Media Literacy Substance Abuse Prevention Parent Training

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed project will create and evaluate the feasibility of a media literacy, substance abuse prevention program for parents, called Media Detective Parent Night. The program will be linked to the elementary school -based Media Detective curriculum and take the form of a one-session media literacy training hosted by classroom teachers. Parents and children will collaborate on engaging media literacy activities, and parents will view child-created media advocacy piece s. Parents will receive a take-home brochure that contains suggestions on how to mediate their child's media consumption and strengthen their child's media literacy skills at home. The ultimate goal will be to develop an evidence-based, easy-to-use program that increases positive student outcomes obtained from the school-based program. In Phase I of the project, we will develop the overall program with the help of teacher consultants. Parent-child pairs will pilot possible activities for inclusion in the pr ogram. A feasibility study of the finalized program will be conducted in three elementary classrooms, and teacher, student, parent, and observer feedback will be obtained to provide systematic input on the feasibility and quality of the program. Assuming t he prototype program show promise, Phase II will involve refining the program and evaluating its effectiveness in a randomized controlled trial for providing parents with mediation and media literacy skills that will enable them to enhance their children's media literacy skills. Public Health Relevance: The knowledge gained from developing and testing this media literacy program will ultimately help equip parents with media literacy and mediation skills. These skills will serve to reduce young children's vu lnerability to media persuasion regarding social approval of and consequence-free use of substances.