PreVenture is recognized by public and private-sector organizations worldwide. It has been identified as an evidence-based program by organizations like the US Surgeon General, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations.
To date, there are multiple completed and in-progress trials evaluating PreVenture in diverse contexts of which 8 used a randomized controlled design. The section below summarizes the evidence from these trials, supporting PreVenture’s efficacy and effectiveness.
STUDIES TESTING SCHOOL-BASED PREVENTURE® PROGRAM WITH MIDDLE/HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS
STUDY OVERVIEW
Design: Randomized controlled trial, students randomized within each school
Population: Canadian high school students reporting onset of drinking and elevated personality scores.
Outcomes:
Primary:
- past 4-months alcohol use and binge drinking
- Conrod, P.J
.,
- Stewart, S.H., Comeau, N., & Maclean, A.M. (2006) Preventative Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Strategies Matched to the Motivational Bases of Alcohol Misuse in At-Risk Youth.
Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 35(4), 550-563.
2006 – Conrod – Efficacy of Cognitive–Behavioral Interventions Targeting Personality Risk Factors
STUDY OVERVIEW
Design: Randomized controlled trial: students are randomized within each school.
Population: Adolescents attending high school in London, UK and who score one standard deviation above their school mean on one of four SURPS personality dimensions: AS, IMP, H, SS
Outcomes:
Primary: Alcohol use, binge drinking, problem drinking symptoms and illicit drug use (number of drugs used). Primary alcohol outcomes were tested on half the sample, replicated in the second half. Then both samples were combined to test the effects of program on illicit drug use outcomes
Publications:
Conrod PJ, Castellanos N, Mackie C. Personality‐targeted interventions delay the growth of adolescent drinking and binge drinking. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 2008;49:181-90.
Conrod PJ, Castellanos-Ryan N, Strang J. Brief, personality-targeted coping skills interventions and survival as a non–drug user over a 2-year period during adolescence. Archives of General Psychiatry. 2010;67:85-93
Conrod PJ, Castellanos-Ryan N, Mackie C. Long-term effects of a personality-targeted intervention to reduce alcohol use in adolescents. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2011 Jun;79(3):296-306. doi: 10.1037/a0022997. PubMed PMID: 21500886.
Secondary: Mental health symptoms and drinking motives
Publications:
Castellanos C, Conrod P. Efficacy of brief personality-targeted cognitive behavioural interventions in reducing and preventing adolescent emotional and behavioural problems. Journal of Mental Health. 2008.
Moderator Analysis: Personality-specific effects on binge drinking outcomes and drinking motives
Publications:
Conrod PJ, Castellanos-Ryan N, Mackie C. Long-term effects of a personality-targeted intervention to reduce alcohol use in adolescents. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2011 Jun;79(3):296-306. doi: 10.1037/a0022997. PubMed PMID: 21500886.
STUDY OVERVIEW
Testing a training protocol for disseminating the program to be delivered by school personnel.
Design: Cluster-randomised controlled trial
Population: Year 9 students attending high schools in London, UK who scored one standard deviation above the school mean on one of four SURPs dimensions
Outcomes:
Primary: Alcohol use onset, binge drinking onset, problem drinking symptom onset, cannabis use onset
Publications:
O’Leary-Barrett M, Mackie CJ, Castellanos-Ryan N, Al-Khudhairy N, Conrod PJ. Personality-targeted interventions delay uptake of drinking and decrease risk of alcohol-related problems when delivered by teachers. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 2010;49:954-63.
Conrod PJ, O’Leary-Barrett M, Newton N, Topper L, Castellanos-Ryan N, Mackie C, Girard A. Effectiveness of a selective, personality-targeted prevention program for adolescent alcohol use and misuse: a cluster randomized controlled trial. JAMA psychiatry. 2013;70:334-42.
Mahu IT, Doucet C, O’Leary-Barrett M, Conrod PJ. Can cannabis use be prevented by targeting personality risk in schools? Twenty-four-month outcome of the adventure trial on cannabis use: a cluster-randomized controlled trial. Addiction. 2015 Oct;110(10):1625-33. doi: 10.1111/add.12991. Epub 2015 Jul 14. PubMed PMID: 26011508.
Secondary: Frequency of alcohol consumption, frequency of binge drinking and severity of problem drinking, frequency of cannabis use, anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms and externalizing symptoms, whole-grade (herd) effects
O’Leary-Barrett M, Topper L, Al-Khudhairy N, Pihl RO, Castellanos-Ryan N, Mackie CJ, Conrod PJ. Two-year impact of personality-targeted, teacher-delivered interventions on youth internalizing and externalizing problems: a cluster-randomized trial. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. 2013;52:911-20.
Moderator Analysis: Time-dependent effects (reported above) and baseline emotional and behavioural problems
Publications:
Perrier-Menard, E, Castellanos Ryan, N, O’Leary-Barrett, M, Girard, M, *Conrod, PJ. The impact of youth internalising and externalising symptom severity on the effectiveness of brief personality-targeted interventions for substance misuse: A cluster randomised trial. Addict Behav, 2017, Dec: 75:138-144.
Mediation/Process Evaluation:
Publications:
O’Leary-Barrett M, Castellanos-Ryan N, Pihl RO, *Conrod PJ. Mechanisms of personality-targeted intervention effects on adolescent alcohol misuse, internalizing and externalizing symptoms. J Consult Clin Psychol. 2016 May;84(5):438-52. PubMed PMID: 26881449
STUDY OVERVIEW
Design: Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial
Population: Grade 7 high school students with high elevated personality scores on one of the four SURPS subscales
Protocol:
Publication:
O’Leary-Barrett M, Masse B, Pihl RO, Stewart SH, Seguin JR, Conrod PJ. A cluster-randomized controlled trial evaluating the effects of delaying onset of adolescent substance abuse on cognitive development and addiction following a selective, personality-targeted intervention programme: the Co-Venture trial. 2017 Oct;112(10):1871-1881. doi: 10.1111/add.13876. Epub 2017 Jul 17. PubMed PMID: 28544009.
Outcomes:
Primary:
Publications:
Conrod P, Stewart SH, Seguin J, et al: Five-year outcomes of a school-based, personality-focused prevention program on adolescent substance use disorder: a cluster randomized trial. Am J Psychiatry 2025 May 1;182(5):473-482.doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.20240042. Epub 2025 Jan 15.
Secondary:
Anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, externalizing symptoms (see reference above Conrod, et al., 2025), cognitive performance in 4 domains (working memory, episodic memory, response inhibition and perceptual reasoning)
Publications:
Lynch, SJ, Stewart, SH, Conrod, PJ Selective Personality-Targeted Intervention and the Escalation of Substance Use During AdolescenceA Secondary Analysis of A Cluster-Randomized Clinical Trial JamaOpenNetwork. 2025;8;(12):e2550176.
Process Analysis: student subjective responses to interventions
Publication:
O’Leary-Barrett, M, Pihl, RO, Conrod, PJ. Process variables predicting changes in adolescent alcohol consumption and mental health symptoms following personality-targeted interventions. Addict Behav. Dec;75:47-58.
STUDY OVERVIEW
Design: Cluster randomized controlled trial with universal prevention program as comparison
Population: Year 8 students attending high school (middle schools) in Sydney Australia who score one standard deviation above the school mean on one of the four SURPS dimensions
Outcomes:
Primary: Alcohol use onset, binge drinking onset, onset of alcohol problems
Publications:
Newton NC, Conrod PJ, Slade T, Carragher N, Champion KE, Barrett EL, Kelly EV, Nair NK, Stapinski L, Teesson M. The long-term effectiveness of a selective, personality-targeted prevention program in reducing alcohol use and related harms: a cluster randomized controlled trial. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2016, Apr 19.
Teesson M, Newton NC, Slade T, Carragher N, Barrett EL, Champion KE, Kelly EV, Nair NK, Stapinski LA, Conrod PJ. Combined universal and selective prevention for adolescent alcohol use: a cluster randomized controlled trial. Psychol Med. 2017 Jul;47(10):1761-1770. doi: 10.1017/S0033291717000198. Epub 2017 Feb 22. PubMed PMID: 28222825.
Primary: Alcohol related harms, hazardous alcohol use, weekly alcohol use, binge drinking
Publications:
Newton NC, Stapinki LA, Slade T, Sunderland M, Barrett EL, Champion KE, Chapman C, Smout A, Lawler SM, Mather M, Debenham J, Castellanos-Ryan N, Conrod PJ, Teesson M. The 7-Year Effectiveness of School-Based Alcohol Use Prevention from Adolescence to Early Adulthood: A Randomized Controlled Trial of Universal, Selective, and Combined Interventions Randomized Controlled Trial. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2022, Apr.
Primary: Tobacco use, likeliness to use tobacco
Publications:
Debenham J, Grummitt L, Newton NC, Teesson M, Slade T, Conrod PJ, Kelly EV. Personality-targeted Prevention for Adolesent Tobacco Use: Three-year Outcomes for a Randomised Trial in Australia. Preventative Medicine. 2021
Primary: Reactive and proactive aggression
Publications:
Lawler S, Barrett E, Teesson M, Kelly EV, Champion KE, Debenham J, Smout A, Chapman C, Slade T, Conrod PJ, Newton NC, Stapinski L. The Long-term effectiveness of a personality-targeted substance use prevention program on aggression from adolescence to early adulthood. Psychological Medicine 2024.
Secondary: Suicidal ideation
Publications:
Grummitt LR, Debenham J, Kelly EV, Barrett EL, Champion K, Conrod PJ, Teesson M, Newton NC. Selective personality-targeted prevention of suicidal ideation in young adolescents: post hoc analysis of data collected in a cluster randomised controlled trial. Med J Aust. 2022 Jun 6.
Secondary: Bullying and harm among victims
Publications:
Kelly EV, Newton NC, Stapinki LA, Conrod PJ, Barrett EL, Champion KE, Teesson M. A Novel Approach to Tackling Bullying in Schools: Personality-Targeted Intervention for Adolescent Victims and Bullies in Australia J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2020 Apr;59(4):508-518.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2019.04.010. Epub 2019 Apr 30.
Secondary: Cannabis-related harms
Publications:
Champion KE, Debenham J, Teesson M, Stapinski LA, Devine E, Barrett EL, Slade T, Kelly EV, Chapman C, Smout A, Lawler S. Castellanos-Ryan N, Conrod PJ, Newton NC. Effect of a selective personality-targeted prevention program on 7-year illicit substance related outcomes: A secondary analysis of a cluster randomized controlled trial. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2024 May 1.