 | The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
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| The 131st Annual Meeting (November 15-19, 2003) of APHA |
Mary Lou Bell, MA, MBA, The Bell Group, 611 S. Congress Ave., Suite 210, Austin, TX 78704, 512 441-2900, marylou@bellgrp.com, Kappie Bliss, MEd, Bliss, Inc., 611 S. Congress Ave., Suite 210, Austin, TX 78704, and Tara Kelley Baker, PhD, Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, 11710 Beltsville Drive, Suite 300, Calverton, MD 20705.
Until recently, scientists thought that human brains were fully developed by the teenage years. We now know that the brain continues to develop rapidly throughout adolescence (Bellis & Clark, 2000). Profound changes, both organizational and functional, continue to occur in the frontal lobes during adolescence (Giedd, 1999). 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, Swartwelder, and White, 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). There are also indirect dangers associated with alcohol, including 5555 alcohol-related traffic fatalities of children under 15 from 1985-96 (Quinlan et al, 2000). During this presentation, participants will learn about the impact of alcohol on the developing brain as well as how MADD took the latest brain research and developed a curriculum called Protecting You/Protecting Me (PY/PM). PY/PM, which has been designated a Model Program by SAMHSA and endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, is a five-year, classroom-based alcohol use prevention curriculum for students in Grades 1-5. PY/PM is being implemented by classroom teachers, counselors, health educators, and in one especially interesting study, by high school peer leaders. In evaluation studies PY/PM has been found to increase children’s knowledge about their brains, increase media literacy, and improve children’s ability to protect themselves if they ever have to ride with adults who are not alcohol-free.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Alcohol, Children and Adolescents
Related Web page: pypm.org
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Mothers against Drunk Driving funded the development of the Protecting You/Protecting Me program. The Bell Group are the evaluators.
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.