Education is one of the most commonly used strategies for attempting to discourage young people from using alcohol, tobacco, or illegal drugs. Schools offer opportunities to reach the most children and also serve as important settings for reaching specific at-risk groups, such as children with behavior problems and learning disabilities. In addition to school-based health and prevention education for students, education and training efforts aimed at adults who interact with youth can also contribute to prevention.

For many years, prevention education for youth focused on the dangers of drug use. The assumption was that kids who understood the risks inherent in using these substances would make healthier choices than those who did not. But, as researchers began studying these educational programs, they discovered that increased knowledge doesn’t necessarily keep kids off drugs. Other pressures and dynamics of youth—such as peer acceptance, rebelliousness, and perceptions of invincibility or immortality—may actually override the role of knowledge in a young person’s decision about whether to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs. Instead, what young people most need to learn—and what seems to help them best avoid using substances—are the skills to refuse drugs, to think critically about the messages they receive from peers and from the media, and to make healthier choices in all areas of their lives.1

Certain sets of skills are particularly effective in preventing the onset and reducing the continued use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.2 These skills include the following:

• Empathy
• Social problem-solving or impulse control
• Communication
• Stress management or coping
• Media resistance
• Assertiveness

Belief development or normative education.

Research has also identified a number of factors that enhance the effectiveness of prevention education programs for young people:

• Programs should include an adequate “dosage” of instruction. At a minimum, skills-based instruction programs should include 10 to 15 sessions per year followed by another 10 to 15 booster sessions. Research consistently shows that the longer the program, the more enduring the changes.3
  
  
• Programs should reach children from kindergarten through high school.4 It is especially important to reach students in the middle school or junior high years. During this time of transition, many young people begin smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol. It is also important to reach young people during both non-school and school hours.
  
  
• Programs should use age-appropriate, interactive teaching methods.5 Interactive approaches include modeling, role playing, discussion, group feedback, reinforcement, extended practice, cooperative learning, and student-centered learning techniques.
  
  
• Programs should foster pro-social attachment to the school and community. Students’ lack of attachment to school may be related to unsatisfying academic experiences. Prevention interventions may address this issue by including components that offer academic skill building for students.
  
  
• Programs should include strong peer education components.6
  
  
• Programs should include an educational component for parents, with information about drugs for both them and their children.7 Parent training, delivered in conjunction with programs for their children at school, can enable parents to reinforce healthy messages at home.

One of the most important factors that determines a program’s success is the extent to which teachers are provided with both training and ongoing support in the content and methods of life skills education. One program that uses this approach is the Life Skills Training Program,8 designed to help adolescents develop personal, social, and drug-resistance skills.

Parents aren’t the only adults who can play a significant role in preventing substance abuse. Public education can raise awareness among broad numbers of people and strengthen environmental approaches to prevention. Server training programs can teach bartenders and wait staff to avoid serving minors and intoxicated customers. Merchants can be educated about the laws and penalties for selling alcohol or tobacco to underage customers. Employee assistance programs can train staff to work with employees who may have issues with alcohol or other drugs—or who are dealing with a family member who does.9 It is important for those of us in prevention to understand that education strategies needn’t be limited to school-based curricula, but that they can—and should—be broadly applied to the many formal and informal systems that constitute a community.

You have completed Module 6.
Please proceed to Activity 6: Applying Education Strategies.

References

1. Block, J., Block, J., and Keyes, S. (1988). Longitudinally foretelling drug usage in adolescence: Early childhood personality and environmental precursors. Child Development, 59(2), 336–355; Jessor, R. (1976). Predicting time of onset of marijuana use: A developmental study of high school youth. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 44(1), 125–134; Kellam, S. G., Brown, C. H., and Flemming, J. P. (1982). The prevention of teenage substance use: Longitudinal research and strategy. In T. J. Coates, A. C. Peterson, and C. Perry. (Eds.), Promoting adolescent health: A dialogue on research and practice. (pp. 171–200), New York: Academic Press; and Shedler, J. and Block, J. (1990). Adolescent drug use and psychological health: A longitudinal inquiry. American Psychologist 45(5), 612–30; as cited in National Center for the Advancement of Prevention (1996). A Review of Alternative Activities and Alternatives Programs in Youth-Oriented Prevention: CSAP Technical Report 13. Washington, DC: Department of Health and Human Services. DHHS Publication No. (SMA) 96-3117.
   
   
2. Adapted from Dash, K., Scattergood, P., Vince Whitman, C., Harding, W., Adler, M., Goddard, C, Myint-U, A. (2000). Step by step: Developing a comprehensive prevention plan. Newton, MA: Education Development Center, Inc.
   
   
3. Bell, R. M., Ellickson, P. L., and Harrison, E. R. (1993). Do drug prevention effects persist into high school? How Project ALERT did with ninth graders. Preventive Medicine, 22, 463–483; Botvin, G. J., Baker, E., Dusenbury, L., Botvin, E. M., and Diaz, T. (1995). Long-term follow-up results of a randomized drug abuse prevention trial in a white middle-class population. Journal of the American Medical Association, 273(14), 1106–1112; Ellickson, P. L., Bell, R. M., and McGuigan, K. (1993). Preventing adolescent drug use: Long-term results of a junior high program. American Journal of Public Health, 83, 856–861; Tobler, N. S. (1986). Meta-analysis of 143 adolescent drug prevention programs: Quantitative outcome results of program participants compared to a control or comparison group. Journal of Drug Issues, 16(4), 537–567; and Tobler, N. S. (1992). Drug prevention programs can work: Research findings. Journal of Addictive Diseases, 11, 1–28.
   
   
4. Kellam, S. G., Rebok, G. W., Ialongo, N., and Meyer, L. S. (1994). The course and malleability of aggressive behavior from early first grade into middle school: Results of a developmental epidemiologically-based proactive trial. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 35, 259–281.
   
   
5. Connell, D. B., Turner, R. R., and Mason, E. F. (1985). Summary of findings of the School Health Education Evaluation: Health promotion effectiveness, implementation, and costs. Journal of School Health, 55, 316–21; Walter, H. J., Vaughn, R. D., and Wynder, E. L. (1989). Primary prevention of cancer among children: Changes in cigarette smoking and diet after six years of intervention. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 81, 995–998; Johnson, C. A., Pentz, M. A., Weber, M. D., Dwyer, J. H., Baer, N., MacKinnon, D. P., Hansen, W. B., and Flay, B. R. (1990). Relative effectiveness of comprehensive community programming for drug abuse prevention with high-risk and low-risk adolescents. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 58, 447–456; Botvin, G. J., Schinke, S. P., Epstein, J. A., and Diaz, T. (1994). Effectiveness of culturally focused and generic skills training approaches to alcohol and drug abuse prevention among minority youths. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 8, 116–127; Shope, J. T., Kloska, D. D., Dielman, T. E., and Maharg, R. (1994). Longitudinal evaluation of an enhanced alcohol misuse prevention study (AMPS) curriculum for grades six–eight. Journal of School Health, 64,160–166; and Perry, C. L., Williams, C. L., Veblen-Mortenson, S., Toomey, T. L., Komro, K. A., Anstine, P. S., McGovern, P. G., Finnegan, J. R., Forster, J. L., Wagenaar, A. C., and Wolfson, M. (1996). Project Northland: Outcomes of a community-wide alcohol use prevention program during early adolescence. American Journal of Public Health, 86, 956–965.
   
   
6. Errecart, M. T., Walberg, H. J., Ross, J. G., Gold, R. S., Fiedler, J. L., and Kolbe, L. J. (1991). Effectiveness of Teenage Health Teaching Modules. Journal of School Health, 61, 26–30; Tobler, N. S. (1986). Meta-analysis of 143 adolescent drug prevention programs: Quantitative outcome results of program participants compared to a control or comparison group. Journal of Drug Issues, 16(4), 537–567; and Tobler, N. S. (1992). Drug prevention programs can work: Research findings. Journal of Addictive Diseases, 11, 1–28.
   
   
7. Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R., and Associates. (1992). Communities that care: Action for drug abuse prevention. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass; Pentz, M. A. (1995). The school-community interface in comprehensive school health education. In S. Stansfield (Ed.),1996 Institute of Medicine Annual Report, Committee on Comprehensive School Health Programs. Washington, DC: National Academy Press; Dishion, T. J., Andrews, D. W., Kavanagh, K., and Soberman, L. H. (1996). Preventing interventions for high-risk youth: The Adolescent Transitions Program. In R.D. Peters and R.J. McMahon (Eds.), Preventing childhood disorders, substance abuse, and delinquency. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications; and Kumpfer, K. L., Molgaard, B., and Soth, R. (1996). The Strengthening Families Program for the prevention of delinquency and drug use. In Peters and McMahon, Preventing childhood disorders.
   
   
8. Botvin, G. J. and Griffin, K. W. (2002). Life skills training as a primary prevention approach for adolescent drug use and other problem behaviors. International Journal of Emergency Mental Health, 4, 41–47.
   
   
9. Cummings, K. M. and Coogan, K. (1992). Organizing communities to prevent the sale of tobacco products to minors. International Quarterly of Community Health Education, 13, 77–86; Feighery, E., Altman, D., and Saffer, G. (1991). The effects of combining education and enforcement to reduce tobacco sales to minors: A study of four northern California communities. Journal of the American Medical Association, 266, 3168–3171; and McKnight, J. and Streff, F. (1994). The effect of enforcement upon service of alcohol to intoxicated patrons of bars and restaurants. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 26, 79–88.