Drug Prevention: What Research Has Been Done in the Past?

Hello all! 

It’s been a beautiful week here in sunny Arizona, and it’s been a great week to spend some time catching up on research before I head into my internship with Not My Kid on Tuesday! As I explained in my last blog post, Not My Kid educates and works on preventing several types of risky teen behavior, ranging from unhealthy relationships, drug abuse, and self-harm. However, I decided to spend the week delving into researching previous prevention methods and past research on the effectiveness of drug prevention methods. 

It’s first important to remember why my research, which not only evaluates Not My Kid’s effectiveness, but also compares the effectiveness across different demographics of teens, is relevant. According to studies conducted by the National Academy Press in Washington DC,

“The potential impact of specific risk and protective factors changes with age. For example, risk factors within the family have greater impact on a younger child, while association with drug-abusing peers may be a more significant risk factor for an adolescent”(National Institution on Drug Abuse).

Following this, it is imperative that we compare age groups in the success of the prevention method. That is, because risk factors have a more prevalent impact on younger individuals the question then follows, are educational prevention methods more or less effective with individuals more at risk. The hope, of course, is that, although these individuals are more at risk, they are also more receptive to the prevention methods and more positively affected by them, a hope which raises the states on the results of my research. The same follows for gender, ethnicity, culture, and environment as is supported by research conducted by Moon, Hecht, Jackson, & Spellers. Keeping these factors in mind, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, backed by extensive research of their own, proposes that “successful prevention programs” must not only be tailored to the age, gender, ethnicity, culture, and environment/community but must also address the use of both legal and illegal substances. The National Institute on Drug Abuse then spends some time focusing on family programming. However, because Not My Kid is focused on separate teen and adult programming, I chose to continue my research in finding what they suggest should make a prevention program successful. I found that research has shown that successful programming for teens should address “study habits and academic support; communication; peer relationships; self-efficacy and assertiveness; drug resistance skills; reinforcement of anti-drug attitudes; and strengthening of personal commitments against drug abuse” (National Institution on Drug Abuse). Not surprisingly, most research done in the past on effective prevention programs, leads to similar conclusions on teen engagement, something I’ve been fortunate to work extensively with as an active leader in the North American Federation of Temple Youth (NFTY). Sources speak of being interactive, allowing role play, and adapting to audiences, all basic principles of engagement. Other programs centered on drug prevention have found success in different ways. For example, the Classroom-Centered (CC) and Family-School Partnership (FSP) Intervention, a program centered in the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health has found success in integrating parents into the program and by extending their efforts to the classroom. Lions-Quest Skills for Adolescence (SFA), an organization centered in Washington DC takes a similar approach to that reflected in Not My Kid’s mission statement: boosting the self-esteem and feeling of responsibility in teens. Organizations like these fall under the category of research based prevention methods and I look forward to finding out more about what has made them successful, thus giving me the ability to compare the results of my research to the results of others’.

It’s been a great week and I can’t wait to get delve into the project more on Tuesday! I’ll be heading to the cold tundra of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin for a North American Youth Leadership Conference, so wish me luck as I attempt to tackle 5 degree weather! Stay tuned for next week! Shir Works Cited Robertson, Elizabeth B., Ph.D., Susan L. David, M.H.P, and Suman A. Rao, Ph.D. "Preventing Drug Use among Children and Adolescents (In Brief)." National Institute on Drug Abuse. National Institute on Drug Abuse; National Institutes of Health; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services., n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2016.

Moon, D.; Hecht, M.; Jackson, K.; and Spellers, R. Ethnic and gender differences and similarities in adolescent drug use and refusals of drug offers. Substance Use and Misuse34(8):1059–1083, 1999.

Gerstein, D.R. and Green, L.W., eds. Preventing Drug Abuse: What Do We Know? Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1993.