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Abstract #148833

Eric C. Twombly, PhD, Georgia State University, 14 Marietta Street NW, Room 316, Atlanta, GA 30303, 404-651-1099, padect@langate.gsu.edu and Kristen D. Holtz, PhD, KDH Research and Communication Inc, 375 Highland Ave NE #301, Atlanta, GA 30312.

Drug and alcohol use among youth remains at pervasively high levels. At the same time, students are receiving less school-based prevention . Therefore, infusing health information into core curricula may be a valuable prevention approach. The National Institute on Drug Abuse funded development of a science education curriculum on drugs for 6th through 8th grade students, which was then evaluated using a pretest/posttest quasi-experimental design. This curriculum was built from a behavior change model with two assumptions: First, knowledge about the physiological effects of drugs on the body is a necessary precursor to attitude change. Second, more positive attitudes predict protective behaviors. From this theoretical base, we evaluated the extent to which the application of this curriculum in student populations produced the combined effects of increased knowledge and more protective beliefs and behaviors. Participating schools were randomized into experimental and control groups. Multiple classrooms participated in each school. Students completed knowledge and attitudes measures before and after exposure to the curriculum. Teachers and administrators provided qualitative contextual information about the school community. This presentation will report the results of this evaluation. Specifically, the study tests the assumptions of the theoretical basis of the curriculum, explore the ability of the curriculum to change knowledge, attitudes and behavior, and describe the relationship between positive reactions to the curriculum and teacher and community-level characteristics. Results of this evaluation may support the potential utility of combining behavior change theory with educational approaches to maximize the dissemination of health messages to students.

Learning Objectives:

• Compare and contrast educational and behavior change approaches to transmitting health information, and describe the relative benefits of each.
• Recognize factors that may predict efficacy of science education curricula on drugs for students.
• Describe the relationship between knowledge change, attitude change, behavior, interpersonal characteristics and community level variables in this example of drug abuse prevention.

Keywords: Prevention, Drug Abuse

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No
Any institutionally-contracted trials related to this submission?

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.