A Meta-analysis of Project DARE Outcome Evaluations

 
DARE is a drug abuse prevention program delivered by police officers. It is one of the most widely disseminated drug abuse prevention efforts in the world. The DARE Core Curriculum is most frequently delivered in the last year of elementary school, during fifth or sixth grade.

This paper presents analyses which synthesize eight scientifically rigorous evaluations of the DARE Core Curriculum. These findings were compared to the findings of twenty-five similar evaluation studies of other programs delivered in upper elementary school. The latter set of programs was categorized as being either Interactive or Non-interactive. Interactive programs tended to emphasize social influence aspects of prevention whereas Non-interactive programs tended to focus on knowledge, self-esteem building, and skills building other than skills needed for social interaction, such as training in making wise decisions.
 
This study reports findings in terms of Effect Sizes (ES hereafter). Essentially, larger numbers correspond to larger effects that can be attributed to any given program. All Effect Sizes compare students exposed to the program with those who did not receive the program immediately after the completion of the program.

Across the eight DARE studies, the DARE Core Curriculum had the largest effects on changing knowledge (ES = .42). The size of the effect was smaller than had been achieved by Interactive programs (ES = .53) but larger than had been achieved by Non-interactive programs (ES = .16). The DARE Core Curriculum program was able to improve social skills (ES = .19) better than the Non-interactive programs (ES = .08). Both effects were much smaller than the effects of interactive programs (ES = .76). The effects of DARE on developing proper attitudes towards drugs (ES = .11) were about the same as the effects produced by non-interactive programs (ES = .06). These were much smaller than the effects produced by interactive programs (ES = .33).

The DARE Core Curriculum produced the smallest reduction in overall drug use (ES = .06), about the same size as the effect produced by non-interactive programs (ES = .08). Again, the interactive programs produced the greatest effect (ES = .18). The weakness of effect of the DARE Core Curriculum was seen for measures of alcohol, tobacco and marijuana.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DARE's short term effectiveness for reducing or preventing drug use is small. The DARE Core Curriculum was less effective in reducing drug use than Interactive programs that were delivered to similar upper elementary school students.
 
Ennett, S. T., Tobler, N.S., Ringwalt, C., and Flewelling, R. L. (1994). How effective is Drug Abuse Resistance Education? A meta-analysis of Project DARE outcome evaluations. American Journal of Public Health, 84, 1394-1401.
 
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