THE EFFECTS OF AFFECTIVE AND CONFLUENT DRUG EDUCATION ON RISK-TAKING ATTITUDES OF INNER CITY EIGHTH GRADE STUDENTS

The empirical study was designed to compare the effects of affective and confluent drug education on the risk-taking attitudes and cognitive knowledge about drugs of urban eighth grade students. Affective drug education involved a values education only strategy, while confluent drug education involved a values education/pharmacology strategy and a pharmacology/values education strategy. Distinctions between the two confluent drug education strategies involved the order in which the students received the affective (values education) and cognitive (pharmacology) components.;The participants in the study consisted of 160 inner city eighth grade students who were currently enrolled in required health and physical education classes at a public junior high school in the District of Columbia. All students were randomly assigned to one of four groups. The groups were then randomly assigned to one of four treatment conditions: (1) a values education only; (2) a values education/pharmacology; (3) a pharmacology/values education and (4) a control. The 101-item Risk-Taking-Attitude-Values Inventory (Carney, 1973) and the 40-item Pennsylvania State Drug Knowledge Scale were administered to all groups at the beginning and end of the 30-day experimental period to measure risk-taking attitudes toward drug abuse and cognitive knowledge about drugs.;For the purpose of this study a true experimental design was used to test seven hypotheses. Analyses of covariance were employed to analyze the data generated in the study. Scheff's post hoc tests were performed where the results were significant at the .05 level.;The results of the study indicated that no treatments were statistically effective in shifting students' attitudes to produce a rank-ordering of drug abuse from a low-risk, high-gain behavior to a high-risk, low-gain behavior. Pharmacology/values education was statistically effective in increasing drug knowledge compared to both values education and the control conditions.;The organizing theoretical framework was based upon Richard E. Carney's work on Risk-Taking Valuing Theory. This theory views drug abuse as a high-risk, low-gain behavior which is chosen when more adequate means of adjustment are either unavailable or perceived to be of less value.;The results of this study suggest: (1) affective and confluent drug education programs will not change students' risk-taking attitudes toward drug abuse; and (2) confluent drug education will produce increased cognitive knowledge about drugs. . . . (Author's abstract exceeds stipulated maximum length. Discontinued here with permission of school.) UMI.