The Effectiveness Bank Bulletin – part of the Drug and Alcohol Findings stable – has a piece about the wider protective role of schools in terms of drugs and young people:
Surveys in the West Midlands indicate that schools which engage pupils in their school and their education also protect them against risky forms of substance use, offering a way to prevent substance misuse by focusing on core educational and social virtues.
The piece goes on to look at what appears to be having an impact:
After adjusting for differences between schools in the profiles of their pupils, only the added value measure was significantly related to all three substance use measures. In each case, the more added value, the fewer pupils used substances. Compared to schools at the bottom end of the scale, in schools towards the top the proportions of early or heavy drinkers were both 7% less and of regular users of illicit drugs, 4% less. Given the relative rarity of these forms of substance use, these figures represent substantial proportional reductions. An earlier report had found a similar relationship with the proportion of pupils who smoked at least a cigarette a week, down by 6% in high versus low added value schools.
The conclusion that the article draws is:
Because they are all-pervasive, school culture improvements might justify themselves on a multiplicity of grounds including academic achievement and crime prevention as well as substance use, and may seem a better bet for schools than diverting resources to dedicated drug prevention activities with their patchy track record.
There are also background notes that give a more thorough picture of the research and similar research from elsewhere.
Filed under: drug prevention , Drug and Alcohol Findings, school based drug prevention
