ADOLESCENTS PERCEPTIONS OF SUBSTANCE-ABUSE PREVENTION STRATEGIES

As part of a 3-year evaluation of substance abuse prevention strategie s (Harding, Safer, Kavanagh, Bania, Carty, Lisnov, & Wysockey, 1996), this study examined the perceptions of 719 sixth- through ninth-grade Chicago public school students. School-based programs were rated as si gnificantly more effective on six prevention objectives than were tele vision ads, testimonials by famous people, billboards, and print ads d isplayed on public transportation. Students perceived the two school-b ased programs, Project DARE (a national program conducted through loca l police departments) and Captain Clean (an intense live theater progr am coordinated with student participation), as being equally effective overall, although the interactive theater program was rated as signif icantly better at encouraging students to talk about their feelings co ncerning substance abuse issues and at relating to the students' ethni c/racial backgrounds. When students were categorized according to freq uency of alcohol use, nonusers, infrequent users, and frequent users d iffered significantly in their ratings of the school-based programs.