Study Confirms Too Good for Drugs Prevention Program Reduces Student Drug Use

ATLANTA - April 19, 2013 - PRLog -- An independent evaluation of the Too Good for Drugs school-based prevention education program demonstrates the program’s effectiveness in reducing past month smoking, alcohol consumption, binge drinking, and marijuana use among high risk 6th graders. Too Good for Drugs, a K-12 prevention education program published by the C.E. Mendez Foundation, is in use in thousands of schools nationwide. The one year randomized trial study was conducted during the 2009-2010 academic year with over 10,000 students in a large Florida school district with students from diverse backgrounds in urban, suburban, and rural areas. C.E. Mendez Foundation, established in 1964, is a not-for-profit publisher of prevention education programs with offices in Atlanta, Georgia and Tampa, Florida.

The study also showed positive effects on mitigating risk factors and promoting protective factors for high risk students such as intent to use alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, peer resistance, bonding with pro-social peers, and perception of the harmful effects of drugs. The study also found that Too Good for Drugs had a positive impact on moderate risk sixth grade students’ drinking, binge drinking, and marijuana use as well as on two risk and protective factors: peer resistance and self-efficacy. The evaluation also demonstrated Too Good for Drugs had significant effects on low risk students in three risk and protective factors associated with preventing substance use: goals and decisions, peer resistance and self-efficacy.

The study’s authors are Tina P. Bacon, an independent research and evaluation consultant,  Bruce W. Hall, former chair of the Department of Educational Measurement and Research, and Professor Emeritus at University of South Florida’s College of Education, and  John M. Ferron, Professor for the Department of Educational Measurement and Research at University of South Florida’s College of Education. Results of the study are expected to be published in peer-reviewed scholarly journals this Fall. A copy of the complete technical report is available now at mendezfoundation.org.

“It is clear that comprehensive skills-based prevention education empowers young people to make healthy decisions about their bodies and their futures.  It is our mission as educators and members of our community to equip our children with the tools they need to find success in school and in life,” said Charles Mendez III, Managing Director of the Mendez Foundation.

The Mendez Foundation’s Too Good programs include Too Good for Drugs and Too Good for Violence. Too Good for Drugs has been designated a Model Program by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), and a Promising Program by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and has been rated by SAMHSA’s National Registry of Evidence Based Programs and Practices (NREPP). Additional recognition from the Promising Practices Network notes the program’s effectiveness in improving health and safety outcomes for children, and the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse cites the program’s positive effects on behavior. Too Good for Violence has been designated by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) as an effective social emotional learning program.