D.A.R.E.WORKS
As Reported by 3,150 Ohio Eleventh Graders

by
Joseph F. Donnermeyer, Ph.D.
Associate Professor,
The Ohio State University

G. Howard Phillips, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus,
The Ohio State University

Does D.A.R.E. Make A Difference In Students' Attitudes And Behavior In The Use Of Alcohol And Drugs?

To answer this question, eleventh grade students were selected as the study population because they were old enough to have been confronted with opportunities to use alcohol, marijuana and hard drugs. Also, some students of this age would have had the opportunity to participate in the D.A.R.E. program at the elementary, junior high and senior high levels. Altogether, 3,150 11th grade students participated in this statewide assessment of D.A.R.E., funded by the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice Services. Results from this research showed that D.A.R.E. does make a positive difference.

The basic questionnaire consisted of a well-tested instrument developed by the American Drug and Alcohol Survey of the Rocky Mountain Behavioral Sciences Institute at Fort Collins, Colorado. More than 1,200 schools had previously used this instrument. A special insert was developed in order to examine issues pertinent to prevention education programs.

FINDING #1

DRUG USE AMONG 11th GRADE STUDENTS

Students were classified into three risk groups. Low risk includes students who have never used drugs or alcohol, those who rarely drink, and those who had experimented with substances once or twice but not recently. Students who used alcohol on a more frequent basis, or used marijuana on an occasional, but not on a regular basis, were classified as moderate risk. Finally, high risk students were those who are heavy alcohol users or regular users of other drugs.

As shown in Table 1, students who had two or three D.A.R.E. classes (elementary, junior high and/or high school) were significantly more likely to be in the low risk group and conversely, less likely to be in the moderate and high risk categories. Students with only one exposure to D.A.R.E. were also more likely to be in the low risk group than students who had never attended D.A.R.E. classes. Students with no D.A.R.E. classes were less likely to be in the low risk group. In other words, they were more often in the higher risk groups. These results strongly suggest D.A.R.E. does reduce substance use.

*PERCENTAGES DO NOT ADD UP TO 100% DUE TO ROUNDING.

TABLE 1 Risk levels in the Use of Drugs & Alcohol Reported by 3,150 Ohio Eleventh Grade Students