NCJ Number
150023
Journal
Social Problems Volume: 41 Issue: 3 Dated: (August 1994) Pages: 448-472
Date Published
1994
Length
25 pages
Annotation
The impact of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program was examined using questionnaire data from 288 high-school seniors who had received DARE as 7th graders and 335 seniors who had not been exposed to DARE.
Abstract
The questionnaires were completed by seniors in Kokomo High School in Indiana in 1991. The analysis focused on long-term effects, political potency, and implementation issues. Results revealed no significant differences between the two groups in drug use behaviors or attitudes. Findings from a focus group interview reinforced the quantitative results. At the macro level, DARE is found to be a form of symbolic politics, supported by direct and indirect stakeholders and embedded in a complex and powerful organizational support structure. Alternative explanations for the findings that the program had no effects include the influence of contextual factors, gaps between crucial program assumptions and the manner in which the program was implemented, and limitations of the program design. Results underscore the need for a more multifaceted discourse on drug prevention programs to consider the relative merits of both psychosocial and structural approaches to the issue of drug abuse. Figures, tables, footnotes, and 88 references (Author abstract modified)