Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drug (ATOD) Prevention

Over the years, various ATOD prevention models have drawn from knowledge bases in education, psychology, and behavioral sciences to identify and systematize the factors that contribute to ATOD use or non-use. (See "What Does Research Say About Prevention.") As practitioners translated these models into prevention programs and "road-tested" them with young people, prevention experts were able to evaluate each model's effectiveness and thus continue the further evolution of ATOD prevention frameworks.

Prevention research in the 1990s has helped educators understand that decisions about ATOD use are multifaceted and include many dimensions of a young person's skills, capacities, and beliefs. In the past, researchers and practitioners categorized ATOD prevention in relatively narrow terms: Simply inform young people about ATOD use, properties, and consequences, and expect young people to abstain from use. As research and evaluation studies provided greater insight into what worked and why, prevention models based on psychosocial domains predominated. From these evolved models focusing on risk factors and protective factors. Most recently, research on the topic of resiliency has shifted prevention's focus from children's perceived social and individual deficits (e.g., friends who use drugs or lack of self-esteem) to their strengths, leading to a more holistic concept of youth development.

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