A new study finds that teaching teens 'competence skills' -- such as good self-management and positive psychological characteristics -- can effectively reduce adolescent alcohol and other drug use.

Health News Digest reported April 4 that the study from Weill Cornell Medical College researchers found competence skills can protect teens from social risk factors for substance abuse, including having friends who use alcohol, tobacco, or illicit drugs.

Researchers who studied a group of 1,500 (mostly Hispanic) adolescents from New York City over a period of three years found that those with high refusal-assertiveness marks and sound decision-making skills were less likely to smoke or use multiple substances, even when they had friends or siblings who did.

"The take-home message from these findings is that competence skills matter in our understanding of substance use," says study author Jennifer A. Epstein of the Division of Prevention and Health Behavior at Weill Cornell. "They can combat powerful social influences from friends and siblings to use multiple substances, including cigarettes. Moreover, this research provides important support for drug-abuse prevention programs that include the teaching of competence skills, including refusal skills and decision-making skills."

"Students need to be encouraged to develop competence skills to resist drugs, since social and other risk factors can never be entirely eliminated," added Gilbert Botvin, senior author of the report and developer of the Life Skills Training prevention program.

The study was published in the April 2007 issue of the journal Addictive Behaviors.