EXPANDING COMPUTER-BASED DRUG ABUSE PREVENTION

DESCRIPTION (provided by investigator): Recent evidence indicates that drug use is highly prevalent among children and adolescents, and initiation of drug use is often occurring at very early ages. These findings underscore the need to initiate age appropriate prevention efforts with youth at an early age in elementary school and continue these interventions throughout middle school and later years. We previously developed and evaluated an interactive, computer-based drug abuse prevention multimedia program for middle school-aged youth that incorporates effective components of both drug abuse prevention science and educational technologies This computer-based program was designed to promote the increased adoption of effective prevention science, and was shown to be efficacious, easily exportable and able to be applied with fidelity. In the present application, we propose to develop and evaluate a similar computer-based prevention program specifically for elementary school-aged children. This program will extend effective prevention science to this age group, while addressing many of the challenges associated with the current delivery of evidence-based prevention programs to this population In determining the scientific, technical and commercial merit and feasibility of the program, various program modules will be 1) developed, 2) subsequently assessed by the target population and 3) revised as necessary during Phase I. An effective multimedia drug abuse prevention learning environment, which provides integration between state-of-the-art computer technology and behavioral science research, may be of substantial benefit in providing drug abuse prevention education to elementary school children within the public school system. Such a program will deliver evidence-based prevention interventions in a manner that is considerably more cost-effective and comprehensive than the labor-intensive, school-based, prevention interventions that have been demonstrated to be efficacious in preventing the initiation of drug use among this age group. Even if a computer-based drug abuse prevention program is shown to be at least as effective as traditional prevention efforts, and not necessarily more effective, it would likely still be a valuable resource to the educational system, as it would enable educators to markedly reduce the expense of their drug abuse prevention programs, while permitting the adoption of effective methods of drug abuse prevention among elementary school-aged children.