A Short-Term Evaluation of Project Dare (Drug Abuse Resistance Education): Preliminary Indications of Effectiveness

1987 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 279-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
William DeJong

This short-term evaluation was designed to assess the impact of Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), a joint project of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District, on the knowledge, attitudes, and self-reported behavior of seventh-grade children who received the full-semester DARE curriculum during sixth grade. Compared to a control group, students who had DARE training reported significantly lower use of alcohol, cigarettes, and other drugs since graduating from sixth grade. These findings were especially strong for boys. In response to questions for which students were to imagine friends pressuring them to use alcohol or drugs, DARE students refused the imagined offers more frequently and more often used refusal strategies that removed them from the immediate temptation.

2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karine Brito dos Santos ◽  
Sheila Giardini Murta ◽  
Luis Gustavo do Amaral Vinha ◽  
Juliana Silva de Deus

Abstract Peers are the preferred source of help for Brazilian adolescents who experience dating violence. However, they are not always the best informants for effective responses for dealing with situations of violence in romantic relationships among peers. This experimental study aimed to evaluate the short-term efficacy of three aspects of a peer- and bystander approach-based intervention: the intent to offer help, empathy, and bystander attitudes in response to dating violence in a Brazilian sample of adolescents. The study’s participants were 33 adolescents randomized in two groups: experimental group (EG, n = 14) and control group (CG, n = 19). The EG underwent three weekly intervention sessions of 90 min each on the healthy versus violent romantic relationships, the quality of friendship in the peer network, and the role of the bystander, while the CG received no intervention. Evaluations were performed 1 week before and two and half months after the intervention. Statistically significant differences between EG and CG at post-test were not found in intention to help, empathy, and bystander attitudes. Future studies should include evaluations of larger samples and mid- and long-term follow-ups to identify patterns of change over the long term as well as examine barriers to utilization of bystander behaviors by adolescents in Brazilian culture.


1997 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph F. Donnermeyer ◽  
Todd N. Wurschmidt

This study examines the perceptions of educators about the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program, based on the results of a statewide survey among 286 fifth and sixth grade teachers and principals. Educators gave their highest ratings to teacher/officer interaction, the role playing exercises, and the graduation ceremony. Ratings of overall program quality and the impact of the program on students were both high. Block regression analysis was used to examine factors predictive of educators' views of D.A.R.E. D.A.R.E. program elements were the most important factors explaining variance in educators' ratings of over-all program quality and program impact on students. Altogether, 54 percent and 38 percent of the variance in both dependent variables were explained. The results are discussed in terms of the important role teachers and principals play as stakeholders in prevention education.


2011 ◽  
Vol 143 (3) ◽  
pp. 1337-1348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Varea ◽  
Agustina Malpeli ◽  
Graciela Etchegoyen ◽  
María Vojkovic ◽  
Liliana Disalvo ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 155 (2) ◽  
pp. 176-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustina Malpeli ◽  
María Guillermina Ferrari ◽  
Ana Varea ◽  
Mariana Falivene ◽  
Graciela Etchegoyen ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Florian Arendt

A test was done to see if reading a newspaper which consistently overrepresents foreigners as criminals strengthens the automatic association between foreign country and criminal in memory (i.e., implicit cultivation). Further, an investigation was done to find out if reading articles from the same newspaper produces a short-term effect on the same measure and if (1) emotionalization of the newspaper texts, (2) emotional reactions of the reader (indicated by arousal), and (3) attributed text credibility moderate the short-term treatment effect. Eighty-five participants were assigned to one of three experimental conditions. Participants in the control group received short factual crime texts, where the nationality of the offender was not mentioned. Participants in the factual treatment group received the same texts, but the foreign nationality was mentioned. Participants in the emotionalized treatment group received emotionalized articles (i.e., texts which are high in vividness and frequency) covering the same crimes, with the foreign nationality mentioned. Supporting empirical evidence for implicit cultivation and a short-term effect was found. However, only emotionalized articles produced a short-term effect on the strength of the automatic association, indicating that newspaper texts must have a minimum of stimulus intensity to overcome an effect threshold. There were no moderating effects of arousal or credibility pertaining to the impact on the implicit measure. However, credibility moderated the short-term effect on a first-order judgment (i.e., estimated frequency of foreigners of all criminals). This indicates that a newspaper’s effect on the strength of automatic associations is relatively independent from processes of propositional reasoning.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 209-228
Author(s):  
Layla Parast ◽  
Priscillia Hunt ◽  
Beth Ann Griffin ◽  
David Powell

AbstractIn some applications, researchers using the synthetic control method (SCM) to evaluate the effect of a policy may struggle to determine whether they have identified a “good match” between the control group and treated group. In this paper, we demonstrate the utility of the mean and maximum Absolute Standardized Mean Difference (ASMD) as a test of balance between a synthetic control unit and treated unit, and provide guidance on what constitutes a poor fit when using a synthetic control. We explore and compare other potential metrics using a simulation study. We provide an application of our proposed balance metric to the 2013 Los Angeles (LA) Firearm Study [9]. Using Uniform Crime Report data, we apply the SCM to obtain a counterfactual for the LA firearm-related crime rate based on a weighted combination of control units in a donor pool of cities. We use this counterfactual to estimate the effect of the LA Firearm Study intervention and explore the impact of changing the donor pool and pre-intervention duration period on resulting matches and estimated effects. We demonstrate how decision-making about the quality of a synthetic control can be improved by using ASMD. The mean and max ASMD clearly differentiate between poor matches and good matches. Researchers need better guidance on what is a meaningful imbalance between synthetic control and treated groups. In addition to the use of gap plots, the proposed balance metric can provide an objective way of determining fit.


BMJ ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 2 (5810) ◽  
pp. 378-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Pietrogrande ◽  
N. Dioguardi ◽  
P. M. Mannucci

2003 ◽  
Vol 19 (8) ◽  
pp. 739-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Alberto de Souza Costa ◽  
Elisa Maria Aparecida Giro ◽  
Alexandre Batista Lopes do Nascimento ◽  
Hilcia Mezzalira Teixeira ◽  
Josimeri Hebling

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