Enlisting Peer Cooperation in the Service of Alcohol Use Prevention in Middle School

• Main Authors: Roseth, C.J (Author), Van Ryzin, M.J (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Blackwell Publishing Inc. 2018
• Subjects: adolescent; Adolescent; alcohol consumption; Alcohol Drinking; analysis of variance; Analysis of Variance; article; attitude; Attitude; child; Child; collaborative learning; controlled study; cooperation; Cooperative Behavior; drinking behavior; female; Female; friend; Friends; human; Humans; juvenile; major clinical study; male; Male; middle school; peer group; Peer Group; prevention; prevention and control; randomized controlled trial; school health service; School Health Services; student
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 This article reports on a cluster randomized trial of cooperative learning (CL) as a way to prevent escalation in alcohol use during middle school (N = 1,460 seventh-grade students, age 12–13, seven intervention and eight control schools). We hypothesized that CL, by bringing students together in group-based learning activities using positive interdependence, would interrupt the process of deviant peer clustering, provide at-risk youth with prosocial influences, and in turn, reduce escalations in alcohol use. Results indicated that CL significantly reduced growth in deviant peer affiliation and actual alcohol use, and effects for willingness to use alcohol were at the threshold of significance (p =.05). CL also attenuated the link between willingness to use alcohol and later alcohol use. © 2017 The Authors. Child Development © 2017 Society for Research in Child Development, Inc.