Development of a School-Based Drug Abuse Prevention Curriculum for High-Risk Youths

Abstract

This paper presents the rationale for and description of the empirical curriculum development process in Project Towards No Drug Abuse (Project TND), which is a five-year grant funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. First, the target population is described, continuation high-school youths who are at high risk for drug abuse. The rationale for developing a classroom-based curriculum tailored for them is also provided. Second, a brief description is provided of state-of-the-art generic social influences drug abuse prevention programming, which has been found to be the most effective among young adolescents. There is a the need to consider other prevention activities, particularly those that include motivational variables, to maximize prevention efforts among higher-risk youths. Third, five types of curriculum development studies are discussed that led to a curriculum that is being implemented with continuation high-school students at schools in five counties in southern California. Finally, the contents of the final curriculum product is provided, which consists of motivation, skills-training, and decision-making components.