Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program Research Articles

DARE to Say No: Police and the Cultural Politics of Prevention in the War on Drugs

In the fall of 1983, the Los Angeles Police Department sent police officers into elementary schools to teach the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) Program. Within a decade DARE had become the nation's preeminent antidrug education program. Yet the DARE program accomplished much more than teaching kids to resist drugs. DARE shifted the responsibility of preventing drug use from social and public-health policy to local, police-led, educative projects that taught personal responsibility, the value of morally strengthened families, and respect for the authority of the police. By stressing the consequences of poor behavior and demanding respect for law and order, DARE attempted to cultivate popular consent for policies that divorced drug use from social and economic conditions. DARE's approach helped justify reductions in social welfare spending and the expansion of policing and incarceration during the 1980s and 1990s.

Prevention and Intervention on the Care Continuum

Historically, there has been a palpable schism between preventionists and interventionists in the field of social work. Although great strides have been made in evidence-based pursuits in both areas, very little overlap has been explored. In fact, the two realms are often viewed as being in competition with one another for resources, agency priorities, and funding. At the risk of recreating dichotomy, we first examine these two distinct areas and then illuminate and transform the existing model by analyzing the links between prevention and intervention in the realms of social work practice and research. Starting in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the burgeoning field of social work prevention leaned heavily, if not solely, on information provision in an attempt to change behaviors and norms for youths and adults. Substance abuse prevention programs like Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) were designed and implemented widely without knowledge of their potential for iatrogenic effects (that is, unintended negative impacts). In fact, the first research evaluations of DARE showed that the program actually increased curiosity about and use of drugs like marijuana. And no wonder! The early version of the DARE program that youths received had police passing around a bag of marijuana for students to see and smell, being told that this is what you shouldn't use. Other dramatic prevention attempts such as Scared Straight (a program that attempted to instill fear about drug use as a technique) and Shattered Dreams (a psychodramatic recreation of a fatal driving while intoxicated accident and its aftermath for high school students) made adults feel good about their efforts to prevent dangerous, high-risk behaviors and outcomes. However, subsequent research has continually found these programs to be ineffective at best and injurious at worst (Ringwalt, Ennett, & Holt, 1991; Stewart et al., 2006). Fortunately, prevention research has progressed, and we now know that effective programs have a combination of the following elements: information provision, social skills building, problem-solving techniques, resistance strategies, and self-efficacy enhancements. A prime example of a substance abuse prevention program for youths is the keepin' it REAL (kiR) program, designed in the late 1990s and declared a model program by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) (Marsiglia & Hecht, 2005). It has now been culturally adapted for a variety of populations and international locations (Holleran Steiker, Goldbach, Hopson, & Powell, 2011). Another exemplar, for women at risk for alcohol-related pregnancy, is Project CHOICES (Floyd et al., 2007). This program combines assessment of risky behaviors in women of childbearing age, primarily alcohol consumption and lack of contraceptive use, with a six-session program to prevent fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) in newborns. Although prevention is often categorized into primary (or universal), secondary (or selective), and tertiary (or indicated) target areas, some argue that--by definition--tertiary programs are not actually preventive because they address those individuals who are already displaying the behaviors they intend to prevent. Those who argue point believe that juncture marks a distinct delineation between prevention and intervention. However, we support the argument that tertiary prevention is a necessary component of the care continuum, because those displaying problematic behaviors are rarely open to formal treatment, much less fully aware of the need or ready for intervention. This is the theoretical foundation of the stages of change model (Prochaska & DiClemente, 1992), which is currently widely embraced by the social work profession because of its attention to meeting clients exactly where they are. Rather than defining intervention programs as treatment that occurs in relation to diagnosis and comes after any failed prevention efforts, model broadens the definition to include prevention as a form of intervention before formal clinical diagnosis and treatment. …

A Summary and Synthesis of Contemporary Empirical Evidence Regarding the Effects of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (D.A.R.E.)

The prevention of drug abuse is an especially salient topic for school psychologists and other educational professionals. Schools are the primary setting for providing education and information aimed at the prevention of drug abuse. Previous meta-analyses (Ennett, et al., 1994; West & O’Neal, 2004) indicate that one of the nation’s most popular drug prevention programs, the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program (D.A.R.E.), was not effective in reducing illicit drug use among youths. In 2003, D.A.R.E. was modified in an attempt to make it more effective. The purpose of this review is to summarize and synthesize the contemporary empirical evidence, which includes six studies focusing on the old D.A.R.E. and one study focusing on the new D.A.R.E., regarding outcomes associated with the modified D.A.R.E. program. Recent studies offer mixed evidence regarding the effectiveness of the new D.A.R.E curriculum, thus, further systematic investigation is warranted to better understand student outcomes associated with the new D.A.R.E curriculum. This information is particularly valuable for school psychologists, administrators, and other education professionals responsible for identifying empirically supported programs for use in schools.

Parents' Perceptions of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (DARE)

ABSTRACT Responses from 420 parents of fifth- and sixth-grade DARE students in a Midwestern county were examined to determine the parents' perceptions of the impact of DARE on their children's and their own attitudes and behavior. Major findings indicated that most parents did not see an impact on their child's school performance or overall attendance. Most perceived program impact with respect to the child's improved understanding and ability to resist drug use and improved perception of police officers. Most parents themselves reported increased awareness of substance abuse problems and increased conversation with their children about drug use as a result of DARE. Relevance of the findings to describing the perceived value and utility of DARE for parents as a stakeholder group is discussed.

Recanting of substance use reports in a longitudinal prevention study

We analyzed recanting of substance use reports for lifetime use of alcohol, alcohol to get drunk, cigarettes, marijuana and cocaine in an 8-wave panel study designed to evaluate the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program in the State of Illinois. Although this phenomenon has been identified elsewhere, the current analysis of recanting is a unique attempt to track this behavior over the entire course of adolescence. Overall, rates of recanting for specific drugs were extremely high, ranging from 45% for lifetime reports of alcohol use to 81% for lifetime reports of cocaine. Most recanting occurred in the wave immediately following the wave of first disclosure. Paralleling results from other studies, race/ethnicity was an important correlate of recanting in both bivariate and multivariate analyses. African American respondents had higher rates of recanting than White subjects. Even after controlling for the number of follow-up waves, the later the wave of first disclosed lifetime drug use, the lower the probability that drug use would be recanted ever (for all substances) or in the wave immediately following first disclosure (for reports of ever having been drunk or for lifetime marijuana or cocaine use). Alternative causes for this phenomenon are discussed. Implications for the design and interpretation of multiwave school-based panel surveys targeted toward adolescents are also addressed.

Assessing the Effects of School-Based Drug Education: A Six-Year Multilevel Analysis of Project D.A.R.E.

A randomized longitudinal field experiment was conducted to estimate the short- and long-term effects of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program (D.A.R.E.) on students' attitudes, beliefs, social skills, and drug use behaviors. Students from urban, suburban, and rural schools (N = 1,798) were followed for more than six years, with surveys administered each year from 6th through 12th grades. Teachers were also surveyed annually to measure students' cumulative exposure to supplemental (post-D.A.R.E.) drug education. Multilevel analyses (random-effects ordinal regression) were conducted on seven waves of posttreatment data. The results indicate that D.A.R.E. had no long-term effects on a wide range of drug use measures, nor did it show a lasting impact on hypothesized mediating variables, with one exception. Previously documented short-term effects had dissipated by the conclusion of the study. Some D.A.R.E.-by-community interactions were observed: Urban and rural students showed some benefits, whereas suburban students experienced small but significant increases in drug use after participation in D.A.R.E.

Demand for and Supply of Drugs among School Youth. An Evaluation of the Swedish Dare Program

Illicit drug use among high school students is on the rise in Sweden as well as in other countries. This fact has put high demand on the police, who are not only expected to reduce the availability of drugs but also to take part in the effort to affect the students' demand for drugs. The aim of this study was to analyze what impact students' demand for and perceived availability of illicit drugs in the seventh grade have on their attitudes towards and experience with drugs in the eigth grade. Moreover, the purpose was to investigate to what extent a specific police-led school-based drug prevention program, the project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), affects students' attitudes and experiences regarding drugs. As a part in an ongoing evaluation of the Swedish DARE program (called VÅGA) about 1 800 students in 22 Swedish junior high schools on three occasions anonymously answered questions about their attitudes towards and experiences with drugs. Contextual analysis was used to estimate the significance of various student-level risk-factors (such as family bonding, school involvement, and peer activity) and school aggregated contextual factors. The results show that students' curiosity and perceived availability of illicit drugs at the school-level have statistically significant effects on drug-related attitudes and experiences at the individual-student level. The attitudes towards and experiences with drugs in the eigth grade of students who participated in the DARE program in the seventh grade were not different from those of students who did not participate in the program. A brief discussion of what measures the police should conduct in order to block the availability of drugs and what their role in schools should be are finally presented.

Drug abuse resistance education program effectiveness

Presents information on the Drug abuse resistance education (DARE) program, a set of 17 lessons on drug resistance given by police officers to sixth grade children. Measures attitudes toward drug use and degree of reported use. Indicates that DARE is successful in providing information but that the levels of reported behavior do not show significant improvement in self‐reported drug use compared to two control groups. Urges caution in expanding the program, since positive results are limited at present.

Truth and DARE: Tracking Drug Education to Graduation and as Symbolic Politics

This article utilizes a multi-dimensional impact and process evaluation framework to explore the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program in terms of long-term effects, political potency, and implementation issues. The impact dimension compares questionnaire data from 288 high school seniors exposed to DARE as seventh graders with 335 non-exposed seniors. No significant differences in drug use behaviors or attitudes were found between the two groups. Micro-level process findings from a focus group interview reinforced the quantitative results. At the macro-level, DARE is shown to be a form of symbolic politics, supported by direct and indirect stakeholders, and embedded in a complex and potent organizational support structure. To minimize conflicts with DARE stakeholders and enhance program understanding, we consider how factors associated with the implementation process may have influenced the results. These include contextual factors, disjunctions between program ideals and implementation realities, and program design limitations. This multidimensional evaluation approach provides both context and meaning for understanding the DARE program and for interpreting the results. It also underscores the need for a more multi-faceted discourse on drug prevention programs in order to consider the relative merits of both psychosocial and structural approaches to the issue of drug use.