DARE's effectiveness gets poor grade again

Education isn't cutting drug use, study says

By TODD ACKERMAN
Copyright 1997 Houston Chronicle

CHICAGO Another national study casts doubt on the effectiveness of
a popular drugresistance program already questioned by some Houston
City Council members.

A study released at the annual meeting of the American Psychological
Association here Sunday found that the Drug Abuse Resistance Education
program, or DARE, failed to lessen both male and female students' use
of alcohol, cigarettes or marijuana six years later.

"Over time, students lose faith in the message," UCLA psychologist
Jodie Ullman wrote in the study. "They identify DARE as part of their
childhood, and by age 15, they actively disassociate themselves from
virtually everything that is `kid stuff,' including DARE."

The study was the first to look at the longerterm effects of DARE.
Previous studies, which also found little or no effect, interviewed
DARE graduates immediately after or three years after the program.

Those studies prompted critical comments by Houston City Council
members Martha Wong and Ray Driscoll two months ago. Wong said, "If
it's not effective, let's try something else," and Driscoll said he
thought the public had been "oversold" on the program.

DARE, the most widely disseminated schoolbased program in the nation,
involves uniformed police officers teaching 17 weekly lessons to
fifth and sixthgraders on the dangers of drugs, alcohol and gangs,
as well as the importance of respecting authority and resisting peer
pressure. Locally, it is operated through the Houston Police
Department and other law enforcement agencies and costs about $3
million a year.

The new study also found that DARE made no difference in a student's
time spent on homework, number of classes skipped, educational
aspirations or attitudes toward school or teachers. Nor did it find
differences between those who participated in the program and those
who didn't in incidents of fighting, assault, theft, trespassing,
curfew violation and gang membership.

The study compared the responses in sixth and 12th grades of 356
DARE graduates and 264 students who did not participate in the program
on questions about lifestyle and drug use.

The study found that DARE appeared to have a small but statistically
significant effect on male high school seniors. Those participating in
the program used harder drugs, such as cocaine, LSD and amphetamines,
less than males who weren't in the program. Roughly 80 percent of DARE
graduates reported never using hard drugs, compared to about 76
percent of nonDARE graduates.

There was no effect with females, of which neither group used hard
drugs.

The study also found that DARE graduates reported they committed less
vandalism and attached more importance to helping others than
nonparticipants.

Study coauthor Judith Stein, also a UCLA psychologist, said the
possible positive effect of discouraging harddrug use by males was
worth a closer look before scrapping DARE. She said they think the
program definitely needs "booster shots" after the sixth grade.

Two other studies released at the APA meeting also found that
schoolbased sex education has failed to curb sexual behavior, and
that Congress' Children's Television Act of 1990 has not resulted in
more educational and informative television.

The first study found that sex education hasn't worked well because
the curriculum ignores the importance of family and social skills
development, and because it is too focused on abstinence. The second
study found that broadcasters were overstating their educational
programming available to children by creatively relabeling
preexisting shows, such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Yogi Bear
as educational.