Pubdate: Thu, 01 Aug 2002 Source: River Valley News (CN NK) Copyright: 2002 River Valley News Contact: http://www.liquid.nb.ca/rvnews/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2383 Author: Wayne Phillips Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.) D.A.R.E. TEACHING KIDS TO RESIST DRUGS & VIOLENCE Editor; For drug education to be effective it has to be credible. Learning how to say no and dealing with different pressures and stress amid contrived exercises within controlled environments is one thing; outside of that environment is another matter entirely. Drug education programs must be reality-based or they run the risk of backfiring when kids are inevitably exposed to pressures, peer or otherwise. Every independent evaluation of DARE has found the program to be either ineffective or counterproductive. The 2001 report of the US Surgeon General concluded that "[DARE's] popularity persists despite numerous well-designed evaluations and metaanalyses that consistently show little or no deterrent effect on substance use." The Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology concluded, "Our results are consistent in documenting the absence of beneficial effects associated with the DARE pro-gram. This was true whether the outcome consisted of actual drug use or merely attitudes toward drug use. In addition, we examined processes that are the focus of intervention and purportedly mediate the impact of DARE (e.g., self-esteem and peer resistance), and these also failed to differentiate DARE participants from nonparticipants. Thus, consistent with the earlier Clayton et al. (1996) study, there appear to be no reliable short-term, long-positive outcomes associated with receiving DARE intervention." Wayne Phillips Hamilton, ON Source: Lynam, Donald R., Milich, Richard, et al., "Pro-ject DARE: No Effects at 10-Year Follow-Up", Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, August 1999), Vol. 67, No. 4, 590-593. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager