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After School Activities

•	Table of Contents
•	Building Family & Community Involvement
•	Components and Objectives
•	A Framework for Prevention
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•	Frequently Asked Questions

Research behind Too Good for Drugs and Violence — After-School Activities:

Eight interwoven components appear throughout the Too Good for Drugs & Violence — After-School Activities: Goal Setting, Decision Making, Managing Emotions, Bonding, Effective Communication, Conflict Resolution, Drug Awareness, Community Involvement.

Too Good for Drugs & Violence After-School Activities (TGFD&V-ASA) is based on research that provides evidence that the strategies used prevent or reduce drug use. The after-school program consists of activities adapted from Too Good for Drugs and Too Good for Violence, both research-based prevention programs created by the Mendez Foundation for classroom use. The after-school activities are based on the same research as the proven Too Good for Drugs program and Too Good for Violence. They are simply adapted to enhance their appropriateness for after-school, playground and community settings.

Too Good for Drugs & Violence After-School Activities teaches and reinforces skills taught in the school-based Too Good for Drugs program. The effectiveness of that program in reducing students’ intentions to use alcohol, tobacco and marijuana has been proven and documented in a rigorous scientific study published in the Florida Educational Research Council Bulletin. The study showed that in comparison to students who did not participate in the program, participating students had 33% fewer intentions to smoke cigarettes, 38% fewer intentions to drink alcohol and 25% fewer intentions to smoke marijuana than students in the control group. Positive effects continued to be observed 20 weeks later. The study also showed that participating students had significantly higher scores on a number of risk and protective factors shown to affect drug use, including attitudes toward drug use and friendships with peers who are less likely to use drugs. (Bacon, T. “The Effects of the Too Good for Drugs Drug Prevention Program on Students’ Substance Abuse Intentions and Risk and Protective Factors.” Florida Educational Research Council Bulletin., 31(3-4), 1-25.)

The strategies used in the Too Good for Drugs & Violence After-School Activities program design have been proven effective in reducing or preventing drug use and violence among youth. The following paragraphs summarize the major strategies used and provide sources documenting their effectiveness.

Reducing Risk Factors and Building Protective Factors
Too Good for Drugs & Violence After-School Activities reduces risk factors and builds protective factors. Research has shown that reducing risk factors and building protective factors leads to resiliency in youth. The risk factors addressed by the Too Good for Drugs & Violence After-School Activities program are: Prosocial Skills; Favorable Attitudes Toward Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drugs (ATOD); Perceived Norms Regarding ATOD Use; and Perception of Harm and Risk Regarding ATOD Use.

Hawkins, J.D., Catalano, R.F. & Miller, J.Y (1992). Risk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: Implications for substance abuse and prevention. Psychological Bulletin, 112,1:64-105.

A Comprehensive, Multi-Component Approach
Research indicates that prevention programs that use a combination of (1) normative education, (2) information about the consequences of drug use and (3) general personal and interpersonal skills, including peer pressure resistance skills, prevent drug use, as compared to programs using a single approach.

Dent, C.W. et al., (1995) Two-year behavior outcomes of Project Towards No Tobacco Use. Journal of Clinical and Consulting Psychology, 63, 676-677.

Hansen, W. B. (1992). School-based substance abuse prevention: A review of the state of the art in curriculum, 1980-1990. Health Education Research, 7 (3), 403-430.

Normative Education
Normative education is an integral part of the Too Good for Drugs & Violence After-School Activities program design. Many young people incorrectly believe that most youth their age are using drugs. Normative education corrects these misperceptions by providing accurate information about the percentage of youth who actually use drugs, and also about the percentage who would disapprove if their friends used drugs. Several studies show normative education to be a successful drug prevention strategy.

Gottfredson, D.C. School-based crime prevention. In L. Sherman (ed.) Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn’t, and What’s Promising: A Report to the United States Congress (pp. 5-1 – 5-74.) Washington, D.C., U.S. Department of Justice.

Hansen, W.B. & Graham, J.W. (1991). Preventing alcohol, marijuana and cigarette use among adolescents: Peer pressure resistance training versus establishing conservative norms. Preventive Medicine, 20, 414-430.

Information on Harmful Effects of Drug Use to Raise Students’ Perception of Risk
Too Good for Drugs & Violence After-School Activities includes information about the harmful effects of using alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, which causes students to perceive themselves as personally susceptible to the likely consequences. An individual’s perception of risk is highly correlated with use or nonuse of drugs.

Hansen, W.B., Johnson, C.A., Flay, B.R., Graham, J.W. and Sobel, J. (1988). Affective and social influences approaches to the prevention of multiple substance abuse among seventh grade students: results from Project SMART. Preventive Medicine, 17, 135-154.

Pro-social Skills Development
Research has shown that students who receive classroom instruction in goal setting, decision making, coping, communication and peer refusal skills, including opportunities for rehearsing and practicing them, are less likely to use drugs, compared to those who have not received such training.

Botvin, G.J., Schinke, S. and Orlandi, M.A. (1995). School-based health promotion: Substance Abuse and sexual Behavior, Applied and Preventive Psychology, 4: 167-184.

Elias, M.J., Gara, M.A., Schuyler, T., Branden-Muller, L.R. and Sayette, M.A. (1991). The promotion of social competence: Longitudinal study of a preventive school-based program. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 61(3), 409-417.

Social Influences
Too Good for Drugs & Violence After-School Activities includes an emphasis on social influences such as advertising and media as well as the influence of friends and family members as role models. Several studies suggest that a focus on social influences is a critical aspect of effective drug prevention education.

Botvin, G.J., Schinke, S. and Orlandi, M.A. (1995). School-based health promotion: Substance abuse and sexual behavior, Applied and Preventive Psychology, 4: 167-184.

Dielman, T.E., et al., (1992). Susceptibility to peer pressure as an explanatory variable for the differential effectiveness of an alcohol misuse prevention program in elementary schools. Journal of School Health, 62, 233-237.

Pentz, M.A., Dwyer, J.H., MacKinnon, D.P., et al., (1989). A multi-community trail for primary prevention of adolescent drug abuse. Journal of the American Medical Association, 261, 3259-3266.

Interactive Teaching Techniques
Too Good for Drugs & Violence After-School Activities uses interactive teaching techniques. The interactive process provides opportunities for the exchange of ideas between peers. Researchers found that non-interactive programs showed only a 4% reduction in substance use, while interactive programs showed a 21% reduction in prevalence rate.

Tobler, N.S. (1998). Lessons learned. The Journal of Primary Prevention 20(4), 261-274.

Diverse Role Play Situations
Too Good for Drugs & Violence After-School Activities uses role play situations involving not only drug use but also other problem behaviors. Research has shown that drug use is associated with other problem behaviors such as premature sexual involvement, truancy and delinquency. Youth who are involved in one health-compromising behavior are likely to engage in others. Research has established high correlations between these behaviors.

Jessor, R. (1982). Problem Behavior and developmental transition in adolescence. Journal of School Health. 52(5) 295-300.

Parental Involvement
Too Good for Drugs & Violence After-School Activities includes “Home Workouts: Exercises for Parents and Kids,” which are designed to reinforce activities and concepts taught in the after-school program. Prevention research has found that students whose parents participated in a school-based intervention gained more knowledge and expressed more favorable attitudes toward positive health practices than those whose parents did not participate.

Flay, B. R. et al., (1987). Implementation effectiveness at trial of a social influences smoking prevention program using schools and television. Health Education Research 2, 385-400.

Donaldson, S. I., Graham, J.W. and Hansen, W.B. (1994). Testing the generalizability of intervening mechanism theories: Understanding the effects of adolescent drug use prevention interventions. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 17(2), 195-216.

Hawkins, J.D., Catalano, R.F. & Miller, J.Y (1992). Risk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: Implications for substance abuse and prevention. Psychological Bulletin, 112,1:64-105.

Werch, C.E., et al. (1991). Effects of a take-home drug prevention program on drug related communication and beliefs of parents and children. Journal of School Health, 61(8), 346-350.