Resisting Peer Pressure: What the Most Effective Youth Programs Teach About Saying No
The 'just say no' model doesn't work—adolescents need specific skills for resisting social pressure. Effective programs teach refusal skills, build self-efficacy, and create peer norms that support non-use. The skills-based approach is evidence-based and underused.
'Just say no' assumes that adolescents have the skills to refuse—and that the social cost of refusal is negligible. Neither assumption is true. **Effective programs teach specific refusal skills: how to say no without losing social standing, how to exit a situation where pressure is intense, how to find peers who support non-use. The skills-based approach is evidence-based, developmentally appropriate, and dramatically underfunded relative to the 'just say no' messaging that continues to dominate prevention.**
