ABSTRACT
Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model of persuasive communication, the authors examine the impact of the perceptions of the instructor or source on students' receptivity to a new substance abuse prevention curriculum. Using survey data from a cohort of students participating in the Adolescent Substance Abuse Prevention Study, the authors use structural equation modeling to determine the effects of the perceptions students have of their program instructor on measures of the targeted program mediators and the use of cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana. They test these instructor effects after each component of a two-part curriculum is administered (during the seventh and ninth grades). They find that the perceptions of the instructor significantly affect refusal, communication and decision-making skills, normative beliefs, perceived consequences of use, and substance use. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for school-based prevention programming and indications for further research.
Subject(s)
Attitude , Health Education , Persuasive Communication , Police , Substance-Related Disorders/prevention & control , Adolescent , Alcohol Drinking/adverse effects , Alcohol Drinking/prevention & control , Alcohol Drinking/psychology , Child , Cohort Studies , Communication , Culture , Curriculum , Decision Making , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Marijuana Abuse/prevention & control , Marijuana Abuse/psychology , Models, Psychological , Ohio , Smoking/adverse effects , Smoking/psychology , Smoking Prevention , Substance-Related Disorders/psychology , Treatment Outcome , Treatment Refusal , TrustABSTRACT
Although program recipients' attitudes toward instructors are crucial to program outcomes, they have not been adequately examined in the substance abuse prevention literature. This study uses survey data to explore attitudes toward instructors of prevention programming held by students from a national longitudinal evaluation of a school-based substance abuse prevention program delivered by Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) officers. Our analyses indicated that students who had police officers as instructors evaluated program instructors significantly higher than students who had non-police officers as instructors. The evaluation of police instructors varied according to students' sociodemographic characteristics. Implications for future research and practice are considered.
