08 Feb 2010
What parents say more important than what they do?
I'm once again indebted to Mike Ashton for bringing a research paper to my attention. This one comes from Holland and suggests that the "do as I say, not as I do" approach may still have something going for it.
Onset of alcohol use as well as infrequent and regular drinking were associated with tolerant rules and attitude as reported by adolescents, and by a tolerant attitude as reported by parents. In contrast to former studies including middle and late adolescents, parental alcohol use was not found to be associated with early adolescent alcohol use, nor did parental alcohol use influence the impact of parental rules. Restrictive alcohol-specific socialization was, independent of parental alcohol use, related to absence of (regular) early adolescent drinking.
Find the paper here.
08 Feb 2010
Cocaine or ecstasy consumption during adolescence increases risk of addiction
Spanish research that suggests that early consumption of ecstasy or cocaine has longer term impact:
Exposure to ecstasy or cocaine during adolescence increases the "reinforcing effects" that make people vulnerable to developing an addiction. This is the main conclusion of a research team from the University of Valencia (UV), which has shown for the first time how these changes persist into adulthood.
Read more here.
05 Feb 2010
Crazy Chemist Poster
Frank have produced a poster about legal highs.
They say:
This poster has been produced for you to use to inform people in your community. Please consider how you place this poster. It has been designed to target young people aged 18-24 and to feature in nightclubs and university environments. These substances tend not to be well used or known, so you will need to target an appropriate audience.
It can be downloaded and ordered from here.
04 Feb 2010
Addiction Prevention: Sharing good practices and results
The presentations from a number of projects being funded by the European Union have been added to their website.
The organisers say:
The main purpose of the workshop was to establish synergies between projects, share methods of assessment of best/good practices and results, and to orient policies to be developed and implemented at Member State and European level, with a special focus on addiction prevention. The reinforcement of cooperation between European institutions, and Member States organisations through developing collaborations between project-related experts was another added value of the meeting.
The key aim of the workshop were to reach a common statement on the definition of good practice, by comparing the definitions or methods used by the projects addressing tobacco, alcohol and illicit drug addiction, and exchange...
04 Feb 2010
Can public health communications change behaviour?
The COI (Central Office of Information) - who manage government communications - in their latest newsletter look at how they are trying to change public behaviour through their work.
They say:
Embedding a greater understanding of the importance and role of behavioural theory among those working in government communications is crucial. This knowledge should help inform campaign strategies, from development through to evaluation, thus ensuring that communications are as effective as possible.
They suggest a 5 step planning process:
Identify the behaviour that your policy and/or communications activities are seeking to influence.
Identify all the factors influencing the behaviours that relate to your policy and communications goals. These factors will vary among different audience groups, and various behavioural...
29 Jan 2010
Children in Care Argue for More Drug Education
Ofsted have published a report, Getting advice, which has sought the views of childen in care.
The report says:
In our survey, we asked children to tell us, if they weren’t already getting all the advice they needed, exactly what else they needed advice or information about...
Some wrote particularly about advice and information on the dangers of drugs: ‘Drugs, even if they haven’t done them, so they know what they would be doing before they get into a mess.’
They say that social workers are particularly important sources of information and advice, as are friends and foster carers.
The report suggests that this group of children are looking for face to face advice.
29 Jan 2010
Should taking cannabis remain illegal?
The Drug Education Forum doesn't tend to comment on the legal status of drugs, taking the view that all drugs have the potential for harm, and that young people should have an entitlement to drug education that tackles legal and illegal drugs.
But, I know that this is one of the issues that drug educators discuss with students.
In that context they may find the following graph of interest. The data comes from the Guardian's data blog, and before that from the British social attitudes survey.
Press the play button and see how attitudes have changed over the years.
29 Jan 2010
Drinking at Home
Some Dutch research into the vexed question of how parents approach young people and alcohol.
Parents who try to teach responsible drinking by letting their teenagers have alcohol at home may be well intentioned, but they may also be wrong, according to a new study in the latest issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs...
The researchers found that, in general, the more teens drank at home, the more they tended to drink elsewhere; the reverse was also true, with out-of-home drinking leading to more drinking at home. In addition, teens who drank more often, whether in or out of the home, tended to score higher on a measure of problem drinking two years later.
Read more here.
28 Jan 2010
Expressions of Interest (EOI) for fieldwork relating to NICE public health guidance on 'Personal, Social and Health Education (PHSE), focusing on Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) and alcohol education'
My thanks to David Chater for this one:
Expressions of Interest (EOI) for fieldwork relating to NICE public health guidance on ‘Personal, Social and Health Education (PHSE), focusing on Sex and Relationships Education (SRE) and alcohol education’.
The Centre for Public Health Excellence (CPHE) at NICE is developing guidance on Personal, Social, Health and Economic education (PHSE) focusing on sex and relationships and alcohol education in schools, colleges and community settings. Further information can be found at http://guidance.nice.org.uk/PHG/Wave12/77
There are four key stages in the CPHE guidance development process:
scoping
development (collecting, synthesising evidence and producing recommendations)
validation (testing opportunities and barriers through fieldwork)
...
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About this blog
This blog tries to pick up relevant media and research stories about drug education. It mainly focuses on information in England as this is the geographical remit for the Drug Education Forum. We welcome comments that are on topic.Categories
Recent Posts
- Cocaine or ecstasy consumption during adolescence increases risk of addiction
- What parents say more important than what they do?
- Jerry Jackson - Drugs
- Crazy Chemist Poster
- Can public health communications change behaviour?