Ages: 12-14
Contact: Karl E. Bauman, Ph.D.
Department of Health Behavior and Health Education
School of Public Health
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Rosenau Hall, CB#7440
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
Phone: 919/929-6572, Fax: 919/960-5054
Family Matters is a family-directed program that reduces adolescents' alcohol and tobacco use. It involves
successive mailings of four booklets to families and followup telephone discussions with health educators
after each mailing. The four booklets contain reading materials and activities intended to influence 1) Family
participation in the program. 2) Family characteristics not specific to alcohol and tobacco use, such as parent
supervision, communicaiton skills, and attachment 3) Alcohol- and tobacco-specific factors, such as family encouragement
and discouragement of substance use; family rules concerning use; and ways to monitor use 4) Variables that originate
outside the family that can influence adolescent sustanc use, such as peers and mass media.
Family Matters is designed for general populations, optimizes family participation, and can be broadly
disseminated.
Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, Model Program, (PDF), 2002