Alcohol Prevention Classes in High Schools

[kristinasmith]

Research has shown that young people who begin drinking before the age of 15 are four times more likely to develop a dependence on alcohol than those who start drinking at age 21.

Since youths are faced with ongoing decisions about alcohol use, helping them become confident about delaying the onset of use is critical to establishing lasting changes in their behaviors and attitudes about alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. That is why most high schools have an alcohol awareness group to discourage underage drinking.

Different programs have been placed in many of the high schools in the U.S. and typically involve teaching underage drinking prevention as a part of general curriculum. Most groups use teen-on-teen discussions about how to prevent drunk driving. They watch movies, listen to testimonies and read stories of accidents that have happened as a result of underage drinking.

According to principals, using an alcohol awareness group to clearly outline students’ goals, has helped their high schools reduce the number of accidents that occur, create responsible students, improve classroom performance and heighten the rate of graduates.

Setting Goals

Most of the curriculum in high school awareness classes centers on individual goals and how to achieve them. It encourage healthy-negative concepts to encourage young teens to change the way they think about and deal with underage drinking, it promotes teens who make more responsible choices when it comes to alcohol consumption, and it gives students the opportunity to look at the real-world social and legal consequences that involve teens and alcohol.
These programs help teenagers see the real truth about underage drinking through dramatic court cases that are exposed such as: accidents and injuries caused by intoxication, vandalism and assault fueled caused by underage drinking and the impact on future success and well-being that alcohol can have on an underage drinker.

Most importantly, the programs are targeted to all students, whether they participate in drinking or not. It is an excellent method to encourage the disuse of alcohol and drugs for students abusing them, and it is a critical deterrent for students who have yet to start.

 

[MyFinalRest]

I guess...we had prevention classes at very young ages and the whole generation ended up being a bunch of drug addicts and alchoholics. I started young and now I don't do anything drug-related.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_Abuse_Resistance_Education

Researchers at Indiana University, commissioned by Indiana school officials in 1992, found that those who completed the D.A.R.E. program subsequently had significantly higher rates of hallucinogenic drug use than those not exposed to the program.[25]

In 1994, the National Institute of Justice published a summary[27] of a study conducted by the Research Triangle Institute.[28] The study suggested that D.A.R.E. would benefit from a revised curriculum. This was launched in the fall of 1994.

After the 1994 Research Triangle Institute study,[27][28] an article in the Los Angeles Times stated that the “organization spent $41,000 to try to prevent widespread distribution of the RTI report and started legal action aimed at squelching the study.”[29] The director of publication of the American Journal of Public Health told USA Today that "D.A.R.E. has tried to interfere with the publication of this. They tried to intimidate us."[30] After reporter Dennis Cauchon published a story questioning the effectiveness of D.A.R.E. in USA Today, he received letters from classrooms around the country, all addressed to "Dear D.A.R.E.-basher," and all using nearly identical language.[30]

In 1995, a report to the California Department of Education by Joel Brown Ph. D. stated that none of California's drug education programs worked, including D.A.R.E. "California's drug education programs, D.A.R.E. being the largest of them, simply don't work.

In 1998, A grant from the National Institute of Justice to the University of Maryland resulted in a report to the NIJ, which among other statements, concluded that "D.A.R.E. does not work to reduce substance use."

A ten year study was completed by the American Psychological Association in 2006 involving one thousand D.A.R.E. graduates in an attempt to measure the effects of the program. After the ten year period no measurable effects were noted.

In 2001, the Surgeon General of the United States, David Satcher M.D. Ph.D., placed the D.A.R.E. program in the category of "Ineffective Primary Prevention Programs".[6] The U.S. General Accountability Office concluded in 2003 that the program was sometimes counterproductive in some populations, with those who graduated from D.A.R.E. later having higher than average rates of drug use (a boomerang effect).

In March 2007, the D.A.R.E. program was placed on a list of treatments that have the potential to cause harm in clients in the APS journal, Perspectives on Psychological Science.

 

[23536]

I think kristinasmith is a spambot. My apologies in advance if you're not.

 

[MyFinalRest]

She seems like a bot. Just has that bot kinda personality... But! that doesn't matter, I'll argue with a spambot!