Drug Abuse Prevention Principles and Planning

Prevention Principles

These principles are designed to guide parents, educators, and community leaders in planning and implementing research-based drug abuse prevention programs.

Risk and Protective Factors

  • PRINCIPLE 1: Prevention programs should enhance protective factors and reverse or reduce risk factors.
    • Drug abuse risk is related to the balance between risk factors (e.g., deviant attitudes) and protective factors (e.g., parental support).
    • The impact of specific risk and protective factors varies with age. Family risk factors are more influential for younger children, while peer influence is stronger for adolescents.
    • Early intervention targeting risk factors like aggressive behavior and poor self-control can be more effective than later interventions, altering a child's developmental path.
    • Risk and protective factors can have differential effects based on age, gender, ethnicity, culture, and environment.

Addressing Drug Abuse Forms

  • PRINCIPLE 2: Prevention programs should address all forms of drug abuse, whether alone or in combination. This includes:
    • Underage use of legal drugs (e.g., tobacco, alcohol).
    • Use of illegal drugs (e.g., marijuana, heroin).
    • Inappropriate use of legally obtained substances (e.g., inhalants, prescription medications, over-the-counter drugs).

Community-Specific Prevention

  • PRINCIPLE 3: Prevention programs should address the specific drug abuse problems in the local community. This involves:
    • Targeting modifiable risk factors.
    • Strengthening identified protective factors.

Tailoring Programs

  • PRINCIPLE 4: Prevention programs should be tailored to address risks specific to population characteristics (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity) to improve effectiveness.

Prevention Planning

Family Programs

  • PRINCIPLE 5: Family-based prevention programs should:

    • Enhance family bonding and relationships.

    • Include parenting skills training.

    • Provide practice in developing, discussing, and enforcing family policies on substance abuse.

    • Offer drug education and information.

    • Family bonding is the foundation of parent-child relationships and can be strengthened through:

      • Parent supportiveness skills training.
      • Parent-child communication skills training.
      • Parental involvement.

    • Parental monitoring and supervision are critical:

      • Enhanced through rule-setting training.
      • Techniques for monitoring activities.
      • Praise for appropriate behavior.
      • Consistent discipline that enforces defined family rules.

    • Drug education for parents reinforces children's learning about drug harms and facilitates family discussions about substance abuse.

    • Brief, family-focused interventions can positively change parenting behavior, reducing later drug abuse risks.

School Programs

  • PRINCIPLE 6: Prevention programs can intervene as early as preschool to address drug abuse risk factors like aggressive behavior, poor social skills, and academic difficulties.
  • PRINCIPLE 7: Elementary school programs should improve academic and social-emotional learning to address risk factors like early aggression, academic failure, and school dropout. Education should focus on:
    • Self-control.
    • Emotional awareness.
    • Communication.
    • Social problem-solving.
    • Academic support, especially in reading.
  • PRINCIPLE 8: Prevention programs for middle/junior high and high school students should increase academic and social competence through skills related to:
    • Study habits and academic support.
    • Communication.
    • Peer relationships.
    • Self-efficacy and assertiveness.
    • Drug resistance skills.
    • Reinforcement of anti-drug attitudes.
    • Strengthening personal commitments against drug abuse.

Community Programs

  • PRINCIPLE 9: Prevention programs aimed at general populations at key transition points (e.g., middle school transition) can benefit even high-risk families and children. These interventions reduce labeling and promote school and community bonding.
  • PRINCIPLE 10: Community prevention programs combining multiple effective programs (e.g., family-based and school-based) can be more effective than single programs.
  • PRINCIPLE 11: Community prevention programs reaching populations in multiple settings (e.g., schools, clubs, faith-based organizations, media) are most effective when presenting consistent, community-wide messages in each setting.

Prevention Program Delivery

  • PRINCIPLE 12: When communities adapt programs, they should retain core elements of the original research-based intervention:
    • Structure (program organization).
    • Content (information, skills, strategies).
    • Delivery (adaptation, implementation, evaluation).
  • PRINCIPLE 13: Prevention programs should be long-term with repeated interventions (booster programs) to reinforce original goals. Benefits from middle school programs diminish without follow-up in high school.
  • PRINCIPLE 14: Prevention programs should include teacher training on good classroom management practices (e.g., rewarding appropriate behavior) to foster positive behavior, achievement, academic motivation, and school bonding.
  • PRINCIPLE 15: Prevention programs are most effective when employing interactive techniques (e.g., peer discussion groups, parent role-playing) that allow for active involvement in learning about drug abuse and reinforcing skills.
  • PRINCIPLE 16: Research-based prevention programs can be cost-effective. For each dollar invested in prevention, savings of up to $$10 in treatment for alcohol or other substance abuse can be seen.