HOW EFFECTIVE IS DRUG-ABUSE RESISTANCE EDUCATION - A METAANALYSIS OF PROJECT DARE OUTCOME EVALUATIONS

Objectives. Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) is the most widely used school-based drug use prevention program in the United St ates, but the findings of rigorous evaluations of its effectiveness ha ve not been considered collectively. Methods. We used meta-analytic te chniques to review eight methodologically rigorous DARE evaluations. W eighted effect size means for several short-term outcomes also were co mpared with means reported for other drug use prevention programs. Res ults. The DARE effect size for drug use behavior ranged from .00 to .1 1 across the eight studies; the weighted mean for drug use across stud ies was .06. For all outcomes considered, the DARE effect size means w ere substantially smaller than those of programs emphasizing social an d general competencies and using interactive teaching strategies. Conc lusions. DARE's shortterm effectiveness for reducing or preventing dru g use behavior is small and is less than for interactive prevention pr ograms.