An evaluation of the stated student outcomes of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program

• Author / Creator

  Uibel, Barbara Marie

• The purpose of this study was to evaluate the stated student outcomes of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program including decreases in positive attitudes toward the use of abusable psychotropics and decreases in the self-reported use of the abusable psychotropics. A multivariate quasi-experimental (pre-test, post-test, post-test) design was used and data were collected measuring student demographics, reported drug use, and drug-related attitudes. Participants were 522 grade five and six students from 44 classrooms. Results indicated that the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program had little lasting effect on drug-related attitudes and reported drug use. The findings are stratified by evaluated risk of substance abuse to determine whether there was a differential effect of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program on subgroups delineated by risk for abusable psychotropic use. Recommendations are made in relation to the findings of this study with regard to pedagogy, programming and possible factors that inform the decisions about abusable psychotropics among this population.
  Although these findings represent conditions and views at the time of data collection and reflected in the initial literature review, they remain relevant as the issues and motivations that inform the decisions that young people make with regard to the use of abusable psychotropics, as reflected in the second literature review, continues to be an area of significant concern. The matter of devising and implementing timely, effective programming to address the complex problem of abusable psychotropic use by young people remains a relevant issue.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Evaluation
  • DARE
  • Alberta

• Graduation date

  Fall 2010

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3DW3P

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.