Evaluation of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign 2004 Report of Findings, Volume 1

• NCJ Number: 215284
• Author(s): Robert Orwin; Diane Cadell; Adam Chu; Graham Kalton; David Maklan; Carol Morin; Andrea Piesse; Sanjeev Sridharan; Diane Steele; Kristie Taylor; Elena Tracy
• Date Published: June 2006
• Length: 607 pages
• Contract Number(s): N01DA-8-5063
• Sponsoring Agency: National Institute on Drug Abuse
• Corporate Author: Westat; University of Pennsylvania
• Sale Source: Westat
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Program/Project Evaluation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: For volume 2 and the executive summary, see NCJ-215285 and NCJ-215286, respectively.

Annotation

This volume presents the methodology and findings of Phase III (September 1999 through June 2004) of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, which is intended to educate and enable youth to reject illegal drugs; to prevent youth from beginning the use of such drugs; and to convince occasional users of these and other drugs to stop using them.

Abstract

Approximately 72 percent of parents and 77 percent of youth reported exposure to one or more messages weekly through all media channels. Overall, there was substantial evidence of favorable campaign effects on four of five targeted parent beliefs and behaviors, including talking with their children about drugs, doing fun activities with their children, and beliefs about monitoring their children's behavior. There was little evidence of direct favorable campaign effects on youth, either for the marijuana and early intervention initiative or for the campaign as a whole. There were indications of an increase in past-month marijuana use between 2000 and 2002, followed by a decrease in both lifetime and past-month use between 2002 and 2004, but there was no evidence that the campaign was responsible for these changes. Among nonusing youth, there were favorable changes over time in antidrug attitudes and beliefs, as well as the proportion of youth saying they would definitely not try marijuana; however, results of the association analyses did not indicate that exposure to the campaign influenced these trends. The evaluation consisted of nine data-collection waves of the National Survey of Parents and Youth, an in-home survey designed to represent youth living in homes in the United States, as well as their parents. Each of the first three waves enrolled a nationally representative sample of youth ages 9 to 18 and their parents. The respondents at these waves represent the approximately 40 million youth and their parents who were the target audience for the campaign. Extensive tables and figures