Purpose: Alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drugs use typically increases in prevalence and frequency during middle and late adolescence. School health instruction often focusses on providing facts and rarely provides tools for addressing the psychosocial risk factors needed to prevent substance use. The purpose of this paper is to report about…

Aim: This pilot study investigated what alcohol prevention benefits could be achieved by a harm reduction focused school drug education intervention that addressed all drug use, both licit and illicit. Method: The study population comprised a cohort of 225 students in three intervention secondary schools and 93 students in a matched control school…

Purpose: As interventions are disseminated widely, issues of fidelity and adaptation become increasingly critical to understand. This study aims to describe the types of adaptations made by teachers delivering a school-based substance use prevention curriculum and their reasons for adapting program content. Design/methodology/approach: To…

Background: REBOUND is a novel media-based life skills and risk education programme developed for 14- to 25-year olds in school, university or youth group settings. This paper outlines the programme's rationale, curriculum and implementation. It provides information of relevance to researchers, programme developers and policymakers. Methods/design…

Purpose: To be effective, evidence-based programs should be delivered as prescribed. This suggests that adaptations that deviate from intervention goals may limit a program's effectiveness. This study aims to examine the impact that number and quality of adaptations have on substance use outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: The authors examined…

This article reports on the evaluation of a two-year alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) intervention, the Prevention through Alternative Learning Styles ("PALS") program, targeting both teachers and middle-school students. Teachers are taught to recognize students' unique learning styles in the context of the ATOD curriculum and…

Background: Drug use has been noted among students in Taiwan during the past decade and schools have a role in preventing or delaying students' drug use. We developed and evaluated a school-based, drug-use prevention program integrating the theory of planned behavior (TPB) and life skills for junior high school students. Methods: We recruited 441…

Research-based substance use prevention curricula typically yield small effects when implemented by school teachers under real-world conditions. Using a randomized controlled trial, the authors examined whether expert coaching improves the effectiveness of the All Stars prevention curriculum. Although a positive effect on students' cigarette use…

This booklet is designed to be used by teachers in elementary schools with the Public Broadcasting Systems series "Moyers on Addiction: Close to Home." The series explores the science, treatment, prevention, and politics of addiction. This booklet discusses strategies for preventing substance abuse in elementary school. Also examined are…

Asked 96 students, grades 3, 6, 8, 12, about various teaching methods (expert-led, teacher-led, peer-led, and parent in home) commonly employed in substance abuse education. Students generally believed that each type of would positively influence drug- and alcohol-related knowledge but not behavior. Expert-led discussions were believed the most…

This packet is designed to be used by teachers in middle schools and high schools as they teach drug education. It accompanies a public television series, "Moyers on Addiction: Close at Home," but can be used on its own. The materials are in three parts. The first part is a folder that explains how to use the materials, provides a list of…

Objective: To describe the use of "draw, describe and write", a tool for exploring how adolescents perceive and explain their understanding of the world of drugs, as used in the development of the Blueprint project. Design: A cross-sectional study using a specifically designed research tool, including drawing and open-ended questions, used with…

This document presents a revised set of principles for school drug education. The principles for drug education in schools comprise an evolving framework that has proved useful over a number of decades in guiding the development of effective drug education. The first edition of "Principles for Drug Education in Schools" (Ballard et al.…