Analysis of Drug Prevention in Higher Education: Current Status and Most Promising Approaches

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Analysis of Drug Prevention in Higher Education:

Current Status and Most Promising Approaches

Andris Ziemelis, Ed.D.

University of Wisconsin-La-Crosse 

If you are or have been involved with drug prevention in higher education,

what follows may be welcome news. Evidence from a six-year inductive

analysis of FIPSE-sponsored drug prevention programs in higher

education shows that not only are many of our prevention efforts

consistently associated with favorable program outcomes, but some of the

most promising approaches to prevention are those that involve students

in interactive, relational, and empowering activities such as peer

education.

Study Background

The study was conducted by the La Crosse Drug Prevention Program

Analysis Project at the University of Wisconsin- La Crosse, and was

supported by three analysis grants from the U..S. Department of

Education, and the Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary

Education (FIPSE). It involved 490 colleges and universities nationwide,

and was designed to: (a) assess program activities during grant

sponsorship, (b) evaluate program outcomes after grant sponsorship, and

(c) evaluate statistical relationships between program activities and

outcomes. Activities were assessed using a taxonomy of 17 prevention

themes and corresponding theme elements that captured most prevention

efforts carried out by programs. Outcomes were evaluated using multiple

data sources including program viability data collected after expiration of

FIPSE funding, and substance use and use-related data gathered at the

beginning of FIPSE grant sponsorship and after. Program viability data

were based on three post-sponsorship outcomes including program

continuation status (scope), program institutionalization, and program

effectiveness in preventing alcohol and other drug abuse by students as

reported by program personnel. Substance use and use-related data were

obtained from the Core Institute by permission from each institution that

participated in the study. Core data included institutional summaries of

student demographics, alcohol, marijuana, other illegal drug use, binge

drinking, use-related consequences such as incidence of public

misconduct and personal problems, and perceptions and opinions about

others' substance use.

Prevention Program Effectiveness

Prevention program theme data were analyzed against program viability

indicators for 321 Institution-Wide Programs, and Core data from 147

institutions. Results of these analyses showed that many existing

approaches to prevention were positively correlated with program

outcomes. For example, for measures of program viability, the ratio of
Analysis of Drug Prevention in Higher Education: Current Status and Most Promising Approaches

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statistically significant positive to negative correlations between prevention

themes and outcomes was greater than 4:1; and, for substance use and

use-related variables from the Core Survey, the ratio of positive to

negative correlations exceeded 2:1. These findings are important because

they not only support many of our past and present prevention efforts, but

also identify specific approaches most consistently associated with

positive program outcomes. Some of these approaches are described

below.

Most Promising Approaches

Environmental change. The most viable prevention programs emphasized

environmental change both in philosophy and practice. They recognized

importance of campus physical, social/cultural, and regulatory

environments as influences on student attitudes and actions regarding

substance use, and they made deliberate efforts to create campus

environments that discourage substance use and advocate more healthy

lifestyles. Many of the approaches discussed below were associated with

both environmental change and program success.

Proactive alternatives. While trying to discourage and deglamorize AOD

use, the more viable programs concomitantly offered students proactive

healthy alternatives to involvement with alcohol or other drugs. Such

alternatives usually were provided in the form of substance-free

recreational or educational activities. Frequently effective recreational

activities included parties, dances, socials, coffee houses, movies or

commercial entertainment, and participatory non-athletic competitions.

Educational activities that often worked included film or video

presentations, seminars, workshops, retreats, student participation in

program development or implementation, peer educator/counselor

assistant programs, and opportunities for collaboration with other students

in AOD projects or events. Some of these activities occurred in

conjunction with those reported in the next section.

Student involvement/empowerment. Program success was most

consistently associated with student involvement and participation in

activities that were interactive, relational, and empowering. Examples of

the latter again included student participation in program development and

implementation (e.g. student participation on AOD committees or Task

Forces), participation in peer educator/counselor assistant programs, and

student collaboration in AOD projects or events (e.g. dramas, skits, or role

plays). Success of such activities within prevention programs is plausible if

we consider the developmental needs and priorities of traditional collegeage students such as establishing good relationships, striving for

autonomy, establishing identity and personal competency, and acquiring a

perception of self-efficacy. Our data also show that more effective

programs often conducted needs assessments before initiating

programming, and then attempted to tailor programming to meet student

needs.

It is particularly noteworthy that all of the significant correlations between

the Student Involvement/Empowerment theme and program viability and

Core Survey data, were positive. Such findings, when based on a multiyear study involving hundreds of schools, support the utility of Student

Involvement/Empowerment as a fundamental or cross-cutting component

of prevention programs in higher education. Other findings from our

analysis also supported salience of this prevention theme. For example,

elements from the Training and the Cooperation/ Teamwork Themes (e.g.

AOD training for student peers and volunteers, and encouraging

collaboration within groups of students), were also associated with positive

program outcomes. Lastly, importance of interactive and empowering

activities was reinforced by the types of information/awareness vehicles
Analysis of Drug Prevention in Higher Education: Current Status and Most Promising Approaches

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found to most consistently correlate with program success. Our analyses

showed that students were generally more receptive to awareness raising

and imparting of information when the strategies used were broad-based

and emphasized interactive rather than one-sided or top-down

approaches to communication. A closer examination of these data

suggests the following interpretation.

By their nature, one-way or uni-directional approaches, such as live

presentations, lectures, or speeches that are delivered without

opportunities for audience interaction or participation, create superiorsubordinate rather than egalitarian communications paradigms. Because

the communicator presumably has more knowledge or expertise than the

message recipient does, a significant status differential based on expert

power is implied. One-way approaches to communication tend to reinforce

this differential between the expert and recipient, and encourage superiorsubordinate role behaviors in their relationship. In short, although those

who conduct the presentation, lecture, or speech may feel activated and

empowered, many of those in the audience, who are the passive

recipients of messages, may not feel the same way.

Recommendations for Programs

Assess student needs and preferences. In keeping with a studentcentered prevention effort, programs should periodically assess student

needs and preferences regarding drug prevention programming. In the

aggregate, results from this analysis supported consideration of student

developmental needs in program structuring and operation. Our analysis

found that asking students for their input was an empowerment strategy

that often increased student program support.

Stress interactive, relational, and empowering activities. Programs should

also consider the potential benefits of strengthening their emphasis on

interactive, relational, and empowering activities for students. As discussed

above, the Student Involvement/ Empowerment theme, which best

represented such activities in this analysis, was most consistently

associated with favorable program outcomes. Such findings support utility

of this prevention theme as a fundamental or cross-cutting component of

drug prevention programs in higher education, regardless of their other

emphases.

Copyright © 1998 by Andris Ziemelis

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