Pubdate: Sun, 16 Feb 2003
Source: Leaf-Chronicle, The (US TN)
Copyright: 2003, The Leaf-Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.theleafchronicle.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1601
Author: Todd Defeo
Webpage: 
http://www.theleafchronicle.com/news/stories/20030216/localnews/996035.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.)

D.A.R.E. REACHES OUT TO OLDER STUDENTS

The widely-used D.A.R.E. program has local elementary school students, but 
officials are interested in increasing drug-education programs to reach 
older audiences.

D.A.R.E., a program offered locally to fifth-grade students, has been 
successful in thwarting drug use among elementary school children, Officer 
Leo Rowe says.

"I see parents with their children that stop me on the street and say 
there's my D.A.R.E. officer; and the parents come up and say, 'I want to 
thank you,' " Rowe said. "Children go home and share what they learned with 
their parents."

D.A.R.E. is the most frequently used youth drug-abuse prevention program in 
the United States, starting with elementary school. Several evaluations 
have shown that the program has made some progress in keeping youngsters 
from starting to smoke cigarettes.

But a new study from the University of Minnesota shows that the D.A.R.E. 
program alone has little effect on middle school students. Instead, 
researchers said, a new program -- D.A.R.E. Plus -- is more effective at 
reaching an older audience.

D.A.R.E. Plus adds a classroom-based, peer-led program that includes 
parents. This four-session, once-a-week program is led by specially trained 
teachers and focuses on skills and influences from peers, social groups, 
media and role models.

"I'd love to do a program such as that," Rowe said. He is working with 
police to start a week-long summer session that would followup the D.A.R.E. 
program currently offered.

University of Minnesota researcher Cheryl Perry said the study's outcomes 
"underscore the effectiveness of broadening our prevention programs to 
develop healthy communities by including parents, peers and other community 
members."

Among boys, those in D.A.R.E. Plus were significantly less likely than 
those in D.A.R.E.-only programs to show increases in tobacco use and 
violent behavior, and slightly less likely to increase their smoking if 
they had already started.

Girls in D.A.R.E. Plus schools were less likely to report increases in ever 
having been drunk compared to girls in the D.A.R.E.-only schools. 
Otherwise, there was no difference between girls in the various programs.

"Because boys were at greater risk at the start, these results suggest that 
the intervention was reaching an audience that was at high risk and that 
these efforts were warranted," the researchers said. But they noted that 
the differences in outcomes by sex need more study, since there was a clear 
effect of the interventions among girls.

Scripps Howard News Service contributed to this report. Todd DeFeo covers 
criminal justice
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