Just Say No – To D.A.R.E? Finding Antidrug Programs That Work
The two eight – graders in a classroom in New York City’s Spanish Harlem can baredy.
Suppress their giggles. You are sitting on a stalled, crowded bus, their theacher tells them. Start up a conversation. Esther, pattie and ponytailed, begins. Well, this bos is really crowded. Yeah, says luis, i can’t wwait to get outta here… Im gonna suffocate. Pause Esther : Nice day isn’t it? Where are you going? Luis : to take my firlfriend to the movies. Esther : I have a date too. Painful pause, Luis : The bus is certainly… stopped. The class cracks up, and the two scamper back to their desks (Van Biema, 1996).
This dialoque might not sound like it has much to do with helping adolescent avoid getting hooked on drugs, but in fact it is part of a new approach to drug prevention called life skills training. Unlike previous efforts, this program focuses on teaching a broad range of social skills that adolescents need to deal with the range of pressures they face.
The life skills program contrast sharphly with D.AR.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), ourrently the most popular antidrug program in the United States. Used in more than 80 percent of school districts in the United States, D.A.R.E. consists of a series of seventeen lesson on the dangers of drugs, alcohol, and gangs, taught to fifth and sixth graders by a police office. The program is highly popular with school officals, parents, and politicians.
The problem. Several well-controlled evalutions have been to demonstrate that the D.A.R.E program is effeective in reducing drug use over the long term. In fact, one study sven showed that D.A.R.E graduates were more likely to use marijuana than a comparison group of negraduates (Clayton et al, 1996; Lyan et al, 1999).
Because of problems in identiying long – term positive effects of D.A.R.E, researchers have sought to develop alternative strategies such as thelife skills training program. Istead of focusing on long team dangers, life skills training concentrates on immadiate negative consquences. During 15 sessions, students are tought to be more assertive and conficent, and to assess more accurately the communications they receive from their peers and popular culture. The notion is that by learning general social skills, students will be better equipped to deal with pereceived peer pressure to user drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes (Botvin et Votvin, 1992 Desembrug et Volvin, 1992)
Analysis of the late skills training approach suggest that it is successful in reducing adolescent drug use for example an avalution of several thousand students in Newwalk, New Jersey who had panticipated in life skills training in sevent grade and were tracked until they graduated from lugh school, showred that the students used drugs, tobacco, and alcohol at half the rate of them pee who had not been in the progam (Bolvin et al, 1994 Volvin et al 1995 biema, 1996)
Whether the D.A.R.E program will wi contintied suppot or be replaced byother programs, such as life skills training, remains to be seen. What is clear is that teenage drug use remains a sonsiderable social problem, and that effective approaches to stem the use of drugs are sorely needed.
Why do you think are D.A.R.E program is so popular among the polcie and school boards? Do you think the students who go through the training are as supportive as the adults who sponsor its use?
source: essentials of understanding psychology by robert s. feldman
