By Eugene C. Roehlkepartain
(From December 1991, RespecTeen newsletter)

  • Teenage Drug Use at a Glance
  • Promoting Values, Knowledge, and Skills
  • Creating a Positive School Climate
  • Empowering Parents
  • Drug Prevention Organizations for Parents and Teens
  • Mobilizing communities
  • Working Together
  • Selected Resources

    Reefer Madness was destined to become a classic. Released in 1937, the short anti-drug film told a horrifying story of the downfall of a young man who had a promising future . . . until he tried marijuana. But the film's message backfired, and it became a cult favorite among young marijuana users of the late 1960s. Like many early efforts to scare young people from using drugs, Reefer Madness largely failed to have a positive impact.

    Drug prevention efforts have changed dramatically since those scare-tactics days. As alarm about teenage use of alcohol and other drugs has grown, so has our understanding of how to respond to these serious problems. Today, thousands of schools, community agencies, congregations, and other organizations across the country are designing strategies aimed at preventing alcohol and other drug use among teenagers.

    Recent research into effective drug and alcohol prevention reveals that efforts are most effective when they involve entire communities, including families, schools, community organizations, and churches. Due to branches' contact with each of these groups and due to resources provided through RespecTeen, Lutheran Brotherhood branches can play an important role in addressing this national problem.

    The question is, how can branch efforts make the most difference? What specific things need to be done that aren't being done? An evaluation of drug prevention strategies in Minnesota schools helps to answer these questions. Prepared by Search Institute and the Minnesota Institute of Public Health, the report outlines effective drug prevention strategies and identifies gaps in current efforts. It advocates strategies that address the problem by promoting students' values, knowledge, and skills; creating a positive school climate; empowering parents; and mobilizing communities. Each of these strategies suggests ways branches can join with others in their communities in efforts to prevent alcohol and other drug use among teenagers.

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    Teenage Drug Use at a Glance

    RespecTeen-sponsored surveys of almost 50,000 6th- to 12th-graders primarily in small towns and cities in the Midwest shows the following levels of alcohol and other drug use, which are reported in The Troubled Journey:

    Students who have had five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks:23 percent
    Students who use cigarettes daily:12 percent
    Students who have used illegal drugs six or more times in the past year:8 percent
    Male students who are problem drinkers:21 percent
    Female students who are problem drinkers:16 percent
    Seniors who have used alcohol in the past year:83 percent
    Seniors who have drunk alcohol six or more times in the past month:22 percent
    Seniors who have used an illegal drug once or more in their lifetime:42 percent
    Seniors who have used marijuana once or more in their lifetime:34 percent
    Seniors who have used amphetamines once or more in their lifetime:22 percent
    Seniors who have used cocaine once or more in their lifetime:7 percent
    Sixth graders who have used alcohol in their lifetime:44 percent


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    Promoting Values, Knowledge, and Skills

    "Space" and "Grease" have a way of getting through to children about the dangers of alcohol and other drugs. Made out of socks and scraps, the characters come to life on the hands of high school puppeteers in Colorado. The puppeteers-most of whom have had scrapes with the law-travel from school to school with their self-written plays about the problems children face and how to say no to drugs. "We can answer questions about drugs a little bit differently than your teachers do," one troupe member told the Denver Post. Another added, "Name it, and one of us has probably done it."

    Like many other anti-drug programs across the country, this puppet team focuses on promoting students' skills, knowledge, and values. In addition to teaching about the dangers, these programs often teach refusal skills, show how to resist peer pressure, teach decision-making, enhance self-esteem, or promote positive values such as educational commitment.

    As important as providing knowledge is, focusing on it alone is rarely effective, and can be counterproductive. A paper from the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development concluded that "providing information often had the paradoxical result of arousing interest in some youth in trying the substance, perhaps because the mood-altering aspects of the drug's effects were presented as well as its dangers. . . . Information alone was not sufficient to change either attitudes or behaviors toward substance abuse."

    Similarly, programs that focus exclusively on problem-solving, communication, self-esteem, or other skills have little positive impact on drug use. The Carnegie report concluded that these approaches "placed too little emphasis on the kind of real-life skills students need to cope with the various internal and external pressures to use tobacco, alcohol, and drugs." Skills for Adolescence  (grades K-5) and Skills for Growing  (grades 6-8)-available through RespecTeen are two popular curricula that address the multitude of pressures and situations teenagers face.

    More effective are those efforts that address a variety of skills, knowledge and values. Take, for example, the "Teens Are Concerned" program in Greene County, Arkansas, which is highlighted in Prevention Plus II: Tools for Creating and Sustaining Drug-Free Communities  as an exemplary, comprehensive program. In 1984, only two teachers and two students attended a meeting of the county's Volunteer Resource Council to discuss starting a prevention program. And the teachers said they didn't need a program because there wasn't a problem.

    But one of the teenagers disagreed. She organized a group of 30 teenagers who attended the next meeting to voice their concern-and to move the agency to action.

    Today Teens Are Concerned has a 20-member board of youth and adults who represent business leaders, clergy, parents, school personnel, and law enforcement. The effort involves training, state-wide presentations by TAC members, alcohol- and drug-free alternative activities, media campaigns with local television, radio, and newspapers, and sponsorship of conferences and children's health fairs.

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    Creating a Positive School Climate

    Schools have an important role to play in preventing teen alcohol and other drug use. "Kids spend nine months a year there," argues Morton M. Silverman of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "It's the natural setting to pass on safety and health information." Better yet, it's a good place to augment information with consistent policies, programs, and expectations that help teenagers avoid using alcohol and other drugs.

    The school's role begins with having clear policies about alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, according to the Minnesota study by Search Institute. A school's climate where drug use is unaccepted and where students feel cared for also makes a difference. Research suggests that students in these schools are less likely than other students to use drugs.

    Sullivan High School in rural Illinois has experienced what happens when a school focuses on creating a positive climate. Counselor Dennis Hutchings told USA Today  how the school's drug prevention efforts turned the school into a "healthy environment to live and learn." The school developed an anti-drug curriculum and peer leadership training programs each summer. It was also the first school in the state to hold after-prom parties that provide a drug-free place to have fun.

    "Student leaders helped create the atmosphere where drugs are the wrong thing to do," Hutchings explained. And while the effort began in the school, the whole community got involved. The counselor believes that school morale has been dramatically bolstered as a result. "You can feel in the halls that this is a neat place to be."

    Schools climate can also have a significant impact if it involves students in positive extracurricular activities. Teens involved in extracurricular activities are less likely to use alcohol and other drugs, as are young people who are involved in community service and community organizations. These positive activities provide alternatives and promote positive values that can prevent young people from using alcohol and other drugs.

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    Empowering Parents

    Concerned about widespread drug use among teenagers, some parents in California organized Parents Who Care, a program that's similar to many others around the country. The group works with teenagers to organize drug-free social activities and to provide positive peer relationships to younger teens. Taking a cue from their parents, the young people also formed Teens Who Care, which promotes positive peer pressure to support others to make drug-free choices.

    Parents Who Care illustrates an important truth: Parents can make a vital difference in teenage alcohol and other drug use. Young people who feel support from their families, who communicate well with their parents, and who live with appropriate standards and discipline are less likely to become involved in alcohol or other drugs. "Parents can be the greatest change agents in the world," says Shirley D. Coletti of the National Federation of Parents for Drug-Free Youth.

    However, parents are often ill-equipped for these responsibilities. Thus organizations involved in prevention efforts will have a more significant impact if they provide knowledge and support for parents. Schools, congregations, and other organizations can support families by: As important as parental involvement is, it is often difficult to generate. The study of Minnesota prevention efforts found that at least three out of four schools used strategies to empower parents. However, fewer that 15 percent of parents take advantage of these opportunities. The challenge, then, is to find innovative ways to reach parents to support them and give them training in critical drug-prevention issues.

    Some schools and organizations around the country have successfully implemented a variety of programs that involve parents. An organization in Greenwich, Connecticut, called Parents Together established guidelines for teen parties. Then organizers asked parents to sign a pledge that they would . . . More than 1,000 parents signed the pledge, which not only raised awareness in the community, but helped parents support each other in providing positive alternatives for teenagers.

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    Drug Prevention Organizations for Parents and Teens

    By some estimates, there are more than 7,000 organized groups across the country that provide support and resources for parents and teenagers in alcohol and other drug use prevention. Here are some of the major national groups:     Return to top of page


    Mobilizing Communities

    "There are no drug-free schools without drug-free communities," says Scott Thomson of the National Association of Secondary School Principals. One of the major benefits of community-based prevention strategies is that they can create environments that discourage unhealthy choices and high-risk behaviors. Too often, alcohol and other drugs are presented in the media as glamorous and positive. In the past, society has tended to see alcohol and other drug use as an inevitable "rite of passage" for teenagers. According to health coordinators in the Minnesota study, the greatest obstacle to effective school-based prevention programs is community attitudes and norms about alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs.

    When negative, these community-wide norms must be counterbalanced with messages that alcohol and other drug use is not okay, and it is not glamorous, but deadly. Such messages need to be heard by both adults and youth.

    In some communities, community and parent organizations have taken the lead in changing community attitudes through public information campaigns that foster a "no-tolerance" attitude for alcohol and other drug use, signing pledges to stay drug free, and exerting influence on media and advertising to present more responsible messages, particularly regarding alcohol.

    In addition to shaping community norms, involving different sectors of a community is important in identifying needs, setting priorities, and establishing programs. When parents, business people, government workers, social workers, educators, clergy, law enforcement officers, and others work together, they gain a more complete picture of the needs and resources.

    The efforts of Lutheran Brotherhood Branch #8244 in Sandusky, Ohio, illustrate how a branch can be instrumental in initiating a community-wide effort. The branch received a grant through Lutheran Brotherhood to host a major three-day drug seminar for the county. It brought together young people, community leaders, law enforcement officers, and juvenile court people to talk about their common concerns. As a result of the initial event, several committees have formed to deal with specific issues. Law enforcement has clamped down on bars that serve alcohol to minors, and a DARE program was initiated. Furthermore, the effort received widespread coverage in the local media.

    The branch's initiative also illustrates another important benefit of community involvement: acceptance of the prevention efforts. Branch officer Rachel Battiste says she has been able to build a strong network in both the schools and the law enforcement system. By including all segments in the planning, each feels ownership and responsibility, which defuses resistance and builds enthusiasm and involvement.

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    Working Together

    Each of these strategies illustrates the complexity of drug prevention. There are no "quick fixes," no simple solutions. But that's not the same as saying that nothing can be done. In Beyond Rhetoric: A New American Agenda for Children and Families  by the National Commission on Children, commission chairman Senator John D. Rockefeller IV issues a challenge that applies to alcohol and other drug prevention. "There are no quick fixes to the problems that threaten the lives and prospects of so many of America's young people," he writes. Then he calls for "the leadership, sustained commitment, and meaningful action that our children so urgently need and richly deserve."

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    Selected Resources

    Mathea Falco, Preventing Abuse of Drugs, Alcohol, and Tobacco by Adolescents  (Washington, DC: Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, 1988).

    Prevention Plus II: Tools for Creating and Sustaining Drug-Free Communities  (Washington, DC: Office for Substance Abuse Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1989).

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    Copyright © 1995 by Search Institute. This article may be printed for personal use only. Other uses require prior permission from Search Institute, 1-800-888-7828. All rights reserved.