Journal of Drug Education: Substance Use Research and Prevention

Drug use is a topic of increasing interest, and many drug education programs have appeared in schools. However, school-based programs tend to be didactic, moralistic presentations that do not reach the youth who most need drug information. Aimed at encouraging rational decision making about drug use, a peer oriented drug education program was conducted in a community youth project. In a candid atmosphere, youth and leaders shared feelings and knowledge about drugs. Youth made decisions about program direction, format and curriculum. In comparison with 4 program dropouts, 6 participants exhibited more positive attitudes toward the drug group (p < .002), its leaders (p < .01) and themselves (p < .03). Although participants had experimented with drugs less than dropouts (p < .001), they knew significantly more than dropouts on 1 of 6 measures of drug knowledge (p < .05) and tended to know more on 2 others (p < .10). Peer oriented community-based drug education programs provide a viable format for reaching youth with information and encouraging them to make decisions about drug use based on rational factors.

It is reported that there is a lack of reliable research information about illegal drug usage at the high school level. This study seeks to identify personal value orientations, philosophical attitudes, and social attitudes evident in this age group. Two questionnaires (Philosophical Attitude Description Inventory and Personal Attitude Questionnaire) were administered to 700 eleventh and twelfth grade students. Factor analysis yielded constructs of life styles. Significant differences were demonstrated between users' and non-users' values by discriminate analysis.

This research is a content analysis of those portions of college level health education textbooks which deal with drinking and alcoholism. Twenty books published between 1966 and 1973 were examined on the following topics: space alloted to alcohol and alcoholism; the relationship of alcohol and other drugs; why people drink; definitions of alcoholism; causes of alcoholism; treatment of alcoholism; and the effect of alcohol on society. The findings reveal a low level of reliability of information between the texts and high levels of inconsistency within the texts. Possible implications of these results for health education are discussed.

Actual drug related incidents occurring in public schools were used as the basis of a testing instrument designed to detect changes in teachers' attitudes as a result of a drug education course using the Social Seminar as a focus. Trial results on 200 teachers indicate that the instrument does measure changes in attitude occurring as a result of drug education. The changes occurring reflect a move from punitive to rehabilitative measures in response to major drug incidents and an increasing tendency to ignore minor infractions. Pretreatment-posttreatment differences were statistically significant but accounted for a relatively small portion of the total variance.

There is a growing emphasis upon the preventive mental health model as the most effective approach to drug abuse education and prevention. This study provides data on the appropriateness of this model by comparing a sample of non-opiate drug abusers (n = 100) with a sample of psychiatric patients (n = 100), matched for age, from a community mental health center. Data indicate that non-opiate drug abusers and psychiatric patients are similar, although the drug abuse sample shows small, but consistent evidence of greater psychosocial adjustment problems. The results clearly support greater emphasis upon the preventive mental health approach.

41 alcoholism counselor trainees were evaluated on changes in five parameters of job related functioning by their supervisors, following an intense training program. A rating scale, completed by agency supervisors at 7 and 14 week intervals following training, indicated positive changes in trainee's clinical competence, utilization in alcoholism work, personal involvement in alcoholism work, degree of assigned responsibilities, and overall job performance, relative to pre-training. Some implications and limitations of the present study are discussed.

A telephone survey of 206 adults was conducted to test hypotheses concerning past information seeking, source preference, and media consumption. Subjects who had obtained information from “expert” institutional sources were predicted to have greater drug knowledge and interpersonal communication experience. Higher print consumers were predicted to have greater knowledge, increased favorability toward marijuana decriminalization and exhibit a less punitive orientation toward drug users. Support was found with regard to drug knowledge and interpersonal communication. Partial support was found with regard to other hypotheses.

The purpose of the study was to clarify principles of communication pertinent to alcohol and drug educational programs. Specifically the relationship between two independent variables, the fear appeal of the message and the character of the communicator, and the attitudes, behavior and information retention of seventh and eighth grade pupils with respect to the consumption of alcoholic beverages was explored. A number of significant findings are reported and their implications for alcohol education programs are discussed.