D.A.R.E. Students Five Times Less Likely to Start Smoking

Dare.com ^

[JediGirl]

Findings of a study recently published by the prestigious Journal of the National Medical Association demonstrates that the D.A.R.E. curriculum is highly effective in prevention of smoking among elementary school-aged children. Smoking is the single most preventable cause of death.

Specifically, the study found that students that completed the D.A.R.E. program were five times less likely to start smoking compared to youngsters who did not participate in D.A.R.E. This evaluation of 5th and 6th graders in Nashville, Tennessee was conducted by researchers at the Meharry School of Medicine. Researchers further found a direct correlation between knowledge regarding the risks of smoking and increased rates of smoking avoidance. The D.A.R.E. students had a significantly higher knowledge score regarding the risk of smoking than the comparison group.

According to D.A.R.E. America’s President Glenn Levant, “This study validates what D.A.R.E instructors, D.A.R.E. graduates and their parents have known for years—D.A.R.E. works!” Adding, “Through D.A.R.E.’s comprehensive curriculum students are armed with the tools needed to reject destructive behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and taking drugs. Dozens of studies, including this most recent one of the current D.A.R.E. curriculum, confirm the effectiveness of our efforts.”

[JediGirl]

I'd like to know, though, how they controlled for factors such as smoking in the home, whether or not communities that have DARE are more likely to have parents of higher economic status that discourage smoking though other means, etc.

No smoking in my home, we're middle class from a predominately middle class fairly conservative town, they definitely discouraged smoking.....I smoke pot. *shrugs* Don't touch cigarettes though.

[robertpaulsen]

Vice is most dangerous when it puts on the garb of virtue.

[WindMinstrel]

"A witty saying proves nothing."
-Voltaire

[Lance Romance]

Yes, but you can't shake a stick at those maxims.

[WindMinstrel]

I can shake my belly at them. It shakes when I laugh like a bowl fully of jelly. That works, right?

[serinde]

LOL. Saw this article online yesterday:

Anti-drug program in question.

Excerpts:

City officials are pulling the plug on the DARE program.

City leaders say they doubt the effectiveness of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, an anti-drug class in the Texas City Independent School District.

Officials also say the police officers who taught the course will be better used on street patrol.

Many cities, including Texas City, are facing severe budget cuts that could threaten the continued worldwide existence of the DARE program.

[SheLion]

How many 5th and 6th graders start using drugs/smoking in 5th and 6th grade to begin with?

I heard a contradictory account yesterday on the news. The schools say that D.A.R.E. is not working, and it’s a waste of taxpayer money. The schools want to say NO to D.A.R.E.

[Dakmar]

But the resort and bar owners are fighting it. DARE spends a lot at those conventions.

[mewzilla]

Is this journal supposed to be the JAMA? Cause if it's not the same journal, then I've never heard of this journal and its finding wouldn't mean bupkis to me until I know more about the people who did and paid for the study.

[stylin19a]

D.A.R.E. might be right on this one...especially in light of THIS Freeper post:
Teens: Pot Easier To Buy Than Beer, Cigarettes ah...these morons never cease to amaze me !

[mewzilla]

Hmmm, thanks for the info. Never heard of them or the Meharry School of Medicine. Bet this study won't stand up to any scrutiny.

[sharktrager]

Why is it that DARE is the only organization which has ever produced any study showing DARE is effective?

Is the rest of the world just out to get them?

[Indrid Cold]

Obviously a class act. I hadn't heard of these guys either; you'd think a "successful" program like DARE would be able to scrape up a little more prestigious group to do its research.