A meta-analysis of selected adolescent alcohol education studies

A meta-analysis was conducted to systematically evaluate, quantify and analyze selected adolescent alcohol education studies in order to determine their overall effects on alcohol knowledge, attitudes, use, interpersonal and affective skills. A secondary analysis was conducted in order to identify those strategies that have been most effective. A study of the various program characteristics and their relationship to study outcomes was also conducted. Alcohol education studies conducted since 1984 were located through computer database searches, manual searches of selected drug education journals and dissertation abstracts. In addition, letters were written to drug education researchers and the bibliographies of identified articles were also used. In order to be included in the analysis, studies were required to (1) have quantitative outcomes, (2) include a control or comparison group, (3) include a target grade level between 6 and 12, and (4) have primary prevention as the goal. A total of 99 studies were examined, 20 of which met the criteria for selection and were included in the analysis. An effect size total was calculated for each study. These totals were then averaged in order to determine the overall effects of the studies included in the analysis. Effect sizes for five treatment modalities (knowledge, affective, peer, psychomotor/skill, and combined) were also calculated. Total effect sizes ranged from -.34 to 1.18 with an average effect size of .25. A lack of data within modalities resulted in limited comparisons. No differences in the effectiveness of the various treatment modalities were found.