A short-term, quasi-experimental evaluation of D.A.R.E.'s revised elementary school curriculum

We present the short-term results of a quasi-experimental evaluation of the revised D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) curriculum. Study outcomes examined were D.A.R.E.'s effects on three substances, namely students' lifetime and 30-day use of tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana, as well as their school attendance and academic performance. The study comprised students in 17 urban schools, each of which served as its own control; 5th graders in the 2006-2007 school year constituted the comparison group (n = 1490), and those enrolled as 5th graders in the 2007-2008 school year constituted the intervention group (n= 1450). We found no intervention effect on students' substance use for any of the substance use outcomes assessed. We did find that students were more likely to attend school on days they received D.A.R.E. lessons and that students in the intervention group were more likely to have been suspended. Study findings provide little support for the implementation and dissemination of the revised D.A.R.E. curriculum.     

The outlook is G.R.E.A.T.: What educators say about school-based prevention and the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program

This article reports on a survey of administrators, counselors, and teachers from middle schools involved in the National Evaluation of the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program. This survey was part of a multisite evaluation that also elicited the responses of students, parents, and officers teaching the G.R.E.A.T. program. School personnel provide their views about important current issues, including their perceptions of school safety, the role of law enforcement officers in schools, and the role and effectiveness of school-based prevention programs in general and the G.R.E.A.T. program in particular. Results from this survey have important implications for the plethora of prevention programs currently located in American schools.     

Multimethod strategy for assessing program fidelity: the national evaluation of the revised G.R.E.A.T. program

This study reports the results of the process evaluation component of the Process and Outcome Evaluation of the Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.) program. The process evaluation consisted of multiple methods to assess program fidelity: (a) observations of G.R.E.A.T. Officer Trainings (G.O.T); (b) surveys and interviews of G.R.E.A.T.-trained officers and supervisors; (c) surveys of school personnel; and (d) 'on-site,' direct observations of officers delivering the G.R.E.A.T. program in the study sites. Results illustrate a high level of program fidelity, providing greater confidence in any subsequent outcome results.     

Decolonial strategies in world politics: C.L.R. James and the writing and playing of cricket

Discussions of decolonizing world politics have flourished in international studies recently but few of these engage with popular culture, especially sports. In this paper, I address this gap and consider sports – specifically the sport of cricket – as a global phenomenon, useful for discussing key decolonizing strategies. This paper argues that cricket, as a form of popular culture, offers language and practices to critique oppressive sociopolitical norms and global hierarchies. It draws upon the cricket-writing of C.L.R. James, specifically his book Beyond a Boundary, as well as on the experiences of playing cricket to outline some decolonial strategies. These strategies include shifting perspectives on world politics, the role of biography and autobiography as critique, and the relevance of positionality in describing global processes and in the construction of knowledge. Overall, this paper claims that popular culture, especially those which are popular in the Global South, offers ways to rethink and rework relations between the powerful and less powerful. Cricket provides examples of ways in which these various decolonial strategies can be enacted in practice.     

Agency change: a response to the needs of black families and children

Many established voluntary child welfare agencies are now finding that the majority of their clients are black. Meeting their needs and those of the black community calls for deep-going changes in agency structure, orientation, and practice.     

Long-term impact of Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.). Results of a 6-year follow-up

The long-term effectiveness of Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) was assessed by contrasting drug use and other D.A.R.E.-related attitudinal latent variables among 356 twelfth-grade students who had received the program in the 6th grade with 264 others who did not receive it. A prior study of these subjects when they were in 9th grade had shown no significant differences. A follow-up survey in 12th grade assessed central D.A.R.E. concepts such as self-esteem, police bonds, delay of experimentation with drugs, and various forms of drug use. Although the authors found no relationship between prior D.A.R.E. participation and later alcohol use, cigarette smoking, or marijuana use in 12th grade, there was a significant relationship between earlier D.A.R.E. participation and less use of illegal, more deviant drugs (e.g., inhalants, cocaine, LSD) in a development sample but not in a validation sample. Findings from the two studies suggest a possible sleeper effect for D.A.R.E. in reference to the use of harder drugs, especially among teenage males.     

Employment and basic needs: lessons of a mission to Portugal

The task of the International Labour Organization (ILO) mission that visited Portugal in 1977 differed in several respects from that of earlier missions undertaken in the framework of the World Employment Programme: 1) with a per capita consumption of U.S. $1000 a year, Portugal is far better off than the other countries to which ILO missions were sent; 2) following the Revolution of April 25, 1974, Portugal had already adopted many of the recommendations such as those concerning income redistribution and land reform contained in the reports of earlier ILO missions; and 3) as a consequence of the above, the ILO mission to Portugal was not asked to produce a report and make recommendations, but to participate directly in the drafting of the 1977-80 Plan through a joint Portuguese-ILO Working Group. The present article draws both on the report of the Working Group and on subsequent research. Open unemployment is a recent phenomenon in Portugal, and the objective of the Medium-Term Plan is to improve basic-needs satisfaction and reduce unemployment. It can be reasonably assumed that the increased activity of the agricultural sector, together with continued north-south migration, will absorb much of the existing underemployment. Concerning industry, the reorientation of industrial growth towards the requirements of a basic-needs strategy and more employment-intensive production represents a considerable change from past strategies and policies. Concerning the basic-needs approach as a development strategy, it is useful to show that such a strategy remains compatible with the pursuit of more traditional objectives, such as sustained growth, full employment, balance-of-payments equilibrium, equitable income distribution, and harmonious regional development.     

U.A.R.: influential factors in the acceptance of birth control and the consequential approaches to family planning

A number of factors have retarded the acceptance of birth control methods among peasant communities in Egypt: 1) the religious world-view of the peasant discourages him from interfering with the natural process of procreation; 2) the large family is important socially and economically in peasant society for strength and security and for the distribution of labor; 3) the status of a married woman depends to a great extent on the number of children, particularly the number of sons, she bears; and 4) in the Egyptian village, the midwife discourages the use of contraception. Acceptance and utilization of birth control methods in Egypt are directly proportionate to the level of education of the individual. The better the economic status of the family, the smaller the family is likely to be. Demographically, the closer a family lives to Cairo, the more likely it is that birth control techniques are being used. Egyptian family planning programs which take into consideration the difficulties of spreading the acceptance and use of contraceptives in traditional societies are discussed.     

The Emergence of Environmental Sociology: Contributions of Riley E. Dunlap and William R. Catton, Jr.

Human beings have a dualistic relationship with the environment, being subject to physical and biological limits and yet being unique in the capacity for culture and symbolic communication. Sociology reflects this context and adds another dualism, drawing heavily from the concepts and perspectives of biological ecology, but reacting almost violently against "reductionism" of any sort, specifically including social Darwinism and environmental determinism. During much of the twentieth century, the predominant trend within sociology was for scholars to downplay or even ignore the importance of the environment, particularly in the United States. This trend was ultimately counterbalanced by sociological responses to the environmental movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s and by the efforts of selected sociologists-particulady Riley Dunlap and William Catton-who helped bring together the field of "environmental sociology." Given the finite nature of many natural resources and the ways in which human activities depend upon and affect the environment, the field of environmental sociology is likely to be an increasingly important one in the years to come.     

Evaluating the effectiveness of a school drug and alcohol prevention curriculum: a new look at "Here's Looking at You, Two"

The article reports on the results of an evaluation of a school drug and alcohol prevention curriculum marketed under the title, "Here's Looking at You, Two." Previous evaluations, unreported in the literature and having unresolved methodological problems, have found that while the program appears effective at transmitting information regarding drug and alcohol abuse, it has not been effective at changing the underlying attitudes and behaviors that, in part, explain substance abuse. Employing a more rigorous methodology, our examination of a relatively large sample across five school districts provides support for previous findings. Over the short-term of one year, the program was particularly effective at transmitting substance information to primary and middle school students. The program, however, produced very little of the expected effect on the underlying attitudes that are critical to changing substance abuse behaviors.     

The Contagiousness of Conflict: E.E. Schattschneider as a theorist of the information society

Elmer Eric Schattschneider (1892-1971) was one of the most distinguished US political scientists of his day but beyond an isolated footnote, his work rarely receives much attention today. This paper suggests that there is much in Schattschneider's work that deserves renewed attention. In 1960, Schattschneider published The Semisovereign People , a study of the transformation of US politics from a set of regional hegemonies to a genuinely national political system. While this may seem arcane to students of the information society, The Semisovereign People actually offers a conceptual toolkit for understanding the way in which new information and communications technologies are changing the global political landscape. In an era of satellite television, the Internet and the mobile phone, Schattschneider's key concepts of scope, visibility and the socialization of conflict provide powerful insights into the politics of a globalizing world. E.E. Schattschneider thought he was writing a book about the nationalization of US politics in the middle of the twentieth century in fact what he actually wrote was a theory of political globalization.