Universal School-Based Substance Use Prevention Using Technology-Supported Cooperative Learning.

Substance use in adolescence is a significant public health issue, particularly in early-to-mid adolescence, which represents a window of risk in the etiology of substance abuse and dependence. Substance use during this development period often results from affiliation with deviant peers, who model, facilitate, and reinforce use. Existing school-based substance use prevention programs have historically aimed to build adolescent knowledge regarding the dangers of substance use and/or enhance peer refusal skills. Research finds that these programs have had some success in reducing substance use, but meta-analyses report that average effect sizes are small. In a small one-year cluster randomized trial (12 middle and high schools; N = 813 students; ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04478240), cooperative learning (CL) was implemented with the support of specialized technology and evaluated for its ability to reduce deviant peer affiliation and, in turn, reduce substance use. CL is a structured approach to small-group learning that provides at-risk youth with the opportunity to build friendships with more prosocial youth, interrupting the process of deviant peer clustering. Multi-level modeling revealed intervention effects for deviant peer affiliation and alcohol use across the sample, while tobacco use was significantly reduced among non-White students; intervention effects for marijuana use were only marginally significant. Effects for dosage were found for all outcomes, suggesting that every lesson taught had a significant impact. We conclude that CL, delivered with the aid of specialized technology, represents a viable option for universal substance use prevention. Future research should attempt to combine this approach with evidence-based prevention curricula.

Technology-supported cooperative learning as a universal mental health intervention in middle and high school.

BACKGROUND: Adolescent mental health issues are a major public health concern, highlighted by the US Surgeon General as a crisis. Traditional school-based interventions show inconsistent success, creating a demand for effective solutions. AIMS: This study evaluates the impact of technology-supported cooperative learning (CL) on adolescent mental health, focusing on positive peer relations and peer victimization. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Participants included 813 adolescents (50.2% female; 70.7% White) from 12 middle and high schools in the Pacific Northwest. The study used hierarchical linear modelling (HLM) to assess the effectiveness of CL facilitated via PeerLearning.net. RESULTS: Implementing CL led to significant improvements in peer relations and reductions in victimization and mental health problems, with moderate-to-large effect sizes observed across different demographics. Positive peer relations significantly predicted lower victimization and improved mental health. DISCUSSION: The findings highlight the potential of technology-supported CL in addressing adolescent mental health by enhancing protective factors and reducing risks. Such interventions offer a scalable and sustainable approach for schools to address mental health challenges. CONCLUSION: Technology-supported cooperative learning offers a promising strategy for improving adolescent mental health, demonstrating significant benefits in peer relations and reducing victimization. This approach provides schools with an accessible and effective tool to tackle the mental health crisis among students.

Student-centered instruction can build social-emotional skills and peer relations: Findings from a cluster-randomized trial of technology-supported cooperative learning.

Given the uneven track record of adjunctive social-emotional learning (SEL) programs and waning effects by middle and high school, we propose a more integrative approach to SEL through cooperative learning (CL). CL has demonstrated the ability to improve social-emotional, behavioral, academic, and mental health benefits, but CL lessons are complex and thus can be difficult to design and consistently deliver with fidelity. The present study attempted to address this barrier by examining the effects of technology-assisted CL on five social-emotional competencies, as well as social and behavioral outcomes. Participants were 813 students (50.2% female, N = 408, and 70.7% White, N = 575) from 12 middle and high schools in the Pacific Northwest in a cluster-randomized design where six intervention schools implemented technology-assisted CL and six control schools conducted business as usual. Using multilevel modeling, intervention effects on all outcomes after 1 year were significant, with moderate to large effect sizes, inviting further evaluation of integrative approaches to SEL that are developmentally aligned with the needs of students in secondary education. Although there remains a dearth of universal school-based interventions with demonstrated impacts on social outcomes in middle and high school, the present study builds support for the use of integrative, relationship-based instructional approaches, supported by technology, to promote positive peer relations, and social competencies for this age group. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Socialization processes within adolescents' relationships with parents and peers predicting couples' intimate partner violence in adulthood: A social learning perspective.

Previous studies have established that individual characteristics such as violent behavior, substance use, and high-risk sexual behavior, as well as negative relationships with parents and friends, are all risk factors for intimate partner violence (IPV). In this longitudinal prospective study, we investigated whether violent behavior, substance use, and high-risk sexual behavior in early adulthood (ages 22-23 years) mediated the link between family conflict and coercive relationship talk with friends in adolescence (ages 16-17 years) and dyadic IPV in adulthood (ages 28-30 years). A total of 998 individuals participated in multimethod assessments, including observations of interactions with parents and friends. Data from multiple reporters were used for variables of interest including court records, parental and self-reports of violence, self-reports of high-sexual-risk behaviors and substance use, and self- and romantic partner-reports of IPV. Longitudinal mediation analyses showed that violent behavior during early adulthood mediated the link between coercive relationship talk with friends in adolescence and dyadic IPV in adulthood. No other mediation paths were found and there was no evidence of gender differences. Results are discussed with attention to the interpersonal socialization processes by which IPV emerges relative to individual risk factors.

Costs and benefits of cooperative learning as a universal school-based approach to adolescent substance use prevention.

Substance use during early adolescence implies a greater likelihood of abuse and dependence in later adolescence or adulthood. In turn, substance abuse and dependence are linked to a variety of maladaptive long-term health-related outcomes that imply significant individual and societal costs. In this paper, we evaluated an approach to substance use prevention that relies on the vital role of peers, who comprise a key risk factor for adolescent substance use. This approach (i.e., cooperative learning, CL) focuses on interrupting the process of deviant peer clustering and providing at-risk youth with the opportunity to build social skills and cultivate friendships with low-risk youth. In addition to testing the efficacy of CL in reducing the number of students who become regular substance users, we also conducted a cost-benefit analysis. Using four waves of data from a cluster-randomized trial (N = 15 middle schools, 1890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White, 13.9% of students were receiving special education services), we found that significantly lower percentages of students in the intervention (CL) schools became regular users of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana. We estimated that the reduction in substance use associated with the implementation of CL resulted in total lifetime benefits of between $1027 and $4621 per student (in 2019 dollars), or between $8.79 and $39.54 for each dollar invested in CL. Benefit/cost ratios would go up to $22.54-$101.39 per dollar invested with the continual implementation of CL, assuming retraining every 5 years. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Peer learning can modify the reciprocal relationship between peer support and victimization in middle school.

INTRODUCTION: This research investigated how peer victimization and support are reciprocally related and how Cooperative Learning (CL) can reverse the progressive cascade that, unchecked, can culminate in youth mental health problems. METHODS: The sample (N = 1890; 53% male) was derived from a randomized trial of CL in 15 middle schools in the United States. Students were recruited in the 7th grade. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to fit our cross-lag difference score model across four waves of data. RESULTS: The results indicated a reciprocal relationship between peer support and victimization across time, suggesting the potential for negative experiences with peers to become amplified over time in a "vicious cycle," negatively impacting mental health. Students in intervention schools reported significantly higher levels of peer support and lower levels of victimization, suggesting that CL can intervene in this cycle, with salutary effects on mental health; CL also demonstrated direct effects on mental health. CONCLUSIONS: The present study indicates that low peer support can be both a precursor to and an outcome of victimization, serving to maintain a vicious cycle that compounds negative effects on student mental health. Further, results demonstrate how CL can reverse this cycle. We conclude that CL can be of particular importance to the prevention field as a universal mental health program that does not require the associated stigma of identifying youth at elevated risk for referral to treatment programs.

A Longitudinal Process Model Evaluating the Effects of Cooperative Learning on Victimization, Stress, Mental Health, and Academic Engagement in Middle School.

Mental health is a significant concern among young people, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Notably, mental health problems can significantly reduce student performance in school, including both engagement and achievement. Both mental health problems and reduced student performance often arise due to peer victimization, which can include teasing, racial- or gender-based discrimination, and/or physical assault. Stress has been proposed as one mechanism through which victimization influences mental health, and stress can also interfere with academic performance at school, including engagement and achievement. To date, however, no research has evaluated longitudinal associations between victimization and stress, and how these longitudinal patterns may impact adolescent behavior and mental health. In this study, we used data from a 2-year cluster randomized trial of cooperative learning to evaluate an etiological process model that includes (1) longitudinal reciprocal effects between victimization and stress, and (2) the effects of both victimization and stress on student mental health and academic engagement. We hypothesized that victimization and stress would have significant reciprocal effects, and that both would predict greater mental health problems and lower academic engagement. We further hypothesized that cooperative learning would have significant effects on all constructs. We found partial support for this model, whereby stress predicted greater victimization, but victimization did not predict increased stress. While both factors were linked to student outcomes, stress was a more powerful predictor. We also found significant salutary effects of cooperative learning on all constructs. The implications of these results for student behavioral and mental health are discussed.

The Longitudinal Relationship Between Peer Relations and Empathy and their Joint Contribution to Reducing Bullying in Middle School: Findings from a Randomized Trial of Cooperative Learning.

The positive peer relations arising from cooperative learning can contribute to the development of affective empathy, which in turn can reduce bullying (Van Ryzin & Roseth, 2019). However, from a theoretical perspective, the direction of effects between peer relations and empathy could be in the opposite direction, or bi-directional. In the current paper, we employed a process-oriented approach (i.e., cross-lag difference score modeling; McArdle, 2009) to investigate the longitudinal relationship between positive peer relations and affective empathy, as well as their joint effect on bullying. Using four waves of data from a cluster randomized trial including 15 middle schools (7 intervention and 8 control schools; N=1,890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White), we found a bi-directional or reciprocal relationship between peer relations and affective empathy, and change in both constructs predicted lower levels of bullying. Cooperative learning predicted positive change in peer relations and affective empathy, as well as lower levels of bullying. These results suggest that the structured social interactions that occur during cooperative learning can enhance student interpersonal relations, and simultaneously the experiential skill building of cooperative learning can contribute to a more profound understanding of the emotional states of others. These effects amplify one another and, in turn, significantly reduce bullying in middle school. Given that cooperative learning has already been demonstrated to enhance academic motivation and achievement (Roseth et al., 2008), we argue that cooperative learning offers an effective, attractive alternative to traditional curriculum-based bullying prevention programs (National Library of Medicine [NLM], NCT03119415).

Reciprocated Friendship as a Mediator of the Effects of Cooperative Learning on Peer Victimization in Middle School.

Peer victimization represents a pervasive problem, particularly for students in middle school. Although curriculum-based prevention programs have generated small to moderate effects on victimization, these effects tend to weaken beginning with the transition to middle school. In this study, we evaluated cooperative learning (CL) as a mechanism to prevent victimization, and evaluated reciprocated friendships as a mediator of these effects. Using four waves of data from a cluster randomized trial of CL (7 intervention and 8 control middle schools; N=1,890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White), we found that CL significantly reduced victimization after two years, and these effects were mediated by growth in reciprocated friendship in the first year. We conclude that CL can reduce victimization by providing a means for students to engage in extended social interactions with a wider range of peers and thus creating opportunities for students to forge stronger (i.e., reciprocated) friendships.

Peer Relations and Delinquency Among Girls in Foster Care Following a Skill-Building Preventive Intervention.

There is evidence that risk for delinquency is elevated among girls with foster care histories, and one correlate of delinquency is affiliating with peers who engage in delinquent behavior. Although intervention studies have shown positive effects of interventions that target delinquent peer affiliation on reductions in delinquency among adolescents with juvenile justice histories, the success of such interventions for younger girls in foster care, without prior involvement with juvenile justice, is unknown. We analyzed data from a randomized clinical trial of the middle school version of the Keep Safe intervention in a sample of girls in foster care (n = 100). The intervention was delivered to girls and foster parents during the transition to middle school. Path analysis suggested a significant intervention effect on reduction in affiliation with delinquent peers at 12 months (B = -.21). No significant mediation effects were identified. The middle school Keep Safe intervention shows promise as a preventative intervention for reducing affiliation with delinquent peers, which importantly is associated with adolescent delinquent behavior. Implications for researchers and professionals who tailor and deliver evidence-based programs for girls in foster care are discussed.

The Cascading Effects of Reducing Student Stress: Cooperative Learning as a Means to Reduce Emotional Problems and Promote Academic Engagement.

Adolescents, particularly early adolescents, are vulnerable to stress created by negative peer interactions. Stress, in turn, can lead to increased mental health problems and reduced academic engagement, in addition to negative long-term consequences for cognitive development and physical health. Using four waves (2 years) of data from a cluster randomized trial (N = 15 middle schools, 1,890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White), we evaluated whether enhancements to peer relations, brought about through carefully structured small-group learning activities (i.e., cooperative learning), could reduce stress and emotional problems and promote academic engagement. We hypothesized that the increased social contact created by cooperative learning would promote greater peer relatedness, reducing student stress and, in turn, reducing emotional problems and promoting academic engagement. Our results confirmed these hypotheses. We conclude that cooperative learning can provide social, behavioral, academic, and mental health benefits for students.

Mediators of Effects of Cooperative Learning on Prosocial Behavior in Middle School.

In this study, we tested the effects of cooperative learning on students' prosocial behavior. Cooperative learning is a small-group instructional technique that establishes positive interdependence among students and, unlike most current school-based programs, does not mandate a formal curriculum. Given the emphasis in cooperative learning on peer reinforcement for positive and helpful behavior during learning activities, we hypothesized that cooperative learning would promote higher levels of prosocial behavior, and that these effects would be mediated by peer relatedness. Using a sample of 1,890 students (47.1% female, 75.2% White) from a cluster randomized trial of 15 middle schools, we found that cooperative learning significantly enhanced prosocial behavior across two years. Mediation was only partial, however, suggesting that additional mechanisms were at work, such as changes to social norms or teacher behavior. Given that cooperative learning has been shown to enhance student engagement and academic achievement in prior research, we argue that cooperative learning should be a central component of teacher training and professional development.

The Effects of Cooperative Learning on Peer Relations, Academic Support, and Engagement in Learning Among Students of Color.

Despite Brown vs. Board of Education, prejudice still exists in the American school system. These attitudes can give rise to negative social experiences for students of color (i.e., discrimination), negatively impacting their mental and physical health and creating disparities in educational outcomes. Rather than seeking to ameliorate these negative experiences, our approach attempts to address the underlying prejudices and, in so doing, reduce these disparities. Using 4 waves of data from a cluster randomized trial (N = 15 middle schools, 1,890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White), we hypothesized that cooperative learning, which has been shown to reduce prejudice in previous research, would create positive gains in peer relatedness, perceptions of academic support, and engagement in learning, and that gains would be larger for students of color; our results confirmed these hypotheses. Our findings highlight the potential role of cooperative learning in reducing disparities and creating greater equity in education.

The socialization of boys and men in the modern era: An evolutionary mismatch.

This paper examines the misalignment between modern human society and certain male phenotypes, a misalignment that has been highlighted and explored in great detail in the work of Tom Dishion. We begin by briefly enumerating the ongoing developmental difficulties of many boys and young men and how these difficulties affect them and those around them. We then suggest that the qualities that have been advantageous for men and their families in our earlier evolution but that are often no longer functional in modern society are a source of these problems. Finally, we provide a brief review of prevention programs that can contribute to preventing this type of problematic development and eliciting more prosocial behavior from at-risk boys and men. We conclude with an overview of research and policy priorities that could contribute to reducing the proportion of boys and young men who experience developmental difficulties in making their way in the world.

An Experimental Test of Reward & Reminder as a Stand-Alone Program to Prevent Alcohol Sales to Underage Youths.

Reward & Reminder has been a component of community-based preventive efforts against sales of substances (e.g., tobacco) to youth. To date, there has not been a randomized trial of Reward & Reminder as a stand-alone prevention program targeting youth access to alcohol. In this study, we addressed that gap. Data were collected as part of a randomized trial of a school- and community-based prevention program. Our analysis included 23 vendors in control communities and 33 vendors in intervention communities. We visited each vendor at least two times, and vendors in intervention communities received the Reward & Reminder protocol. Using McNemar's Test, which evaluates the degree to which the outlets in each condition moved to a different cell in the contingency table from the first visit to the second (i.e., from yes to no or vice versa), we found that the control outlets did not change (all p values were non-significant). In contrast, the test results for the intervention outlets were significantly more likely to ask for ID (p < .05) and significantly less willing to sell alcohol to young-looking project confederates (p < .05); Asked for Age did not change. We conclude that Reward & Reminder could assist in preventing underage access to alcohol.

Effects of cooperative learning on peer relations, empathy, and bullying in middle school.

Although researchers have developed prevention programs to reduce bullying, the results are mixed, and this may be due to a degree of uncertainty in their theoretical foundation. In particular, these programs share an emphasis on empathy as a personal attribute that can be enhanced among students through the application of specific curricula that will, in turn, contribute to a reduction in bullying behavior. However, the link between empathy and bullying is unclear, as is the ability of bullying prevention programs to actually impact student empathy. In this study, we used a cluster randomized trial (N = 15 middle schools, 1,890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White) to evaluate the impact of cooperative learning on bullying, and we evaluated whether these effects were mediated by empathy and peer relatedness. Our results indicated that cooperative learning can significantly reduce bullying, and that some of this effect is transmitted via enhancements to affective empathy. Cooperative learning also demonstrated significant positive effects on cognitive empathy, but this did not have an effect on bullying. We also found that the effects of cooperative learning on cognitive and affective empathy were mediated by improvements in peer relatedness. These findings add a degree of clarity to the literature, and also represent the first time, as far as we are aware, that an antibullying program has been found to have significant effects on both cognitive and affective empathy.

Behavioral Science and the Prevention of Adolescent Substance Abuse.

This article reviews the evidence regarding behavioral science approaches to the prevention of substance use disorders. Prevention science grew out of research on family and school-based interventions that were designed to treat common behavioral problems of children and adolescents. That research showed that the amelioration of problems such as aggressive behavior could prevent the development of later problems including substance use, depression, and academic failure. We begin by reviewing evidence regarding the risk factors that contribute to the development of substance use disorders, as well as the protective factors that can reduce their likelihood. We then describe a variety of family, school, and community prevention programs that have been shown to prevent youthful use and abuse of substances. We conclude by describing the progress that has been made in getting these programs widely and effectively implemented, and the challenges we face in getting to the point where most communities are achieving considerable success in prevent substance use and the other common and costly behavioral and psychological problems of children and adolescents.

Cooperative Learning Effects on Peer Relations and Alcohol Use in Middle School.

We tested a prevention approach aimed at reducing growth in alcohol use in middle school using four waves (2 years) of data from a cluster randomized trial (N = 15 middle schools, 1,890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White). Our approach exposed students to a broad cross-section of peers through collaborative, group-based learning activities in school (i.e., cooperative learning). We hypothesized that the increased social contact created by cooperative learning would promote greater peer relatedness, interrupting the process of deviant peer clustering and, in turn, reduce escalations in alcohol use. Our results supported these hypotheses, suggesting that the social nature of cooperative learning, and the emphasis on group work and collaboration, can provide social and behavioral as well as academic benefits for students.

A prospective test of the temporal sequencing of risk factor emergence in the dual pathway model of eating disorders.

Prospective studies have identified risk factors that predict future onset of eating disorders, but none has provided a test of the temporal sequencing of the emergence of risk factors hypothesized in a multivariate etiologic model of eating disorder development. Using data from an 8-year prospective study of 496 adolescent girls, we first conducted receiver operator characteristic plots to identify cut-points for each risk factor that optimally predicted future onset of threshold or subthreshold bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, and purging disorder. We then used growth curve models to estimate the age at which each participant crossed the disorder-predictive cutpoint for each risk factor, or if they did not, during follow-up, permitting a test of whether the risk factors emerged in the sequence hypothesized in the Dual Pathway etiologic model. Overall, 47% of the 51 youth who showed onset of one of these eating disorders first showed emergence of disorder-predictive levels of perceived pressure to be thin and/or thin-ideal internalization, before showing onset of disorder-predictive levels of body dissatisfaction, before showing onset of disorder-predictive levels of dieting and/or negative affect, before showing onset of the eating disorder; another 29% had one of these steps out of order or did not cross one step in this model. Youth who did not show onset of an eating disorder were significantly less likely to cross the disorder-predictive cut-points for each risk factor or to conform to the sequence of risk factor emergence hypothesized in this model. Results provide novel support for the temporal sequencing of risk factor emergence hypothesized in this multivariate etiologic model and suggest that prevention programs that reduce perceived pressure to be thin and thin-ideal internalization among early adolescent girls with these factors should reduce eating disorder onset, as well as downstream risk factors that are also aversive (e.g., body dissatisfaction and negative affect). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Peer influence processes as mediators of effects of a middle school substance use prevention program.

BACKGROUND: Peer influence processes have been linked to escalation in substance use during the middle school years, particularly among at-risk youth. In this study, we report on an approach to prevention that attempts to counteract peer influence by interrupting the process of deviant peer clustering, in which socially marginalized youth self-aggregate and reinforce delinquent behavior, including substance use. We aimed to interrupt this process by implementing collaborative, group-based learning activities in school (i.e., cooperative learning). METHODS: In a cluster randomized trial in the Pacific Northwest (N = 1460 7th-grade students in 15 schools), we tested whether cooperative learning can reduce alcohol and tobacco use, and whether these effects are mediated by reductions in the amount of alcohol and tobacco use among one's friends. Intervention schools were provided with training in cooperative learning, and data were collected in September/October 2016 (baseline) and March 2017 (follow-up). RESULTS: Results indicated that cooperative learning significantly lowered rates of growth in alcohol (ß = -0.60 [-0.36|-0.84]; p < .001) and tobacco use (ß = -0.58 [-0.21|-0.94]; p = .01) between baseline and follow-up in intervention schools as compared to control schools. These effects were mediated by reductions in the prevalence of alcohol and tobacco use, respectively, among self-selected friends. CONCLUSIONS: Cooperative learning was able to significantly reduce the prevalence of both alcohol and tobacco use in friendship networks during the school year. The lower prevalence of alcohol and tobacco use among friends, in turn, reduced individual use at follow-up. This study was registered as trial NCT03119415 in ClinicalTrials.gov.