Factors which explain amount of participation in rural adolescent alcohol use prevention task forces

Project Northland task force members are typically female, have children, and belong to a number of other community or social groups. Members were likely to participate more in the task forces if they were relative newcomers to the community and if they got satisfaction from their participation. While explaining only a modest amount of the variance (15.5%), the explanatory power of the results are comparable to other studies of this nature, where 23% of explained variance predicting participation has been considered informative. Future models will need to consider other factors to increase the explained variance. Satisfaction with being a task force member was associated with the amount of control and ownership each member felt and the extent of agreement with the direction of the task force. These variables explained 26% of the variance. It may be that relative newcomers to the community, who tended to participate more, have lived elsewhere and been exposed to environments where alcohol was less frequently used, and this contrast contributed to their motivation and preparedness to work towards change. They may not be as integrated into the community as task force members who have lived in their communities for their entire lives, and may not be part of the dominant 'alcohol culture' that exists in the region. If membership in community or social groups is an indicator of integration into the community, then the results suggest less integrated task force members were more active participants. The negative correlation between the number of community and social groups a respondeat belonged to and participation in the Project Northland task forces might also simply be due to competition for time. The homogeneity of task force members suggests that coordinators may have recruited members more heavily from within their own professional or social networks.