Communication and health education research: potential sources for education for prevention of drug use

Studies conducted by the Stanford Center for Research in Disease Prevention have been carried out over the last 15 years. These studies indicate that, with systematic planning by interdisciplinary research teams, field research projects, based on appropriate theory, can be mounted successfully both at the community level and in schools for the study of adolescents and for adolescent children. Both final and interim results are for the most part encouraging. While all of the research reported here applies to health problems completely different from AIDS, some useful suggestions may emerge. For one thing, in both AIDS prevention and chronic disease prevention, the most effective measures to be taken appear to be behavioral. The research reported here is almost exclusively concerned with developing and testing methods for assisting people to change their behavior in ways that are likely to promote health and reduce risk of disease. They involve education at a community level and in schools. Perhaps education for AIDS prevention can follow similar lines with some success. Recently, several studies have been directed toward the prevention of drug abuse habits being formed by schoolchildren. A 1984 Rand Corporation report summarizes a number of relevant studies and describes models that have been applied (Polich et al. 1984). These programs are aimed at nonuser adolescents who otherwise might become users. It depicts four stages of experimental use of drugs: (1) nonuse--never tried drugs, (2) experimental or episodic use, (3) regular or frequent use, and finally (4) heavy use. Primary prevention is aimed at the early stages of use. The methods used are essentially those described above. Students need to be able to identify pressures to begin usage, especially from peers. They then need to know the dangers and problems arising from drug use. Next, and crucially, they need to develop skills to resist such pressures and practice using the skills in the presence of such pressure. Role-play situations can help in this process. Project Star at the University of Southern California (not yet published) has recently completed a large-scale seventh grade study in Los Angeles junior high schools. They found the following social approaches worked best in the prevention of drug abuse behavior. These approaches promoted group identification, explained the nature of peer pressure, clarified the misinformation on the prevalence of drug use among peers, made clear the consequences of drug use, and used role-playing techniques to teach resistance skills.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)