The Nature of School-Based Prevention Experiences for Middle School Students

Abstract:
A gap exists between the real and the ideal in school-based prevention programming. Research in this area tends to concentrate on determining program elements that yield a positive behavioral outcome, while less attention is given to what schools are actually doing and to what might be real-life constraints to 'ideal' prevention programming. This article reports on in-person interviews with 139 school personnel from 42 middle and elementary schools in Wisconsin. The purpose was 1) to determine the intensity of K-8 exposure to prevention topics and teaching strategies and 2) to describe the degree of support for prevention topics in the schools. Findings indicate that those topics and teaching strategies that teachers and administrators felt to be most needed for a successful prevention effort were those actually used the least. Support for the school prevention effort was mixed. To explain these findings, the authors discuss data from open-ended ethnographic interviews carried out as part of a larger study.

Author(s): HILL, Hannah; PIPER, Douglas; and KING, Monica

Publication: Journal of Health Education--Supplement, pp. S15-S23


Date Published: 11/1/1993

Pages: 9

Comments:
The authors are with the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Madison, WI 53705.

Location Code: 8181