Program Profile: SMART Leaders

This is a curriculum-based program for adolescents that aims to change attitudes toward and reduce substance use. The program is rated Promising. Participants demonstrated a statistically significant reduction in alcohol, marijuana, cigarette, and overall drug use; an increase in negative attitudes toward alcohol and marijuana; and an increase in knowledge of drug use and health consequences. However, there was no statistically significant effect on chewing tobacco behaviors.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

This program's rating is based on evidence that includes either 1) one study conducted in multiple sites; or 2) two or three studies, each conducted at a different site. Learn about how we make the multisite determination.

Program Goal/Target Population

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

Program Components

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 is made up of two booster programs. 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.

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. The CrimeSolution.gov review compared the control group with the Stay SMART plus the booster SMART Leaders group. The study authors did not conduct subgroup analyses.

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

These sources were used in the development of the program profile: