified randomized controlled trials were conducted in the United States and collectively included 1,994 adolescents: 839 in the treatment group, 315 in an intervention-plus-curriculum group, and 840 in a no-intervention group. All randomized controlled trials included a high proportion of minority and disadvantaged adolescents. Of the four randomized controlled trials, two identified youths through their schools and implemented one part of the curriculum in the schools, and two recruited youths through community organizations. All four conducted their mentoring activity with community mentors and in the community.

A fixed-effects model was used to conduct each analysis. For dichotomous outcomes, the relative risk, its standard error, and 95 percent confidence interval were computed. In trials that compared multiple interventions with the control group, each intervention was compared separately with the control group. Effect sizes were derived for two outcomes: alcohol use (based on two studies) and drug use (also based on two studies).

Date Modified: June 1, 2022

The meta-analysis by Thompson, Lorenzetti, and Spragins (2011) was originally reviewed for CrimeSolutions in 2013 as part of the Mentoring for Youth Development practice. In 2022, as part of a re-review of the Mentoring for Youth Development practice, it was decided that Thompson, Lorenzetti, and Spragins (2011) would become a separate practice focused on Mentoring to Prevent Substance Use.

Date Created: July 17, 2024

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Practice Snapshot

Age: 13 - 18

Gender: Male, Female

Setting (Delivery): School, Other Community Setting

Practice Type: Alcohol and Drug Prevention, Mentoring

Unit of Analysis: Persons

Practice Profile: Formal Mentoring to Prevent Youth Substance Use

Notice

Practice Summary

Practice Description

Practice Goals/Target Population

Practice Components

Key Personnel

Meta-Analysis Outcomes

Meta-Analysis Methodology

Cost

Evidence-Base (Meta-Analyses Reviewed)

Additional References

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