Drug education in early adolescence.

Abstract

Existing research on the efficacy drug education programs with adolescents has taken many forms. Long and short term research on drug education has yielded mixed results. The present study was done as a means of assessing the durability of any gains in influencing healthier attitudes toward drug use as a result of drug education. The sample population was comprised of 90 sixth grade students completing one of three drug education programs, and tested again as seventh graders. This sample was divided between males and females, with 48 and 42 subjects respectively. Instrumentation utilized was the Substance Abuse Survey. The scores were compared between genders and also over time between testing sessions. Analysis of the data indicated a significant interaction effect between gender and time (p <.05). Males in this study developed increasingly undesirable attitudes over time to a greater extent than did their female counterparts. Conclusions formed from this study suggest that some widely used drug education programs do not contribute to healthier attitudes in adolescents toward drug/alcohol use over long periods of time. A suggestion for future research is the assessment of drug education programs for students at earlier ages. Additionally, research on more intrusive methods of influencing attitudes toward drug use than the 16 hourly sessions provided by those programs under study should be attempted.