Our Research

The development and evaluation of the Climate Schools programs was made possible through a number of grants awarded to Professor Teesson, A/Prof Newton, Dr Vogl, Dr Champion and Professor Andrews from the University of New South Wales and the University of Sydney.

University of Sydney. University of NSW.

At Climate Schools we believe that researching the effectiveness of our programs is very important. Results from our trials of the Climate Schools programs have been published in Australian and International journals.

Our research shows that the Climate Schools courses improve student outcomes by:

  • Reducing alcohol consumption
  • Reducing binge drinking
  • Reducing cannabis use
  • Reducing ecstasy use
  • Slowing the progression of anxiety symptoms
  • Reducing psychological distress
  • Reducing harms related to the use of alcohol and ecstasy
  • Reducing intentions to use ecstasy and psychostimulants, new psychoactive substances (emerging drugs), and synthetic cannabis
  • Increasing knowledge about alcohol and cannabis, ecstasy and new psychoactive substances (emerging drugs)
  • Improving attitudes towards alcohol

Students and teachers have also rated the programs positively. Feedback has shown:

  • 93% of students found the cartoon stories an enjoyable and interesting way to learn
  • 93% of students thought the information in the program was easy to understand, to learn and to remember
  • 95% of teachers rated the educational quality of the program highly
  • 88% of teachers rated the program as better than other drug and alcohol education programs

More information about our research trials and results can be found in the articles detailed below.

Findings from trials on the Climate Schools: Alcohol module

  • Vogl, L. E., & Teesson, M. (2006). The efficacy of a computerised school based prevention program for problems with alcohol use: Climate Schools. Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 30, 198A.
  • Vogl, L., Teesson, M., Andrews, G., Bird, K., Steadman, M., & Dillon, P. (2009). A computerised harm minimisation prevention program for alcohol misuse and related harms: randomised controlled trial. Addiction. 104, 564-575.
  • Newton, N. C., Vogl, L. E., Teesson, M., Andrews, G. (2009). Climate Schools: Alcohol module: Cross-validation of a school based prevention program for alcohol misuse. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 43, 201-207.
  • Vogl, L.E., M. Teesson., Newton, N. C., & G. Andrews. (2012). Developing a school-based drug prevention program to overcome barriers to effective program implementation: The CLIMATE schools: Alcohol module. Open Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2, 410-422.

Findings from trials on the Climate Schools: Alcohol and Cannabis module

  • Newton, N.C., Andrews, G., Teesson, M., & Vogl, L.E. (2009). Delivering prevention for alcohol and cannabis using the internet: A cluster randomised controlled trial. Preventive Medicine, 48, 579-584.
  • Newton, N. C., Teesson, M., Vogl, L. E., Andrews, G. (2010). Internet-based prevention for alcohol and cannabis use: Final results of the Climate Schools course. Addiction, 105, 749-759.
  • Newton, N. C., Vogl, L. E., Teesson, M., & Andrews, G. (2011). Developing the Climate Schools: Alcohol and cannabis module: A harm minimisation, universal drug prevention program facilitated by the internet. Substance Use and Misuse, 46, 1651-1663.
  • Newton, N., Andrews, G., Champion, K., & Teesson, M. (2014). Universal Internet-based prevention for alcohol and cannabis use reduces truancy, psychological distress and moral disengagement: a cluster randomised controlled trial. Preventive Medicine, 65, 109.115.
  • Newton, N. C., Conrod, P., Rodriguez, D., & Teesson, M. (2014). A pilot study of an online universal school-based intervention to prevent alcohol and cannabis use in the UK. BMJ Open, 4 (5).
  • Champion, K.E., Newton, N.C., Stapinski, L., Slade, T., Barrett, E.L & Teesson, M. (2016). A cross-validation trial of an Internet-based prevention program for alcohol and cannabis: Preliminary results from a cluster randomised controlled trial. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 50(1): 64-73.

Findings from trials on the Climate Schools: Cannabis and Psychostimulants module

  • Vogl, L., Newton, N., Champion, K., & Teesson, M. (2014). A universal harm-minimisation approach to preventing Psychostimulant and cannabis use in adolescents: a cluster randomised controlled trial. Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, 9(1), 24.

Findings from trials on the Climate Schools: Ecstasy and Emerging Drugs module

  • Newton, N. C., Teesson, M., & Newton, K. (2012). Developing the Climate Schools: Ecstasy Module. A universal Internet-based drug prevention program. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 44(5), 372-380.
  • Champion, K. E., Teesson, M., & Newton, N.C. (2013). A cluster randomised controlled trial of the Climate Schools: Ecstasy and Emerging Drugs Module in Australian secondary schools: study protocol. BMC Public Health, 13 (1168).
  • Champion, K. E., Teesson, M. and Newton, N. C. (2015). Development of a Universal Internet-Based Prevention Program for Ecstasy and New Psychoactive Substances. Open Journal of Preventive Medicine, 5(1), 23-30.
  • Champion, K. E., Newton, N. C, Stapinski, L. & Teesson, M. (2016). Effectiveness of a universal Internet-based prevention program for ecstasy and new psychoactive substances: a cluster randomised controlled trial. Addiction, 111(8): 1396-1405.
  • Champion, K. E., Teesson, M., Stapinski, L. & Newton, N. C. (2017). Effectiveness of an online intervention to prevent ecstasy and New Psychoactive Substance use among secondary school students: Final results and implications for implementation. (Under Review).

Findings from the Climate and Preventure (CAP) study

  • Newton, N. C., Teesson, M., Barrett, E. L., Slade, T., & Conrod, P. J. (2012). The CAP study, evaluation of integrated universal and selective prevention strategies for youth alcohol misuse: Study protocol of a cluster randomised controlled trial. BMC Psychiatry, 12 (118).
  • Teesson, M., Newton, N. C., Slade, T., Carragher, N., Barrett, E. L., Champion, K. E., Kelly, E. V., Nair, N. K., Stapinski, L. & Conrod, P. (2017). Combined universal and selective prevention for adolescent alcohol use: a cluster randomized controlled trial. Psychological Medicine, 22, 1-10.
  • Newton, N. C.*, Stapinski, L.*, Slade, T., Champion, K., Barrett, E., Chapman, C., Smout, A., Lawler, S., Mather, M., Castellanous-Ryan, N., Conrod, P., & Teesson, M. (2018). Pathways to prevention: Protocol for the CAP (Climate and Preventure) study to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of a school-based universal, selective and combined alcohol misuse prevention into early adulthood. BMC Public Health, 18: 643.

    (*equally credited first authors)

  • Newton, N. C.*, Teesson, M.*, Mather, M., Champion, K., Barrett., E., Kelly, E., Carragher, N., Conrod, P., & Slade, T. Universal cannabis outcomes from the Climate and Preventure (CAP) study: A cluster randomized controlled trial. Substance Abuse Treatment Prevention & Policy, accepted 16th September 2018.

    (*equally credited first authors)

Information on the Climate Schools Combined (CSC) study

  • Van Vliet, H., & Andrews, G. (2008). An internet based course for management of stress for junior high schools. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry, 43(4): 305-309.
  • Wong, N., Kady, L., Mewton, L., Sunderland, M., & Andrews, G. (2014). Preventing anxiety and depression in adolescents: A randomised controlled trial of two school based Internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy programmes. Internet Interventions, 1: 90-94.
  • Teesson, M., Newton, N. C., Slade, T., Chapman, C., Tonks, Z., Birrell, L., Allsop, S., McBride, N., Hides, L., Mewton, L. (2014). The Climate Schools Combined study: a cluster randomised controlled trial of a universal Internet-based prevention program for youth substance misuse, depression and anxiety. BMC Psychiatry, 14 (1).
  • Birrell, L.*, Newton, N. C.*, Slade, T., Chapman, C., Mewton, L., McBride, N., Hides, L., Chatterton, M., Allsop, S., Healy, A., Mather, M., Quinn, C., Mihalopoulos, C., & Teesson, M. (2018). Healthy, Wealthy and Wise: Protocol for the CSC (Climate Schools Combined) study to evaluate the long-term effectiveness of school-based depression, anxiety and alcohol misuse prevention in young adulthood. JMIR Research Protocols.

    (*equally credited first authors)

  • Teesson, M., Newton, N. C., Slade, T., Chapman, C., Birrell, L., Mewton, L., Mather, M., Hides, L., McBride, N., Allsop, S., Andrews, G. (2020). Combined prevention for substance use, depression, and anxiety in adolescence: a cluster-randomised controlled trial of a digital online intervention. The Lancet Digital Health, 2(2), e74-e84. doi:10.1016/S2589-7500(19)30213-4

We are in the process of examining the results of this study and will make findings available here once published.

Information on the Climate Schools Plus (CSP) study

  • Thornton, L., Chapman, C., Leidl, D., Conroy, C., Teesson, M., Slade, T., Koning, I., Champion, K., Stapinski, L., & Newton, N. (2018). Climate Schools Plus: An online, combined student and parent, universal drug prevention program. Internet Interventions, 12, 36-45.
  • Newton, N. C.*, Chapman, C.*, Slade, T., Conroy, C., Thornton, L., Champion, K., Stapinski, L., Koning, I., & Teesson, M. (2018). Internet-based universal prevention for students and parents to prevent alcohol and cannabis use among adolescents: Protocol for the randomized controlled trial of Climate Schools Plus. JMIR Research Protocols, 7 (8), e10849.

Other Climate Schools research

  • Teesson, M., Newton, N. C., & Barrett, E. L. (2012). Australian school-based prevention programs for alcohol and other drugs: a systematic review. Drug and Alcohol Review, 31(6), 731-736.
  • Champion, K. E., Newton, N. C., & Barrett, E. L. (2013). A systematic review of school-based alcohol and other drug prevention programs facilitated by computers or the Internet. Drug and Alcohol Review, 32(2), 115-123.
  • Champion, K. E., Newton, N. C & Teesson, M. (2016). Prevention of alcohol and other drug use and related harm in the digital age: What does the evidence tell us? Current Opinion in Psychiatry, 29(4), 242-249.

Awards

award acceptance

2017 Alcohol and Other Drug Excellence Awards

In recognition of Climate Schools significant contribution to the prevention of drug use and drug-related harm in Australia, Climate Schools was awarded Innovation in the Prevention and Education category of the 2017 Alcohol and Other Drug Excellence and Innovation Awards.

The Alcohol and Other Drug Excellence and Innovation Awards encourage, recognise and celebrate the achievements of the incredible people and organisations that do exceptional work to reduce the harm and impact of alcohol and other drugs in Australia.

  • Innovation in Prevention and Education Award 2017, Australian Drug Foundation
  • Knowledge Dissemination Award 2014 for Climate Schools and Positive Choices, Australian Rotary Health
  • In 2018, the research on the effectiveness of the Climate Schools programs was the basis for an Excellence in Research Australia high impact case study.
  • In 2014, the Climate Schools: Alcohol and Cannabis course was included in the National Centre for Education and Training on Addiction (NCETA) “Alcohol Education: What really works in Schools” policy document for schools, and was given three stars for effectiveness - the highest rating.
  • In 2013, the Climate Schools: Alcohol and Cannabis module was reviewed by, and included on, the prestigious US National Register of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.

Media

Inspire Sun Herald The Conversation