A study of the effects of BABES (a preschool substance abuse prevention program) on lesson material recall and knowledge of alcohol and other drugs

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Authors
Norris, Leisha R.
Advisor
Nicholas, Donald R.
Issue Date
1993
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (M.S.)
Department
Institute for Wellness
Other Identifiers
Abstract

BABES (Beginning Alcohol and Addictions Basic Education Studies) is a drug and alcohol prevention program designed to provide children with un-biased, non-judgemental information concerning alcohol and drug use. The program includes elements of social skills training and empowers children to make informed decisions.The purpose of this study was three-fold: to study the reliability of the BABES instrument, to investigate the effectiveness of the BABES program by administering the BABES instrument and to determine how children's knowledge levels were affected by the program.One hundred and five children were randomly selected from two local day care centers and from Head Start of Delaware County, Indiana. Consents were obtained for 61 children. Preschoolers from Head Start children and from one of the day care centers completed the Pre-Attitude Assessment Inventory and the BABES test. The Pre-AAI was administered prior to BABES and immediately following the prevention program, whereas the BABES test was given at both of those times and also during a two-week follow-up assessment. Children from the other day care center were utilized to check the reliability of the BABES instrument. They received the BABES test two times.A MANOVA was used to analyze the pre, post-test, and follow-up scores on the BABES test. In addition, difference scores were calculated for the Pre-AAI to determine if a knowledge gain was present, and finally, a Pearson R correlation was conducted to determine the test-retest reliability of the BABES instrument.The results showed that the BABES instrument appears to be a fairly reliable instrument and that the children participating in BABES learned more AOD related concepts as presented in BABES than those children who were not exposed to the prevention program. However, children in the experimental group also experienced a negative knowledge gain of different types and/or behaviors associated with AODs.

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