Families in Action

The Families in Action (FIA) program is a family-based alcohol, tobacco, and drug abuse prevention program that targets families with children entering middle school. The program teaches a combination of life and social resistance skills as well as providing opportunities to practice these skills in real life situations. The program includes modules on parent-child communication, positive behavior management, interpersonal relationships for adolescents, and the factors that promote school success. Using the risk and protective factor model, each of these components is designed to increase the attachment between a youth and his or her family, school, and peers.

The program uses a structured prevention curriculum that is taught in six 2½-hour sessions over 6 consecutive weeks. Sessions 1 and 2 concentrate on positive thinking and how to use positive strategies to reach behavioral goals. Sessions 3 and 4 concentrate on positive communication skills and natural and logical consequences for one's actions. Session 5 emphasizes school success. Session 6 deals with the avoidance of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use by youths. Sessions are typically held in school classrooms on weekday evenings. Group size ranges from 5 to 12 families.

The goal of this program is to prevent substance abuse among youth.

Evaluation results suggest several positive program impacts for students and parents. In one study, short-term effects of program participation were examined by comparing pretest, posttest, and 10-week follow-up data, which were collected only for intervention participants. Long-term effects were examined by comparing the intervention and control groups at 1-year follow-up. A second study was conducted with a new cohort of students and parents 1 year later. Long-term effects were examined by comparing the intervention and control groups at 1-year follow-up. Findings from these quasi-experimental studies included the following:

- Family cohesion: In the first study, parents who participated in the intervention reported significantly greater family cohesion at posttest than they did at pretest (p < .006). This effect was not significant at the 10-week follow-up. In the second study, students who received the intervention reported greater family cohesion than students in the control group at 1-year follow-up (p = .03).
- Family fighting: In the second study, students receiving the intervention reported less family fighting at the 1-year follow-up than students in the control group (p = .002). This effect was not significant for parents.
- School attachment: In the first study, male students who received the intervention scored significantly higher than did male students in the control group on school attachment at 1-year follow-up (p < .03). This effect was not significant for female students. However, the second study found that students receiving the intervention reported greater school attachment at the 1-year follow-up than students in the control group (p = .01). No significant gender differences were found in this study. No significant differences for parents were found in either study.
- Participation in school activities: In the first study, parents receiving the intervention reported more involvement in school activities at 1-year follow-up than did nonparticipating parents (p < .002). There were no significant differences for students.
Peer attachment: In the first study, students receiving the intervention reported significantly greater peer attachment at posttest than at pretest (p < .04). This effect was not significant at the 10-week follow-up. However, male students who received the intervention reported significantly greater peer attachment than male nonparticipants at 1-year follow-up (p < .05). This long-term program effect was not significant for female students.