Drug Prevention – Study Guide, Key Concepts & Practice Questions
Drug Education - correct answer ✔✔Teaching and communicating
help avoid drug abuse-caused harm
Drug Education Settings - correct answer ✔✔Schools
communities
mass media
Drug Prevention - correct answer ✔✔Must be comprehensive
classroom teaching Community Interventions and School-wide programming
Today's Prevention workers - correct answer ✔✔Today's prevention workers don't see long-
term results
Also don't recognize failure of methods
Outcome evaluation critical
Prevention Methods - correct answer ✔✔In past enthusiasm and increasing imperative
prevention specialist must
Targeting Concepts - correct answer ✔✔Most youth are not heavily involved in drug abuse
A majority of youth experiment with drugs
Drug use tends to decline after age 25
,Some youth are more at risk for drug use
Some Drug Use Attitudes - correct answer ✔✔Drug use is immoral vs drug use is an acceptable
lifestyle choice
Drugs used by many is normal vs drugs used by narrow subgroups is deviant
Legal drugs are more approved than illicit drugs
Alcohol and tobacco are not drugs
The term "drug use" is a misnomer
Protective Factors - correct answer ✔✔Age-appropriate parental monitoring
Clear limits / consistent discipline
Parental involvement with child
Bonding between child and family
Bonding with pro-social institutions
Success in academics
School extra-curricular involvement
Supportive parents (financial)
Some Drug Abuse Risk Factors - correct answer ✔✔Ineffective parenting
Caregiver abusing drugs
Early aggressive behavior
Drugs available
Failing in school
Lack of nurturing by adults
Poor class behavior and social skills
Lack of parental supervision
,Peer substance abuse
Poverty
The Value of Science in Prevention - correct answer ✔✔Although prevention is not new,
applying science to prevention is an emerging, valuable movement in the field. As accountability
is becoming the order of the day we must continue to increase the level of certainty that
prevention works. Beyond a general sense, we must also understand what types of approaches
work best under what circumstances. Based on more than 20 years of rigorous research, a
science of substance abuse prevention is now emerging, contributing to our knowledge about
successful prevention interventions.
Science-based approaches have been developed and evaluated using scientific processes, and
are grounded in clear theoretical foundations. Evaluative findings have been subjected to critical
peer review and the programs have been replicated in diverse settings. Scientifically defensible
programs and approaches consistently produce desirable results in different settings. Numerous
terms are being used to describe this growing knowledge base about what works in prevention,
e.g., science-based, scientifically defensible, research-based and more recently, evidence-based.
What all of these expressions have in common is the notion of "evidence of effectiveness:"
desirable effects have been consistently substantiated through a version of the process
described below.
Hierarchy of Evidence - correct answer ✔✔Five types of scientific review processes have been
created and utilized by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) to determine
scientifically defensible programs and principles.
Type 1. The prevention program/principle - correct answer ✔✔has been identified or
recognized publicly and received awards, honors or mentions. This level of recognition alone is
insufficient to ensure that principles derived from the strategy or the model itself are effective.
(Examples: Botvin et al., 1995; Pentz, et al., 1989)
Type 2. The prevention program/principle - correct answer ✔✔has appeared in a non-refereed
professional publication or journal. Non-refereed journals do not require an expert/peer
consensus regarding the merit of the work. Program information appearing solely in
, professional publications and non-refereed journals should be viewed as having suggestive
value, but is without substantiation. (Examples: U.S Department of Health & Human Services,
1996; Drug Strategies, 1997; Tobler & Stratton, 1997)
Type 3. - correct answer ✔✔The program's source documents have been subjected to thorough
scrutiny in an expert/peer consensus process for the quality of implementation and evaluation
methods, and been approved or a paper has appeared in a peer-reviewed journal. (Examples:
Perry et al., 1997)
Type 4. - correct answer ✔✔These programs/principles have been subjected to either a
quantitative meta-analysis or an expert/peer consensus process in the form of a qualitative
meta-analysis.
Type 5 - correct answer ✔✔Documented replications of the program/principle have appeared
in several refereed professional journals. The most compelling evidence of a program model's
effectiveness is that it can be replicated across venues and populations, demonstrating
credibility, utility and generalizability. Projects meeting these requirements occupy the top
portion of the data collection pyramid that follows.
... - correct answer ✔✔Replications and Multi-site Studies (Type 5)
Single Site Experimental & Quasi-experimental Studies (Type 4)
Process Evaluations (Type 3)
Focus Groups, Expert Panels, Key Informant Activities (Type 2)
Participant and Program Staff Observations (Type 1)
Applying a Science-based Framework - correct answer ✔✔As prevention programmers we
would always like to implement an initiative that meets the standards of a Type 5 program. Due
to numerous factors including resource constraints, this may not be feasible. What we can do is
apply a science-based framework for developing and implementing prevention programs.
Applying such a framework requires a thorough understanding of substance-related problems,
the factors that appear to cause or contribute to them and the strategies that can positively
impact the causal factors. Prevention interventions do not directly affect substance-related
Drug Education - correct answer ✔✔Teaching and communicating
help avoid drug abuse-caused harm
Drug Education Settings - correct answer ✔✔Schools
communities
mass media
Drug Prevention - correct answer ✔✔Must be comprehensive
classroom teaching Community Interventions and School-wide programming
Today's Prevention workers - correct answer ✔✔Today's prevention workers don't see long-
term results
Also don't recognize failure of methods
Outcome evaluation critical
Prevention Methods - correct answer ✔✔In past enthusiasm and increasing imperative
prevention specialist must
Targeting Concepts - correct answer ✔✔Most youth are not heavily involved in drug abuse
A majority of youth experiment with drugs
Drug use tends to decline after age 25
,Some youth are more at risk for drug use
Some Drug Use Attitudes - correct answer ✔✔Drug use is immoral vs drug use is an acceptable
lifestyle choice
Drugs used by many is normal vs drugs used by narrow subgroups is deviant
Legal drugs are more approved than illicit drugs
Alcohol and tobacco are not drugs
The term "drug use" is a misnomer
Protective Factors - correct answer ✔✔Age-appropriate parental monitoring
Clear limits / consistent discipline
Parental involvement with child
Bonding between child and family
Bonding with pro-social institutions
Success in academics
School extra-curricular involvement
Supportive parents (financial)
Some Drug Abuse Risk Factors - correct answer ✔✔Ineffective parenting
Caregiver abusing drugs
Early aggressive behavior
Drugs available
Failing in school
Lack of nurturing by adults
Poor class behavior and social skills
Lack of parental supervision
,Peer substance abuse
Poverty
The Value of Science in Prevention - correct answer ✔✔Although prevention is not new,
applying science to prevention is an emerging, valuable movement in the field. As accountability
is becoming the order of the day we must continue to increase the level of certainty that
prevention works. Beyond a general sense, we must also understand what types of approaches
work best under what circumstances. Based on more than 20 years of rigorous research, a
science of substance abuse prevention is now emerging, contributing to our knowledge about
successful prevention interventions.
Science-based approaches have been developed and evaluated using scientific processes, and
are grounded in clear theoretical foundations. Evaluative findings have been subjected to critical
peer review and the programs have been replicated in diverse settings. Scientifically defensible
programs and approaches consistently produce desirable results in different settings. Numerous
terms are being used to describe this growing knowledge base about what works in prevention,
e.g., science-based, scientifically defensible, research-based and more recently, evidence-based.
What all of these expressions have in common is the notion of "evidence of effectiveness:"
desirable effects have been consistently substantiated through a version of the process
described below.
Hierarchy of Evidence - correct answer ✔✔Five types of scientific review processes have been
created and utilized by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) to determine
scientifically defensible programs and principles.
Type 1. The prevention program/principle - correct answer ✔✔has been identified or
recognized publicly and received awards, honors or mentions. This level of recognition alone is
insufficient to ensure that principles derived from the strategy or the model itself are effective.
(Examples: Botvin et al., 1995; Pentz, et al., 1989)
Type 2. The prevention program/principle - correct answer ✔✔has appeared in a non-refereed
professional publication or journal. Non-refereed journals do not require an expert/peer
consensus regarding the merit of the work. Program information appearing solely in
, professional publications and non-refereed journals should be viewed as having suggestive
value, but is without substantiation. (Examples: U.S Department of Health & Human Services,
1996; Drug Strategies, 1997; Tobler & Stratton, 1997)
Type 3. - correct answer ✔✔The program's source documents have been subjected to thorough
scrutiny in an expert/peer consensus process for the quality of implementation and evaluation
methods, and been approved or a paper has appeared in a peer-reviewed journal. (Examples:
Perry et al., 1997)
Type 4. - correct answer ✔✔These programs/principles have been subjected to either a
quantitative meta-analysis or an expert/peer consensus process in the form of a qualitative
meta-analysis.
Type 5 - correct answer ✔✔Documented replications of the program/principle have appeared
in several refereed professional journals. The most compelling evidence of a program model's
effectiveness is that it can be replicated across venues and populations, demonstrating
credibility, utility and generalizability. Projects meeting these requirements occupy the top
portion of the data collection pyramid that follows.
... - correct answer ✔✔Replications and Multi-site Studies (Type 5)
Single Site Experimental & Quasi-experimental Studies (Type 4)
Process Evaluations (Type 3)
Focus Groups, Expert Panels, Key Informant Activities (Type 2)
Participant and Program Staff Observations (Type 1)
Applying a Science-based Framework - correct answer ✔✔As prevention programmers we
would always like to implement an initiative that meets the standards of a Type 5 program. Due
to numerous factors including resource constraints, this may not be feasible. What we can do is
apply a science-based framework for developing and implementing prevention programs.
Applying such a framework requires a thorough understanding of substance-related problems,
the factors that appear to cause or contribute to them and the strategies that can positively
impact the causal factors. Prevention interventions do not directly affect substance-related
