08 Sep 2010
Mixed review for Social Norms
The AERC have a paper commissioned by DrinkAware looking at the evidence for a social norms approach having an impact on drinking amongst university students in the UK.
The paper starts by pointing out that there is little hard evidence from which to work and that much of what there is comes from the US (and therefore may not be applicable in the UK). As a result the conclusions that are drawn are mixed, for example the report says:
There is a consensus amongst experts that students misperceive drinking norms. However, simply changing these misperceptions will not necessarily result in positive changes in student drinking behaviour. Further, there is some concern about the possible faddish nature of social normative interventions.
The paper goes on to argue that there needs to be rigorous research into whether the approach can...
08 Sep 2010
5 Lessons from Canada
Thanks to Mentor International for bringing this to my attention.
The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse's newsletter has details of a meta-analysis of school based cannabis prevention programmes which is shortly to be published in Health Education & Behavior.
The article says the researchers have drawn 5 lessons from their analysis which they believe enhance programme effectiveness:
Longer program duration (i.e., more than 15 sessions)
Interactive participation between student and facilitator
Facilitation by individuals who are not classroom teachers
Targeting high school rather than middle school students
Based on multiple prevention models
The researchers suggest that the success of non-teacher deliverers is "likely [to be] the result of...
08 Sep 2010
Is being from a rich family a risk factor?
This paper suggests that young people with wealthy parents are at greater risk of substance misuse.
The results from this study indicate that higher SES [socio-economic status] in adolescence, as measured by parental education and household income in adolescence, is associated with higher rates of substance use, particularly binge drinking, marijuana use and cocaine use, in early adulthood.
They conclude:
As previous evidence shows that students with more spending money might be more likely to engage in substance use into adulthood, access to allowances and other forms of spending money may be issues that parents can address if they are concerned with the possibility of substance abuse among their children.
08 Sep 2010
Drug Strategy Consultation
The government are carrying out a short – 6 week – consultation on their new drug strategy. The consultation closes on 30 September.
Vision and Aims
They explain that the vision is to “prevent drug taking, disrupt drug supply, strengthen enforcement and promote drug treatment with the focus on enabling people to become free of their addictions, including alcohol, to recover fully and contribute to society.”
They say the aims are:
Greater ambition for individual recovery whilst ensuring the crime reduction impact of treatment.
Actions to tackle drugs being part of building the “Big Society”.
A more holistic approach with drugs issues being assessed and tackled alongside other issues such as alcohol abuse, child protection, mental health, employment and housing.
Budgets...
23 Aug 2010
Drug Strategy Consultation
The Home Office has now launched a consultation period for the new Drug Strategy. Targeted organisations are invited to share their expertise and knowledge by submitting a consultation form. The consultation period ends 30 September 2010.
18 Aug 2010
Eric Carlin makes the case for a different approach to drug control
Eric, once of this parish, makes the case for reforming the government's approach to drug control.
Amongst the points he makes is an argument for making drug education compulsory:
But it seems to me that support to intervene early with evidence-based initiatives to prevent and reduce problematic drug use remains a low political priority. I have previously criticised the consensus reached by Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats to abandon the last Government’s commitment to make drugs education compulsory in schools. It’s not all that it is needed but it could be a vital component which would help improve the quality and range of drugs education provision in schools. Young people themselves consistently ask for more and better drugs education, even where they have already begun experimenting with drugs. Although a...
16 Aug 2010
Children talking to ChildLine about parental alcohol and drug misuse
The NSPCC - a Drug Education Forum member - has published a report about the calls that Childline has received about drug and alcohol issues.
The report focuses on the drinking and drug use of the parents of callers to the helpline, pointing out how parental "alcohol and drug misuse seriously, and sometimes dangerously, impacts on children’s lives."
The charity had over 6,200 calls worried about parental drinking or drug use, this represented 4% of all the calls Childline received in 2008-09. Almost twice as many children were worried about drinking over drug use.
They also received about 3,000 calls where callers were counselled about their own drinking and a similar number of calls about where drug use was discussed.
“My mum drinks all the time and leaves me alone lots of times. I feel scared and lonely....
10 Aug 2010
Eighteen and celebrating: birthday cards and drinking culture
A paper in the Journal of Youth Studies takes a look at how birthday cards aimed at those turning 18 reflect on alcohol.
There's always going to be a bit of a 'chicken or egg' question about this piece of research from Ireland, but it's an interesting indicator of how drinking cultures are reinforced in subtle and not so subtle ways.
The authors found that 38% of the cards they looked at had a message that included alcohol consumption. They conclude:
Eighteenth birthday is a significant milestone in our society. Cards produced to mark this event draw on ambivalent attitudes to alcohol consumption and humour about incidents of excessive drinking. They portray excessive drinking as the acceptable norm for celebrating this event and may contribute to setting up or reinforcing expectations that intoxication is a desirable outcome for...
10 Aug 2010
The Prevalence of Evidence-based Drug Use Prevention Curricula in U.S. Middle Schools in 2008
As we've seen in the past take-up of what are considered to be evidence based drug prevention programmes in the US has been something that policy makers have had some interest in.
Given the increasing emphasis on reducing centralised approaches here in the UK, it may be something that we too could usefully think about.
This paper suggests that there has been some progress, but it seems like there's still some way to go. The authors say:
We estimate that the prevalence of evidence-based drug prevention curricula rose from 42.6% in 2005 to 46.9% in 2008, and that the prevalence of schools that used these curricula most frequently increased from 22.7% to 25.9% over this period. In addition, the proportion of schools using locally developed curricula also rose, from 17.6% to 28.1%.
04 Aug 2010
Girls Attitudes - Girlguiding UK
Girlguiding UK have been asking girls (not necessarily girl guides) about a range of things including questions about health and well being. The subsequent report says that for the 11 to 16 year old group:
When asked about the potentially harmful activities they had engaged in, 42 per cent had watched what they ate or cut down on certain foods to excess, 22 per cent had drunk so much alcohol that they had thrown up or lost control, and 20 per cent had smoked cigarettes. Overall, 84 per cent of 11- to 16-year-olds had experience of at least one of these issues.
Older girls (16-21) were more likely to have participated in risky behaviours with 58 per cent saying they had drunk to the point where they had thrown up or lost control. 40 per cent said they had smoked cigarettes and this rose to 64 per cent of girls who...
04 Aug 2010
Rebalancing the Licensing Act a consultation on empowering individuals, families and local communities to shape and determine local licensing
As mentioned previously on this blog the Home Office are consulting on how the licensing of the sale of alcohol should be reformed.
I've now had an opportunity to take a look at the paper in a little more detail and there are a number of areas which may be of interest to readers.
The philosophy that drives the thinking behind the reform proposals will be familiar from other statements that the government has been making; move responsibility to the local level and to the individual, and remove unnecessary bureaucracy from organisations. In this case they say:
Central Government will no longer be the primary driver for reducing and addressing the problems of alcohol-related crime and anti-social behaviour. Local authorities and local communities will have a greater say in what happens in their local area and individuals will become...
Subscribe to the blog
Or by RSS:
Or bookmark:
Archive
September 2010August 2010
July 2010
June 2010
May 2010
April 2010
March 2010
February 2010
January 2010
December 2009
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
- Drug Strategy Consultation
- Is being from a rich family a risk factor?
- 5 Lessons from Canada
- Mixed review for Social Norms
- Drug Strategy Consultation