Is Drug Testing an Emerging Substance Use Prevention Strategy in Middle Schools?
In an effort to prevent substance use among school-aged youths, middle schools have adopted a variety of strategies ranging from classroom curricula to peer helper programs. A more recent addition to the arsenal of prevention strategies is drug testing. Although drug testing to date has largely targeted high school students, it is also in use in middle schools. This presentation will discuss results from the NIDA-funded national study of School-based Substance Use Prevention Programs (SSUPPS). As part of this study, a representative sample of teachers (N=1939; response rate=72.4%) responsible for substance use prevention in their middle schools were asked whether their schools conduct drug testing and, if so, which students are subject to such testing and how the testing is conducted. Preliminary SSUPPS results indicate that about 7% of the nation’s middle schools are testing students for drug use. In addition, drug testing at this level tends to occur on an unannounced, random basis and to target either all students or student athletes. Additional analyses will explore school characteristics that may explain the utilization of drug testing in middle schools, such as academic underachievement, student discipline problems, and student use of alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs. This presentation also will explore these findings in an effort to understand drug testing’s role within the context of other school-based prevention strategies.
Learning Objectives: This session attender will be able to: --report the prevalence of drug testing in US middle schools, --describe what types of students are being tested, and --understand the relationship between drug testing and school characteristics
Keywords: Substance Abuse Prevention, School-Based Programs
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.