Although many adolescents in the United States already are drinking alcohol or using drugs by the time they are exposed to prevention messages, the field of prevention science offers hope.

An ASU research team led by Stephen Kulis and Flavio Marsiglia of the School of Social Work's Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center (SIRC) studied whether youths who have begun to experiment with substances could be helped by a classroom-based prevention intervention.  Their surprising findings, "Promoting Reduced and Discontinued Substance Use among Adolescent Substance Users:  Effectiveness of a Universal Prevention Program", were just published in the leading journal for drug abuse prevention research, Prevention Science.