All families took part in a pretest assessment, a posttest assessment that took place 5 months after the pretest, and a long-term follow-up assessment that took place 22 months after the pretest. The adolescents’ mean ages were 16 years at pretest, 16 years 5 months at posttest, and 17 years 10 months at long-term follow-up. The five-session prevention programs began 1 month after pretest. African American university students and community members served as field researchers to collect data at each assessment. At each data collection point, the field researchers, who were blind to the families’ group assignments, made a visit to each family’s home. Interviews were administered via a self-paced computer program that the authors have used successfully with youths in epidemiological and prevention research.
