What If You Caught Them Using? Prospective Teachers' Beliefs about Responding to Student Substance Use

Abstract

This survey research examined how prospective teachers' (N=384) beliefs about the nature of adolescence, their substance use, and their preparedness for dealing with substance use situations are linked to perceptions of how they would respond to students' possession or use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana at school. Results suggested that prospective teachers are not prepared for these situations. Feeling prepared, perceiving that few adolescents engage in problem behavior, and low personal substance use were associated with more responses to substance use situations. Women were more likely than men to think they would respond to adolescent substance use yet they felt less prepared. Males who used alcohol, cigarettes, or marijuana recently were the least likely to perceive that they would respond to adolescents using substances at school.