MADD PRESS RELEASE:
Contact: Amy George, (800) 438-6233 x4493 or george@madd.org
Neal Hanks, (800) 438-6233 x4567 or hanks@madd.org
Irving, TX (March 12, 2003) – In conjunction with international Brain Awareness Week (March 10-14), Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) today released research results from its elementary alcohol prevention curriculum, Protecting You/Protecting Me (PY/PM), showing that students’ alcohol awareness, attitudes and behaviors dramatically improved compared to similar students without the program. The nationally recognized MADD PY/PM curriculum is the first and only one of its kind based on the latest scientific brain research to teach children about how alcohol effects their growing bodies, as well as how to keep themselves safe from underage drinking and drunk drivers. The program is part of MADD’s unique strategy to prevent underage drinking by reaching children in their earliest stages of development.
Of the classroom teacher-led study, PY/PM students’ knowledge increased four times more than students who did not receive the program on the importance of protecting their brains and understanding that their brains continue to develop until the legal drinking age, five times more on vehicle safety skills such as how to protect themselves if riding in a car with an alcohol-impaired driver, and six times more on media literacy like the portrayal of alcohol in advertising. The evaluation results were complied over three years from over 3,000 student surveys given before and after the eight-week PY/PM program.
“The strength of Protecting You/Protecting Me is that it is based on educational information about alcohol and other drug’s effects on the brain, rather than on scare tactics,” says Dr. Scott Swartzwelder, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center, Senior Research Career Scientist at the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs and co-author of Just Say Know: Talking With Kids About Drugs and Alcohol. “One of the biggest challenges that the alcohol and drug abuse prevention community faces is changing attitudes and behaviors, and the data indicate that MADD’s PY/PM program is doing just that. This program is one of a few that has ever shown any clear or sustained results, and the study helps move prevention strategies forward in a tangible way.”
Wendy J. Hamilton, MADD national president, agrees, “Protecting you/Protecting Me is important for the immediate effects on youth as well as the long-term effects on the nation. Underage drinking is the nation’s No. 1 youth drug problem and research shows that the earlier youth begin to drink, the more likely they are to suffer from alcohol-related problems later in life, including alcohol dependency and drunk driving. We know that to achieve our ultimate goal of stopping drunk driving, we must prevent underage drinking, and the most obvious and proven place to start is in the elementary schools.”
Recent research shows that there should be a focus on prevention in the early grades. “Protecting You/Protecting Me is for grades 1 - 5, while other programs often focus on middle school years,” says Kappie Bliss, program developer and director for Protecting You/Protecting Me. “Findings from both the teacher-led and high school student-led studies show that students having multiple years of the PY/PM program continue to make significant improvements in learning about their brains and vehicle safety skills.”
Of the high school student-led study, PY/PM students’ knowledge increased three times more than comparison students on the importance of protecting their brains, and vehicle safety skills, such as how to protect yourself if riding in a car with an alcohol-impaired driver, and two times more on understanding that their brains continue to develop until the legal drinking age and on media literacy like the portrayal of alcohol in advertising. The evaluation results were complied over three years from over 1,500 student surveys given before and after the eight-week PY/PM program.
High school students were also impacted by PY/PM and showed a reduction in alcohol consumption and binge drinking after teaching the program. They also changed their attitudes toward underage alcohol use, seeing it as more harmful than they did before teaching PY/PM, and became more aware of how much younger students look up to them and how they need to be good role models.
Monika Carrasco is a senior at Parkland High School in El Paso and a second year PY/PM instructor. “Before I received the training for this program, I had no idea how sophisticated our brains truly are. I also never realized how dangerous alcohol and other drugs are to the brain and its development. Protecting You/Protecting Me really did make me want to protect myself. Not only am I feeling the impact of this program, but I feel the children I teach really have benefited as well.”
Since the program’s inception in 1998, approximately 88,000 elementary students have received the PY/PM curriculum in eight states (Alabama, Illinois, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin) and Guam. In May 2002, PY/PM was recognized by the federal government as a “Model Program,” one of only 46 programs, from over 700 applicants, selected throughout the U.S. PY/PM is recognized by the Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse State Wide Replication Program and endorsed by the American Medical Association, the National Elementary Principals Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics. The curriculum is a series of 40 classroom-based lessons of eight lessons per year for grades 1 - 5.
MADD is a partner in Brain Awareness Week, an international event when students, teachers, researchers, nurses, physicians, patient support groups and other organizations focus the public's attention on the brain.
As part of MADD’s participation, an informational e-mail alert about Brain Awareness Week, MADD’s youth programs including PY/PM and a quick online quiz will be sent to recipients of MADD’s e-newsletter on Wednesday, March 12. To register for MADD’s e-newsletter, go to www.madd.org.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving is a 501(c)(3) non-profit, grassroots organization with approximately 600 chapters and two million supporters and members nationwide. MADD’s mission is to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking. Since MADD’s founding in 1980, alcohol-related traffic deaths have decreased by more than 40 percent, thousands of victims and survivors have been served and programs have been launched across the country to educate young people about the dangers of alcohol. For more information, please visit www.madd.org.
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