About Us

Overview: Protecting You/Protecting Me (PY/PM) is an innovative, five-year, universal, classroom-based substance abuse preventive intervention in the individual domain, combining information dissemination and prevention education targeted to elementary school students. The program has been evaluated in two large-scale multiyear studies, is currently under review by the National Registry of Effective Programs, and is included in the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse statewide replication training initiative to promote the implementation of model and noteworthy programs. Over 20 leading experts and groups with experience in the fields of prevention and curriculum development have reviewed the program, and it is endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association of Elementary School Principals. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) developed PY/PM entirely with private funds, including a grant from General Motors.

Theory: The Protecting You/Protecting Me program is based on the complementary and reinforcing mechanisms of risk reduction, resiliency, and protective factor enhancement (Hawkins and Catalano, 1992; Benard, 1993). Programs based on these theories are found to be highly effective in reducing risks for substance abuse and increasing the protective factors that mitigate, reduce, or eliminate those risks. The program also incorporates the "Developmental Assets" framework, which provides concrete strategies for initiating, developing, and strengthening protective factors for children, families, and communities (Search Institute, 1998), and incorporates the "Principles of Effectiveness" established by the U.S. Department of Education, 1998.

Target Population: The target population for PY/PM is the universal group of students in grades 1-5 in elementary school. SAMHSA's National Household Survey on Drug Abuse indicates that the average age of first use of alcohol continues to drop. Although children in the earliest elementary grades are generally against all forms of substance abuse, the risk for alcohol and other drug use increases when children enter grade 6 (between ages 12 and 13). SAMHSA suggests that clear messages about underage alcohol use are useful and appropriate in the elementary grades. According to Health and Human Service Secretary Tommy G. Thompson, "Our message that underage drinking is unacceptable and illegal needs to reach down to elementary and middle school students, teachers and their families." By targeting the five elementary grades and by including information on brain development, PY/PM fills a unique niche that is not addressed by currently available programs.

Brain-based Information: Until recently, scientists thought that humans' brains were fully developed by the teenage years. Although a baby is born with almost all the brain cells (neurons) he/she will ever have, the brain continues to develop actively throughout childhood and adolescence. We now know that the brain is on a schedule, with each stage of development allotted a specific period of time for completion, and that the brain continues to develop rapidly throughout adolescence (Bellis & Clark, 2000.) A child's/adolescent's interactions with the outside environment causes connections to form between brain cells. Then these connections are pruned during puberty and adulthood; therefore, whatever a child/adolescent experiences, for good or bad, helps determine how his/her brain is wired (Teicher, 2000.)

There appear to be profound changes, both organizational and functional, in the frontal lobes during adolescence (Geidd et al., 1999.) During adolescence frontal lobes are becoming shaped and fine-tuned in order to perform efficiently during adulthood. It is quite likely that this shaping is, at least in part mediated by experience, raising the possibility that drug abuse could alter the normal development of the frontal lobes during adolescence. The corpus collosum, a thick bundle of axons that allows the two cerebral hemispheres to communicate with one another, increases in size during adolescence (Geidd et al., 1999). Gray matter volumes in the occipital lobes, which are involved in processing visual information, increase throughout adolescence into the early 20s. Gray matter volumes in the temporal lobes, which are critically involved in memory formation, as well as visual and auditory processing, do not reach maximum until the age of about 16-17 (Geidd et al., 1999). PY/PM helps children understand that their brains will still be developing throughout adolescence - an important piece of information for children in the elementary grades, as it is a significant motivator for maintaining and reinforcing their non-use attitudes.

Risks Associated with Alcohol: Exposure to substances, such as psychoactive drugs that inhibit cell growth, has some impact on an adult brain, but a devastating impact on the developing brain (Kuhn, Swartzwelder and White, 1998.) Science is uncovering a more detailed picture about the seriousness of underage alcohol use. It has become quite clear over recent years that alcohol impacts both behavior and brain function differently in adolescents and adults. This general finding should not be surprising given the dramatic changes in the brain that occur during the adolescent period. The developing brain throughout adolescence is especially vulnerable to the effects of alcohol, which can interfere with a variety of critical thinking skills as well as memory (Kuhn, Swartzwelder & Wilson, 1998.) Recent studies also suggest that adolescents are more vulnerable to some effects of alcohol exposure, while being less vulnerable to others (White, et. al, 2001.) PY/PM teaches children that the brains of children and adolescents are different from the brains of adults and are subject to additional and different risks. This approach separates youth from adults with regard to risk. PY/PM offsets risk and increases protective factors by teaching children how their brains work and what behaviors and substances place their brains in danger. It also teaches them skills to protect their own development.

There are also indirect dangers associated with alcohol. The Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that from 1985 to 1996, 5,555 children under the age of 15 died in motor vehicle crashes involving "drinking drivers" (Quinlan, Brewer, Sleet, & Dellinger, 2000). In nearly two-thirds of these cases, the drinking driver was not a stranger in another car, but an adult driver of the car in which the children were riding. Of the children killed, less than one in five of these children were wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash (Quinlan et al., 2000). PY/PM equips children with "safety skills", including how to refuse a ride from an adult driver who is not alcohol-free (such as the adult partygoer driving a babysitter home), and how to reduce the risks when there is no option but to ride with a driver who has consumed alcohol and may be impaired (such as parents/guardians who drink and drive.)