Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Can Brief Alcohol Interventions for Youth Also Address Concurrent Illicit Drug Use? Results from a Meta-analysis

  • Empirical Research
  • Published:
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Brief interventions aimed at reducing alcohol use among youth may interrupt a possible developmental progression to more serious substance use if they can also affect the use of other illicit drugs. This meta-analysis examined the findings of recent research on the effects of brief alcohol interventions for adolescents and young adults on both alcohol and illicit drug use. Eligible studies were those using randomized or controlled quasi-experimental designs to examine the effects of brief alcohol interventions on illicit drug use outcomes among youth. A comprehensive literature search identified 30 eligible study samples that, on average, included participants age 17, with 57 % male participants and 56 % White youth. Three-level random-effects meta-analyses were used to estimate mean effect sizes and explore variability in effects. Overall, brief interventions targeting both alcohol and other drugs were effective in reducing both of these substances. However, the brief interventions that targeted only alcohol had no significant secondary effects on untargeted illicit drug use. The evidence from current research, therefore, shows modest beneficial effects on outcomes that are targeted by brief interventions for youth, but does not show that those effects generalize to untargeted illicit drug use outcomes.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. We chose to include undergraduate college student samples given our conceptual interest in adolescents and young adults, and the fact that many primary studies recruited participants from undergraduate postsecondary educational institutions. Although living arrangements and opportunities for substance use will vary across these adolescent and young adult samples, the final analytic sample (see Table 1) ultimately only included studies with average ages up to 20.5. We also conducted post hoc analyses (see Fig. 2) to establish that participant age was not associated with the magnitude of observed effect sizes.

  2. Recall that all analyses use method-adjusted effect sizes that controlled for study design, attrition, effect size estimation method, comparison group type, pretest differences between groups, and level of estimation in effect size calculation. Sensitivity analyses (not shown) using the unadjusted effect sizes yielded results that were substantively similar to those reported here, so we elected to present the results using the method-adjusted effect sizes that offer a more conservative picture of effects, net of methodological confounds in the primary studies.

  3. The moderator analyses predicted all illicit drug use effect sizes simultaneously; models were not estimated separately for subsets of marijuana or other hard drug use outcomes given the small number of available effect sizes within those subsets. Further, given the high intercorrelations between intervention components and the small number of available effect sizes, all moderator analyses examined the effect of only one therapeutic intervention at a time (i.e., it was not feasible to implement multivariable meta-regression models).

References

  • Albert, D., Chein, J., & Steinberg, L. (2013). The teenage brain: Peer influences on adolescent decision making. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 22, 114–120. doi:10.1177/0963721412471347.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Allison, P. D. (2002). Missing data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beyers, J. M., Toumbourou, J. W., Catalano, R. F., Arthur, M. W., & Hawkins, J. D. (2004). A cross-national comparison of risk and protective factors for adolescent substance use: The United States and Australia. Journal of Adolescent Health, 35, 3–16. doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2003.08.015.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Burke, B. L., Dunn, C. W., Atkins, D. C., & Phelps, J. S. (2004). The emerging evidence base for motivational interviewing: A meta-analytic and qualitative inquiry. Journal of Cognitive Psychotherapy, 18, 309–322. doi:10.1891/jcop.18.4.309.64002.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carey, K. B., Scott-Sheldon, L. A. J., Carey, M. P., & DeMartini, K. S. (2007). Individual-level interventions to reduce college student drinking: A meta-analytic review. Addictive Behaviors, 32, 2469–2494. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2007.05.004.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carey, K. B., Scott-Sheldon, L. A. J., Elliott, J. C., Bolles, J. R., & Carey, M. P. (2009). Computer-delivered interventions to reduce college student drinking: A meta-analysis. Addiction, 104, 1807–1819. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02691.x.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carney, T., & Myers, B. (2012). Effectiveness of early interventions for substance-using adolescents: Findings from a systematic review and meta-analysis. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, 7, 1–28. doi:10.1186/1747-597X-7-25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT). (1999). Brief interventions and brief therapies for substance abuse (Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) Series, No. 34). Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

  • Cheung, M. W.-L. (2014a). metaSEM: An R package for meta-analysis using structural equation modeling. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1521. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01521.

    PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cheung, M. W.-L. (2014b). Modeling dependent effect sizes with three-level meta-analyses: A structural equation modeling approach. Psychological Methods, 19, 211–229. doi:10.1037/a0032968.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, D., & Winters, K. C. (2002). Measuring risks and outcomes in substance use disorders prevention research. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 70, 1207–1223.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cuijpers, P., Riper, H., & Lemmers, L. (2004). The effects on mortality of brief interventions for problem drinking: A meta-analysis. Addiction, 99, 839–845. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2004.00778.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Duval, S., & Tweedie, R. (2000). Trim and fill: A simple funnel-plot-based method of testing and adjusting for publication bias in meta-analysis. Biometrics, 56, 455–463.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fleming, M. F., Mundt, M. P., French, M. T., Manwell, L. B., Stauffacher, E. A., & Barry, K. L. (2000). Benefit-cost analysis of brief physician advice with problem drinkers in primary care settings. Medical Care, 38, 7–18. doi:10.1097/00005650-200001000-00003.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fleming, M. F., Mundt, M. P., French, M. T., Manwell, L. B., Stauffacher, E. A., & Barry, K. L. (2002). Brief physician advice for problem drinkers: Long-term efficacy and benefit-cost analysis. Alcoholism, Clinical and Experimental Research, 26, 36–43. doi:10.1097/00000374-200201000-00006.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hale, D. R., Fitzgerald-Yau, N., & Viner, M. (2014). A systematic review of effective interventions for reducing multiple health risk behaviors in adolescence. American Journal of Public Health, 104, e19–e41. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2014.301874.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Heather, N. (1995). Interpreting the evidence on brief interventions for excessive drinkers: The need for caution. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 30, 287–296.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hedges, L. V. (1981). Distribution theory for Glass’s estimator of effect size and related estimators. Journal of Educational Statistics, 6, 107–128.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jensen, C. D., Cushing, C. C., Aylward, B. S., Craig, J. T., Sorell, D. M., & Steele, R. G. (2011). Effectiveness of motivational interviewing interventions for adolescent substance use behavior change: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 79, 433–440. doi:10.1037/a0023992.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Khan, M. R., Berger, A. T., Wells, B. E., & Cleland, C. M. (2012). Longitudinal associations between adolescent alcohol use and adulthood sexual risk behavior and sexually transmitted infection in the United States: Assessment of differences by race. American Journal of Public Health, 102, 867–876. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2011.300373.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Konstantopoulos, S. (2011). Fixed effects and variance components estimation in three-level meta-analysis. Research Synthesis Methods, 2, 61–76. doi:10.1002/jrsm.35.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lipsey, M. W., & Wilson, D. B. (2001). Practical meta-analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCambridge, J., & Jenkins, R. J. (2008). Do brief interventions which target alcohol consumption also reduce cigarette smoking? Systematic review and meta-analysis. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 96, 263–270. doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2008.03.011.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (1991). Motivational interviewing: Preparing people to change addictive behavior. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moreira, M. T., Smith, L. A., & Foxcroft, D. (2009). Social norms interventions to reduce alcohol misuse in university or college students. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews,. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD006748.pub2.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Neighbors, C. J., Barnett, N. P., Rohsenow, D. J., Colby, S. M., & Monti, P. M. (2010). Cost-effectiveness of a motivational intervention for alcohol-involved youth in a hospital emergency department. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 71, 384–394.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Palmer, T. M., Peters, J. L., Sutton, A. J., & Moreno, S. G. (2008). Contour-enhanced funnel plots for meta-analysis. Stata Journal, 8, 242–254.

    Google Scholar 

  • Prochaska, J. O., & DiClemente, C. C. (2005). The transtheoretical approach. In J. C. Norcross & M. R. Goldfried (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy integration (2nd ed., pp. 147–171). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothstein, H. R., Sutton, A. J., & Borenstein, M. (Eds.). (2005). Publication bias in meta-analysis: Prevention, assessment and adjustments. Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sánchez-Meca, J., Marín-Martínez, F., & Chacón-Moscoso, S. (2003). Effect-size indices for dichotomized outcomes in meta-analysis. Psychological Methods, 8, 448–467.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scott-Sheldon, L. A. J., DeMartini, K. S., Carey, K. B., & Carey, M. P. (2009). Alcohol interventions for college students improves antecedents of behavioral change: Results from a meta-analysis of 34 randomized controlled trials. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 7, 799–823. doi:10.1521/jscp.2009.28.7.799.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smedslund, G., Berg, R. C., Hammerstrøm, K. T., Steiro, A., Leiknes, K. A., Dahl, H. M., & Karlsen, K. (2011). Motivational interviewing for substance abuse. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews,. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD008063.pub2.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Somerville, L. H., Jones, R. M., & Casey, B. J. (2010). A time of change: Behavioral and neural correlates of adolescent sensitivity to appetitive and aversive environmental cues. Brain and Cognition, 72, 124. doi:10.1016/j.bandc.2009.07.003.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Squeglia, L. M., Jacobus, J., & Tapert, S. F. (2009). The influence of substance use on adolescent brain development. Clinical EEG and Neuroscience, 40, 31–38. doi:10.1177/155005940904000110.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stein, M. D., Hagerty, C. E., Herman, D. S., Phipps, M. G., & Anderson, B. J. (2011). A brief marijuana intervention for non-treatment-seeking young adult women. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 40, 189–198. doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2010.11.001.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Steinberg, L. (2010). A dual systems model of adolescent risk-taking. Developmental Psychobiology, 52, 216–224. doi:10.1002/dev.20445.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (2013). Results from the 2012 national survey on drug use and health: Summary of national findings (NSDUH Series H-46, HHS Publication No. (SMA) 13-4795). Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (2014). Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT). Retrieved from http://beta.samhsa.gov/sbirt

  • Tait, R. J., & Hulse, G. K. (2003). A systematic review of the effectiveness of brief interventions with substance using adolescents by type of drug. Drug and Alcohol Review, 22, 337–346. doi:10.1080/0959523031000154481.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tanner-Smith, E. E., & Lipsey, M. W. (2014). Brief alcohol interventions for adolescents and young adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment,. doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2014.09.001.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Van den Noortgate, W., López-López, J. A., Marín-Martínez, F., & Sánchez-Meca, J. (2013). Three-level meta-analysis of dependent effect sizes. Behavior Research Methods, 45, 576–594. doi:10.3758/s13428-012-0261-6.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walters, S. T., Lee, C. M., & Walker, D. D. (2012). Brief interventions for marijuana use. In H. R. White & D. L. Rabiner (Eds.), Duke series in child development and public policy: College drinking and drug use (pp. 184–202). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wetherill, R., & Tapert, S. F. (2013). Adolescent brain development, substance use, and psychotherapeutic change. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 27, 393–402. doi:10.1037/a0029111.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Winters, K. C., Tanner-Smith, E. E., Bresani, E., & Myers, K. (2014). Current advances in the treatment of adolescent substance use. Adolescent Health, Medicine and Therapeutics, 5, 199–210. doi:10.2147/AHMT.S48053.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • World Health Organization. (2009). Global health risks: Mortality and burden of disease attributable to selected major risks. Geneva: World Health Organization.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Award Number R01AA020286 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism or the National Institutes of Health.

Conflict of interest

KCW acknowledges that he is an author of two of the primary studies included in the meta-analysis but was not involved in extracting data from those studies. ETS, KSF, EAH, and MWL declare no conflicts of interest.

Author contributions

ETS conceived of the study, participated in its design and coordination, performed the statistical analysis, and drafted the manuscript. KSF participated in the coordination of the study and helped draft the manuscript. EAH participated in the coordination of the study and helped draft the manuscript. MWL participated in the design and coordination of the study, and edited the manuscript. KCW helped draft the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human and Organizational Development, Peabody Research Institute, Vanderbilt University, Box 0181 GPC, Nashville, TN, 37203-5721, USA

    Emily E. Tanner-Smith, Emily A. Hennessy & Mark W. Lipsey

  2. Peabody Research Institute, Vanderbilt University, Box 0181 GPC, Nashville, TN, 37203-5721, USA

    Katarzyna T. Steinka-Fry

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Minnesota Medical School, 2450 Riverside Avenue, Minneapolis, MN, 55454, USA

    Ken C. Winters

Authors
  1. Emily E. Tanner-Smith
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Katarzyna T. Steinka-Fry
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Emily A. Hennessy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Mark W. Lipsey
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Ken C. Winters
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Emily E. Tanner-Smith.

Electronic supplementary material

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary material 1 (DOCX 18 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Tanner-Smith, E.E., Steinka-Fry, K.T., Hennessy, E.A. et al. Can Brief Alcohol Interventions for Youth Also Address Concurrent Illicit Drug Use? Results from a Meta-analysis. J Youth Adolescence 44, 1011–1023 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0252-x

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-015-0252-x

Keywords

Search

Navigation