The primary goal of this proposed research is to extend our knowledge of the effects of Project DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education), a widely used school-based drug prevention program. This proposed study will build upon a longitudinal experimental evaluation of Project DARE now in its first year. This effort, based in Illinois and comprising eighteen pairs of schools, gathers yearly data from students and their school records. The Illinois DARE evaluation is limited to a determination of DARE's effect on students' drug use and school performance, and how these effects change over time. We propose to gather additional information on an annual basis from students' parents. This information is vital to an understanding of DARE's effects on the initiation and severity of student drug use and, ultimately, on their school performance. We also propose to model the process by which the major components of the DARE curriculum, in conjunction with background familial, social, and environmental factors, affect student drug use and academic performance. Four sets of questions will guide our analyses: * Are the effects of Project DARE similar for all youth, or do they differ by sex, race, socio-economic status, and urbanicity? How does Project DARE interact with school, familial, and neighborhood factors to affect drug use? That is, for what type of youth and in what type of circumstances Is DARE effective? * To what degree does Project DARE achieve its individual curriculum objectives (e.g., to increase self-esteem, knowledge about the effects of drug use, peer refusal skills)? * To what degree are these curriculum objectives associated, either individually or interactively, with students' use of tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs? To what extent do any observed associations validate the theories upon which these objectives are based? * To what extent is DARE implemented in each classroom as planned? How do variations in implementation affect the program's results? These analyses will broaden current understanding not only of the utility of Project DARE, but also of other curricula which, like DARE, adopt a broad spectrum approach to drug prevention.
