Communicating Prevention: The Effects of the keepin’ it REAL Classroom Videotapes and Televised PSAs on Middle-School Students’ Substance Use

Abstract

This study sought to determine if exposure to two communication-oriented activities, videotapes and public service announcements, accounts for changes in substance use among adolescents participating in the Drug Resistance Strategies Project's keepin’ it REAL adolescent substance use prevention curriculum. Middle-school students (4,734, 72% Latino) responded to questionnaires related to these analyses. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) model was fit separately to six substance use outcomes. The results suggested that intervention students who saw four or five videos engaged in less substance use in the past month than did students who saw fewer videos. Having seen the PSAs one or more times did not predict the reported change in substance use.

Keywords:

• Communication-Based Activities
• PSAs
• Videotapes Substance Use Prevention
• Adolescents

This research was supported by a National Institute on Drug Abuse Grant R01 DA 05629.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jennifer R. Warren

Jennifer R. Warren is a Doctoral Candidate in Communication Arts and Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University

Michael L. Hecht

Michael L. Hecht is Liberal Arts Research Professor in Communication Arts and Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University and Principle Investigator on the NIDA-funded Drug Resistance Strategies Project

David A. Wagstaff

David A. Wagstaff is Project Associate with the HHD Methodology Consulting Group at The Pennsylvania State University

Elvira Elek

Elvira Elek, Ph.D., works as the Project Director of the Drug Resistance Strategies Project (DRS) and a Research Associate with the Social Responsibility and Prevention Project (SRP), both at The Pennsylvania State University

Khadidiatou Ndiaye

Khadidiatou Ndiaye is a Doctoral Candidate in Communication Arts and Sciences at The Pennsylvania State University

Patricia Dustman

Patricia Dustman is Implementation and Development Director with the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Consortium, College of Public Programs, School of Social Work at Arizona State University

Flavio F. Marsiglia

Flavio Francisco Marsiglia, Ph.D., Professor and Director of the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Center (SIRC), School of Social Work in the College of Public Programs at Arizona State University