A COMPARISON OF THREE APPROACHES USED IN SELECTED SCHOOL-BASED SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION PROGRAMS
Abstract
This investigation compared the relative effectiveness of the affective/humanistic education, peer group and alternatives approaches used in selected New York City school-based substance abuse prevention programs in improving attendance, behavior and self-concept of students participating in three school district substance abuse prevention programs. A control group was used in this comparison. The subjects were 402 intermediate and junior high school students. Each treatment group consisted of 100 students. The control group included 102 students; 34 from each of the three programs. The instruments used were: (a) Students' Ideas and Opinions--Semantic Differential; (b) Official attendance roll books; (c) School disciplinary record files; and (d) The Piers-Harris Children's Self Concept Scale. The statistical procedures employed were: (1) Discriminant function analyses were used on the Semantic Differential data to test for distinctions among the approaches. (2) Two-way analyses were used to test whether significant differences existed for the three variables among the groups. (3) Multiple analyses of covariance were conducted on posttest/posttreatment data when initial differences existed after pretest/pretreatment analyses, to control for those differences. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) There was no significant difference between the affective/humanistic education approach and peer group approach. There was a significant difference between the alternative approach when compared to the other two approaches. (2) After adjusting for initial differences for discipline referrals data and self-concept pretest scores, statistical significances were not found to exist for main effects or the interaction for any of the variables. The three approaches as used by the districts involved in this study had no effect on the variables. The principal recommendations of this study were: (1) It should be replicated in similar districts which employ the three approaches in order to determine if the findings can be validated. In addition, other variables identified by the State of New York should be included in the study in order to determine if there are any significant differences among the experimental groups and the control group on any of the variables. (2) It should be replicated over a one year treatment period to determine if greater exposure to treatment has any effect on results achieved. (3) Another study should be conducted comparing other recognized approaches to substance abuse prevention.
Subject Area
Educational psychology
Recommended Citation
AIELLO, NICHOLAS ANTHONY, "A COMPARISON OF THREE APPROACHES USED IN SELECTED SCHOOL-BASED SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION PROGRAMS" (1982). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI8213595.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI8213595
