Dr Catherine Quinn and Professor Leanne Hides have been undertaking a pilot study to evaluate the effectiveness of the Red Frogs school psychoeducation seminar. The seminar is being compared to a control condition, and an enhanced version of the seminar incorporating the critical reasoning components of social cognitive theory and the evidence-based “Ray’s Night Out” alcohol harm reduction app. Five schools and over 450 young people were recruited into the study and completed baseline assessment prior to Schoolies. Follow-up, immediately post-Schoolies and three months later immediately following O-week, has been completed with over 70% of students completing at least one follow-up assessment. The efficacy of the original and enhanced version of the seminar will be assessed relative to a no seminar control condition in terms of: 1) The primary outcomes of alcohol knowledge, use and related harms and harm minimization techniques; and 2) The secondary outcomes of psychological distress, illicit drug use and wellbeing.
