Effects of a school-based drug use prevention programme for middle-school students in Taiwan

Abstract

This study examined the effects of a school-based drug use prevention programme for middle-school students in Taiwan. The curriculum consisted of 10 lessons and 4 homework assignments involving parent–child activities. A quasi-experimental design was used. The study was conducted in an urban middle-school located in Taipei city and in a middle-school located in a rural area in Taoyuan county. A total of 327 middle-school students in the intervention group and 314 students in the comparison group successfully participated in the baseline (September 2011) and follow-up surveys (November 2011). A mixed-model approach was used to examine the effects. Multivariate analysis results indicated that the school-based drug-prevention programme increased the students' drug-related knowledge, drug-prevention attitudes, enhanced life skills, and improved perceived parental involvement in the prevention of drug use. The results of this study endorse the implementation of school-based drug use prevention programmes that include parent–child activities to enhance youth drug-prevention knowledge, attitudes, and life skills.

• Drug use
• prevention programme
• school
• youth

Acknowledgements

We acknowledge editor and two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. Many thanks go to the participant schools and students.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. This work was supported by a research grant from the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration.