Development of a school-based drug abuse prevention curriculum for high-risk youths.
This paper presents the rationale for and description of the empirical curriculum development process in Project Towards No Drug Abuse (Project TND), which is a five-year grant funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. First, the target population is described, continuation high-school youths who are at high risk for drug abuse. The rationale for developing a classroom-based curriculum tailored for them is also provided. Second, a brief description is provided of state-of-the-art generic social influences drug abuse prevention programming, which has been found to be the most effective among young adolescents. There is a the need to consider other prevention activities, particularly those that include motivational variables, to maximize prevention efforts among higher-risk youths. Third, five types of curriculum development studies are discussed that led to a curriculum that is being implemented with continuation high-school students at schools in five counties in southern California. Finally, the contents of the final curriculum product is provided, which consists of motivation, skills-training, and decision-making components.
Sussman
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Department of Preventive Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA.
D000293:Adolescent; D002140:California; D003479:Curriculum; D006266:Health Education / Q000379:methods*; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D012574:Schools; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control*