Substance Abuse Prevention Among Elementary School Students

Abstract

SUMMARY Designed to test the effectiveness of a substance abuse prevention curriculum, this study involved third to sixth-grade students in 11 suburban midwestern elementary schools (N = 2,475). An experimental group received a curriculum that teaches personal, social, decision-making, assertiveness, and environmental skills. Introduced by a robot during an interactive assembly, the curriculum was subsequently emphasized for eight weeks in the classroom. Students in the experimental group and those in a control group were pretested and then posttested twice, immediately after the intervention and six months later. Results of repeated measures analysis provide evidence of the efficacy of this type of prevention strategy with suburban youth. Subjects who received intervention showed less actual and potential substance use than students in the control group over time. Intervention group subjects also reported greater self-respect, responsibility and environmental awareness.