Key Elements of Effective Drug Prevention Curricula
(Adapted from Making the Grade: A Guide to School Drug Prevention Programs, Drug Strategies, 1999, p. 2. Used with permission.)
Extensive research suggests that the following are key elements of successful prevention curricula. Such curricula:
(1) Helps students recognize internal pressures, like wanting to belong to the group, and external pressures, like peer attitudes and advertising, that influence them to use alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.
(2) Facilitates development of personal, social and refusal skills to resist these pressures.
(3) Teaches that using, alcohol, tobacco and other drugs is not the norm among teenagers, correcting the misconception that “everyone is doing it,” and promotes positive norms through bonding to school and constructive role models.
(4) Provides developmentally appropriate material and activities, including information about the short-term effects and long-term consequences of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.
(5) Uses interactive teaching techniques, such as role plays, discussions, brainstorming and cooperative learning.
(6) Covers necessary prevention elements in at least eight well-designed sessions a year (with a minimum of three to five booster sessions in one or more succeeding years).
(7) Actively involves the family and the community, so that prevention strategies are reinforced across settings.
(8) Includes teacher training and support, in order to assure that curricula are delivered as intended.
(9) Contains material that is easy for teachers to implement and culturally relevant for students.
