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PY/PM: Published Studies
Studies on Youth-Led PY/PM:
Protecting You/Protecting Me has been found to impact both the high school peer leaders who teach the curriculum and the elementary students who receive it. A study from the first year of youth-led implementation showed that elementary students receiving PY/PM made significant improvements, relative to the comparison group, in vehicle safety skills, Intentions not to ride with an alcohol impaired driver, media literacy, and knowledge about brain development. Additional findings showed some individual differences by gender and grade and that the intervention's effect varied in a few areas depending on pre-test score, gender, and grade. Overall, the curriculum benefits students by influencing their attitudes toward advertisements, increasing their intentions not to ride with a driver who has been drinking, developing their skills to protect themselves when they have no other option but to ride with an alcohol impaired driver, and improving their knowledge about the developing brain (Bohman, Barker, Bell, Lewis, Holleran, & Pomeroy, 2004)
A study designed to evaluate replicability of immediate positive effects of first-year exposure and to test cumulative effects of second-year exposure to the five-year PY/PM curriculum demonstrated the utility of a multi-year curriculum taught by youth leaders. Children in the PY/PM classrooms made greater gains in media literacy and vehicle safety skills than did comparison students. Those students with two years of exposure to the PY/PM curriculum scored higher for vehicle safety skills on the pre-survey and made greater gains than did comparison students (Bell, Kelley-Baker, Falb, & Roberts-Gray, 2004).
The effect of teaching PY/PM on high school peer helpers has also been demonstrated. Evaluation surveys before and after teaching PY/PM showed that prior to teaching the program, peer helpers perceived high levels of alcohol use by persons under 21 as harmful, but not lower levels. After the program, they significantly increased their perceptions of the risks associated with low levels of underage alcohol use. Peer helpers also showed improved teaching skills, understanding of children, and knowledge of brain development. Both elementary students and their classroom teachers gave highly favorable ratings to the peer helpers teaching PY/PM in a number of areas, especially in serving as role models to elementary students (Bell, Kelley Baker, Bliss, Jones, & Falb, 2004).
A second study of the effects of PY/PM on peer leaders examined the impact on high school students who taught elementary students. High school students (N=188) enrolled in a peer helping course completed surveys before and after teaching PY/PM, and a comparison group of peer helper students (N=141) from matched schools completed surveys at the same times. Results indicated that, relative to the comparison group, those exposed to PY/PM gained knowledge of alcohol’s effects, increased their perceptions of the risks of high levels of alcohol use, gained teaching skills, and decreased their frequency of binge drinking. This study demonstrated that the cross-age prevention program was successful in changing high school students’ knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors regarding high levels, but not low levels, of alcohol use (Padget, Bell, Shamblen, Ringwalt, (2005).
Another paper discusses the importance of the cultural tailoring (CT) of classroom-based prevention curricula to ensure their relevance to, and increase their receptivity by, racial and ethnic minority adolescent populations. It then describes the results of applying this model post hoc to the adaptation of “Protecting You/Protecting Me,” to enhance its suitability for youth in three American Indian tribes in Nebraska (Ringwalt & Bliss, in press).
Additional information on the Protecting You/Protecting Me program and the vital part that evaluation played throughout its development is available in a publication published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) (Bell, Bliss, & Padget, 2005).
References
Bell, M.L., Kelley Baker, T., Bliss, K., Jones, K., & Falb, T. (2004). Protecting You/Protecting Me: An alcohol program for elementary students taught by peer helpers. The Peer Facilitator Quarterly, 19(3) 126-135. (PDF doc)
Bell, M.L., Kelley Baker, T., Falb, T., & Roberts-Gray, C. (2004) Protecting You/Protecting Me: Evaluation of an alcohol prevention program for elementary students taught by high school peer leaders. J. of Alcohol and Drug Education, 48(3).
Bohman, T., Barker, T., Bell, M.L., Lewis, C., Holleran, L., & Pomeroy, E. (2004). Early intervention for alcohol use prevention and vehicle safety skills: evaluating the Protecting You/Protecting Me curriculum. J. of Child and Adolescent Substance Abuse, 14(1) 17-40. (PDF doc)
Padget, A., Bell, M.L., Shamblen, S., Ringwalt, C. (2005). Effects on High School Students of teaching a cross-age alcohol prevention program. J. of Drug Education, 35 (3) 201-216. (PDF doc)
Ringwalt, C. & Bliss, K (in press). The cultural tailoring of a substance abuse use prevention curriculum for American Indian youth. J. of Drug Education, 36(2).
Bell, M.L., Bliss, K. & Padget, A.(2005). The experience of MADD’s Protecting You/Protecting Me: Using evaluation to enhance program development. Washington, DC:U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Available:
http://ncadi.samhsa.gov/media/prevline/pdfs/csap4p40_Protecting_Sept21_TWO.pdf
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