How do classrooms, schools, and communities influence delivery of universal prevention?

Underage drinking and illicit drug use among youth constitute a significant public health problem. Because of the high personal and societal costs associated with youth drug use, scholars and practitioners have long grappled with methods to address the problem.

One approach to preventing or reducing illicit drug use in youth is through universal school-based prevention curricula. The National Institute on Drug Abuse funded the development of one such science education curriculum to teach middle school students about the physiological effects of drugs and alcohol on the brain and body. We conducted an evaluation of this curriculum in eight Southern schools that took the form of a quasi-experimental, pretest/post-test design. The goal of the evaluation was to explore the extent to which the curriculum changed students' knowledge and attitudes about alcohol and illicit drugs.

We also collected detailed qualitative data from students, teachers, and administrators at the respective schools in order to produce contextual information about the manner in which discussions about drugs and alcohol are framed in the classrooms, schools, and their communities. Our hypothesis is that the framing of the issue of youth drug use at the institutional or community levels, coupled with the characteristics of teachers, the demographic composition of classrooms, and other institutional factors, will influence the effectiveness of the curriculum. The proposed paper tests and reports on this hypothesis and provides a detailed discussion of the importance of understanding institutional and environmental context when designing and evaluating innovative school-based prevention and education tools.