Botvin, G. J., Griffin, K. W., Diaz, T., & Ifill-Williams, M. ( 2001). Preventing binge drinking during early adolescence: One- and two-year follow-up of a school-based preventive intervention.. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 15, 360-365.

The present study examined the effectiveness of a school-based prevention program on reducing binge drinking in a sample of minority, inner-city, middle school students. Rates of binge drinking were compared among youth who received the program beginning in the 7th grade (n = 1,713) and a control group (n = 1,328) that did not. The prevention program had protective effects in terms of binge drinking at the one-year (8th grade) and two-year (9th grade) follow-up assessments. The proportion of binge drinkers was over 50% lower in the intervention group relative to the control group at the follow-up assessments. There were also several significant program effects on proximal drinking variables including drinking knowledge, pro-drinking attitudes, and peer drinking norms. These findings indicate that a school-based drug abuse prevention approach previously found to be effective among white youth significantly reduced binge drinking among urban minority youth.