SMART Leaders (OJJDP Model Program Guide)

Office of Justice Programs, Innovation - Partnerships – Safer Neighborhoods

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) Serving Children, Families and Communities

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SMART Leaders

Intervention:

SMART Leaders is a 2-year booster program that follows from Stay SMART (for Skills, Mastery, And Resistance Training). Stay SMART is a curriculum-based program for 13- to 15-year-olds that teaches a broad spectrum of social and personal competence skills to help youths identify and resist peer and other social pressures to smoke, drink, and engage in sexual activity. Both are components of SMART Moves, a comprehensive drug and sexual activity prevention program offered through the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA).

The SMART Leaders program reinforces the skills and knowledge learned in Stay SMART’s 12 sessions: 1) gateway drugs, 2) decision-making, 3) advertising, 4) self-image and self-improvement, 5) coping with change, 6) coping with stress, 7) communication skills, 8) social skills: meeting and greeting people, 9) social skills: boy meets girl, 10) assertiveness, 11) relationships, and 12) life planning skills. SMART Leaders encourages participants to stay involved in prevention activities and to be positive, drug-free role models for their peers.

SMART Leaders I involves five small group sessions consisting of role-playing and videotapes about identifying different peer pressures to use drugs and engage in sexual activity and learning to resist those pressures. SMART Leaders II is taught in three 1½-hour sessions using a video format, with one session dedicated to resisting alcohol, one session to resisting drugs, and one to resisting early sexual activity. Participants are encouraged to become involved in other programs and activities at the BGCA and to encourage their peers to be drug free.

Evaluation Methodology:

Study 1
St. Pierre and colleagues (1992) used a pretest–posttest nonequivalent group design to evaluate the SMART Leaders and Stay SMART programs. Fourteen Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) clubs were chosen on the basis of their performance in the pilot study on the effectiveness of SMART Moves. Five clubs offered Stay SMART, five offered Stay SMART plus the 2-year booster, and four served as the control group (offering no prevention program). The 14 clubs were located in cities with populations of 17,000 to 630,000 in every region of the country—many in urban areas, and all in economically disadvantaged areas. For treatment sites, all 13-year-old club members were invited to participate in the program, until 24 youths had enrolled. For control sites, all 13-year-old club members were invited to participate in testing, until 30 youths had signed up. At baseline the average age was 13.6. Forty-five percent of participants were white, 42 percent African American, and 14 percent Hispanic. Seventy-five percent were male.

Three hundred seventy-seven youths were recruited for the study (129 in Stay SMART Only, 121 in Stay SMART + Boosters, and 127 control). Over the 27-month testing period, 161 youths completed all treatment sessions and testing that was required to be included in the study (52 in Stay SMART Only, 54 in Stay SMART + Boosters, and 55 control; a retention rate of 42.7 percent). Using an analysis of variance (or ANOVA), the researchers found that those who dropped out of the study had at baseline perceived more social benefits from using alcohol and marijuana and had more marijuana-related behavior. Researchers also found that those in the Stay SMART + Boosters and the control groups who stayed through the end of the project were predominantly white, while those who stayed in the Stay SMART Only group were predominantly African American.

Outcomes were assessed using a confidential self-report questionnaire administered by program staff for the two program groups and BGCA staff for the control group. Questions addressed attitudes, behaviors, and knowledge of alcohol, marijuana, other drugs, and cigarettes. The pretest was conducted before the Stay SMART program began. Three posttests were conducted: 1) after the completion of Stay SMART (3 months), 2) after the first booster (1 year), and 3) after the second booster (2 years). Follow-up tests were given to participants in the Stay SMART Only condition if they had attended 9 of the 12 sessions. Stay SMART + booster group participants were required to attend 9 of the 12 original sessions, 4 of the 5 SMART Leaders I sessions, and all 3 SMART Leaders II sessions to be posttested.

Evaluation Outcome:

Study 1
Alcohol Behavior and Attitudes
St. Pierre and colleagues (1992) found that there were no differences in alcohol-related behavior between the control group and the Stay SMART group. However, there were marginally significant reductions in alcohol behavior reported by the Stay SMART + Boosters group (p < .06).

Over the course of the evaluation, the Stay SMART + Boosters group came to perceive fewer social benefits from drinking alcohol, while the Stay SMART Only and control groups came to perceive more social benefits from drinking.

Marijuana Behavior and Attitudes
Control group participants reported the most marijuana-related behavior. A moderate effect was found for both the Stay SMART (p < .06) and the Stay SMART + Boosters (p < .05) groups.

The youths in the Boosters group also perceived significantly fewer social benefits from smoking marijuana than those in the other two groups.

Cigarette Behavior
Compared with control group participants, participants in both the Stay SMART and the Stay SMART + Boosters group reported reduced cigarette-related behavior (p < .05).

Chewing Tobacco/Snuff Behavior
There were no differences for either the Stay SMART or the Stay SMART + Boosters group, compared with the control group.

Overall Drug Use
Compared with participants in the control group, participants in both the Stay SMART and the Stay SMART + Boosters group reported statistically significant lower drug use (p < .05).

Drug Knowledge
Both program groups showed significantly more knowledge concerning drug use than the control group (p < .05).

Other Information:

References:

Kaltreider, D. Lynne, and Tena L. St. Pierre. 1995. “Beyond the Schools: Strategies for Implementing Successful Drug Prevention Programs in Community Youth-Serving Organizations.” Journal of Drug Education 25(3):223–37.

St. Pierre, Tena L., D. Lynne Kaltreider, Melvin M. Mark, and Kathryn J. Aikin. 1992. “Drug Prevention in a Community Setting: A Longitudinal Study of the Relative Effectiveness of a 3-Year Primary Prevention Program in Boys and Girls Clubs Across the Nation.” American Journal of Community Psychology 20(6):673–706.

St. Pierre, Tena L., D. Lynne Kaltreider, Melvin M. Mark, and Kathryn J. Aikin. 1992. “Drug Prevention in a Community Setting: A Longitudinal Study of the Relative Effectiveness of a 3-Year Primary Prevention Program in Boys & Girls Clubs Across the Nation.” American Journal of Community Psychology 20(6):673–706.

St. Pierre, Tena L., Melvin M. Mark, D. Lynne Kaltreider, and Kathryn J. Aikin. 1995. "A 27-Month Evaluation of a Sexual Activity Prevention Program in Boys & Girls Clubs across the Nation.” Family Relations 44(1):69–77. (This study was reviewed but did not meet Model Programs Guide criteria for inclusion in the overall program rating).

Program Specification:

New Rating:

Promising

Re-reviewed Date:

March 2013

Program Type:

Afterschool/Recreation

Alcohol and Drug Therapy / Education

Conflict Resolution / Interpersonal Skills

Leadership and Youth Development

Ethnicity:

African American

Hispanic or Latino (of any race)

White

Gender:

Both

Age:

13 - 15

Target Settings:

Urban

Problem Behaviors:

Alcohol,Tobacco and Other Drug Use

Sexual Activity/Exploitation

Risk & Protective Factors:

Risk

Individual

Antisocial behavior and alienation / Delinquent beliefs / General delinquency involvement / Drug dealing

Early sexual involvement

Favorable attitudes toward drug use/Early onset of AOD use/Alcohol and/or drug use

Peer

Association with delinquent and/or aggressive peers

Protective

Individual

Healthy / Conventional beliefs and clear standards

Perception of social support from adults and peers

Social competencies and problem solving skills

Peer

Involvement with positive peer group activities

Additional Information:

SAMHSA: NREPP

Status:

Program is in operation at this time.

Performance Measures:

Suggested OJJDP Performance Measures for the Program Types(s):

Delinquency Prevention
Afterschool/Recreation
Logic Model: PDF
Performance Matrix:PDF
Delinquency Prevention
Leadership and Youth Development
Logic Model: PDF
Performance Matrix:PDF

Contact Information:

Program Developer:
Boys and Girls Club of America
1230 West Peachtree Street NW
Atlanta, GA 30309
Phone: 404.487.5766
Fax: 404.487.5789
Email: Click Here
Website: Click Here