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    • School connectedness and drug and alcohol prevention
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School connectedness and drug and alcohol prevention

Strategies to encourage students to build strong connections with their school are part of a school's comprehensive drug and alcohol education program.

Research in Australia and overseas found good school connectedness was associated with lower rates of substance use and substance-related harm^1,2.

The Gatehouse Project (Victoria) and the Life Skills Program (Germany) were interventions that focused on encouraging and enhancing students' participation in school-related activities. School approaches to achieve this objective varied but the promotion of effective communication and positive self-regard based on participation were key objectives. Each of these interventions was subject to longitudinal research and they have been identified as promising programs to reduce drug use and drug-related harm³.

This indirect approach to drug prevention is based on the social influence model which recognises that the decision not to use drugs or to practice harm minimisation behaviours can be influenced by a student's social environment, which includes their school. There is agreement in the literature that the social influence approach to drug prevention is a common ingredient of drug prevention programs found to have positive effects^3,4.

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¹Bond, L., Butler, H., Thomas, L., Carlin, J., Glover, S., Bowes, G., Patton, G. (2007) social and school connectedness in early secondary school as predictors of late teenage substance use, mental health and academic outcomes. J Adolescent Health Vol 40(4) p357 e9-357 e18.

²Wenzel, V., Weichold, K., Sibereisen, R.K. (2009) The life skills program IPSY: Positive influences on school bonding and prevention of substance misuse. Journal of Adolescence Vol 32(6) pp1391-1401.

³Roche, A.M., Bywood, P., Hughes, C., Freeman, T., Duraisingam, V., Trifonoff, A., Tovell, A., Steenson, T. (2009) The role of schools in alcohol education: Final report for the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Accessed online at http://www.deewr.gov.au/Schooling/drugs/Documents/RoleSchoolsAlcoholEd.pdf on 3 February 2011 .

⁴Midford, R. (2010) Drug Prevention programmes for young people: where have we been and where should we be going? Addiction Vol 105 pp1688-1695.

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This page was last reviewed on 29 Mar 2011

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