Family Matters is a program that was designed to prevent adolescent tobacco and alcohol use by intervening with their families.  The program consisted of mailing four booklets to the parent with subsequent telephone contacts by a health educator.  Adolescent-parent pairs throughout the United States, identified by random digit dialing, were involved in the evaluation of Family Matters.  Baseline data were collected from June 6, 1996 to February 24, 1997.  As baseline data were collected, adolescent-parent pairs were randomly allocated to either receive the program or to serve as control.  Follow-up interviews were conducted by telephone with parents and adolescents three months (January 24, 1997 to April 5, 1998) and one year after the program (August 19, 1997 to January 24, 1999).

Findings from the evaluation suggest that Family Matters reduced the prevalence of adolescent cigarette smoking and alcohol use at three months and one year after the program ¹.  Evidence also suggests the reductions were due to preventing onset ² rather than to decreasing use by users ³.  The program effects could not be explained by the hypothesized mediating variables that were measured ⁴.  Additional reports from the study describe the program in detail ⁵, examine parent-adolescent communication about adolescent tobacco and alcohol use ⁶, identify the predictors of program participation ⁷, and assess neighborhood influences on adolescent cigarette and alcohol use ⁸.

Included in this website are copies of 1) the program booklets, 2) the Health Educator Guidebook (including protocols), 3) the interview schedule to identify eligible families, 4) the baseline interview schedule, 5) the first follow-up interview schedule, 6) the second follow-up interview schedule, and 7) publications.