AMultidimensional EXAMINATION OF SHORT-AND LONG-TERM OUTCOMES FOR THE DRUG ABUSE RESISTANCE EDUCATION (DARE) PROGRAM: AN EVALUATION REPORT SUBMITTED TO THE SAINT JOHN POLICE FORCE

摘要: The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program is a school-based primary prevention program that seeks to reduce substance use and negative life outcomes in youth. Here we report on two studies that were conducted to evaluate the impact of the “DARE experience” among youth located in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada.In Study 1, we prospectively evaluated the impact of the recently revised DARE curriculum (DARE-R) among a cohort of Grade 7 youth based on their responses to a number of indicators prior to and after the 10 week DARE-R program delivery, and at a one year post-DARE-R followups. Overall, these youth were generally at very low risk for substance use and misuse. Consistent with previous studies using the original DARE program, we found that DARE-R had little to no impact on preventing future substance use. There also was no change over time on substance use attitudes. We did find evidence of small improvements in resiliency among youth identified as medium to high risk for substance misuse. There also were small changes indicative of increased problems in the areas of family relationships and behavioural problems (eg, aggression, delinquency) in the overall sample over time. Qualitative comments suggest that these Grade 7 youth tend to only retain the basic “drugs are bad” message of DARE-R.