Prevention Education

NIDA

According to NIDA, there are several factors that parents and educators should be aware of when considering prevention education. Children face risk factors that differ based on age and that can contribute to drug use or other delinquent behavior. According to NIDA, the more risk factors a child is exposed to while growing up, the more likely it is that he or she will use drugs. However, protective factors are also associated with childhood drug use. These factors serve the opposite function of risk factors in that they serve to protect a child against risk factors and drug use. According to NIDA, risk factors that parents and educators should be aware of include poverty, early aggressive behavior, drug availability, lack of parental supervision, and peer pressure. These risk factors that children experience at different points in their lives can be changed through prevention intervention and education so that they do not cause further drug use or delinquent behavior. NIDA also identifies several protective factors that children develop. These protective factors include self-control, neighborhood attachment, parental monitoring, and academic competence. The risk and protective factors occur in five domains: the individual domain, the family domain, the community domain, the peer domain, and the school domain.

NIDA's Research-Based Prevention Programs

NIDA offers several research-based programs aimed at preventing drug abuse among adolescents. Such programs include the Caring School Community Program, which is geared toward elementary school children in an effort to reduce risk factors associated with drug use and to strengthen protective factors by developing their sense of connection to school. The Life Skills Training (LST) Program is geared toward middle school students in an effort to teach personal skills, social skills, and drug abuse resistant techniques. Project ALERT has elementary school, middle school, and high school components aimed at reducing drug use among children and adolescents by helping children retain prevention information learned early on so that they are able to apply this knowledge through their teenage years. NIDA divides these and all of their other research-based prevention programs into three types: universal programs for all school-age students, selective programs that target specific groups of individuals, and indicated programs that target individuals who have already begun using drugs.

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