Chapter 2 - Life Skills Training: Theory, Methods, and Effectiveness of a Drug Abuse Prevention Approach

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to describe a drug abuse prevention intervention approach called Life Skills Training (LST), one of the most widely evaluated school-based prevention programs available. The theoretical basis for the LST program is described and the scientific evidence on the effectiveness of the program is reviewed, including data on the effectiveness of the program with different target populations. In addition, some future directions for prevention intervention research are explained, particularly in terms of the dissemination of programs that are proven to be effective. The LST program is designed to have a major impact on the individual-level personal factors. The program is a primary prevention program that targets individuals who have not yet developed drug abuse problems, and this is accomplished by impacting on risk factors associated with the early stages of drug use. By intervening with a prevention program with younger populations (e.g., junior high school students), it is presumed that this ultimately will reduce the prevalence of drug abuse among these youth as they become older (e.g., seniors in high school). The LST approach is also a universal intervention designed for all individuals in a given setting, rather than a selective or targeted intervention designed only for individuals at “high risk.”