Evaluation Of An Online Substance Abuse Prevention Exercise

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an online prevention exercise. The rigorous evaluation of one online exercise using controlled school environment was seen as the first step in understanding the potential of online activities to help teens prevent substance abuse. This study assessed changes in knowledge, attitudes, normative beliefs, perceived behavioral control, and intention to change behavior produced by exposure to a Web-based anger management exercise. Results showed significant changes in knowledge after exposure to the teacher led online exercise and the teacher led supplemented by homework groups, but not the other measures. This was as hypothesized since the exercise lasted only 30 minutes and was not designed to produce changes in all the measures in the evaluation model. Further, the effect sizes for the teacher led supplemented by homework session group was much greater than for the teacher led group. This indicates that an online prevention program delivered as a booster to the face-to-face session may be a viable option. Results also indicated that assigning an exercise and pre-post tests as homework might require more control or teen motivation to be effective.