Evaluation of a substance abuse prevention program for junior high school students

Seventh-grade students in the experimental school received two primary prevention strategies. One strategy, Effective Classroom Management, was an unstructured affective approach provided by the students' classroom teachers. The other strategy was Drug Education, a mini-course taught directly to students by a specialist. The seventh-grade students from another school served as a comparison group. Both process and outcome evaluation data were collected. Results indicated positive program effects for females on drug knowledge, cigarette smoking, and perceptions of their peers' attitudes toward and use of drugs. No effects attributable to the intervention were found for males. The discussion is in terms of problems inherent in unstructured affective strategies and the need for further research on drug education.