| Goals and Objectives :: Goal B :: The Research |
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The Research
Research in drug and violence prevention indicates that changing negative attitudes and supporting positive ones is an effective, even a critical, strategy. For example, Lloyd Johnston of the University of Michigan Survey Research Center has conducted 21 annual surveys of 50,000 high school seniors (eighth- and tenth-graders since 1991) in over 400 public and private secondary schools across the country. The surveys, collectively called the Monitoring the Future Study, measures students' attitudes and behaviors relating to drug use. Johnston has found a direct link between students' attitudes and subsequent behaviors toward drugs, as he stated about the1995 survey results that beliefs about the harmfulness of the various drugs have proven to be very important determinants of use. The data show that attitudes minimizing the risk of a drug precede increases in its use. Strategies that target these attitudes, therefore, can be very effective in preventing the behavior.
Numerous studies attest to the connection between violent attitudes and behaviors. For example, a study by Donnerstein, Slaby, and Eron, "The Mass Media and Youth Aggression" (in L.D. Eron, J.H. Gentry, and P. Schlege, eds., Reason to Hope: A Psychosocial Perspective on Violence and Youth, Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 1994), notes that the 1972 Surgeon General's Report, the 1982 National Institute of Mental Health Report, the 1985 American Psychological Association (APA) Report, and the 1992 APA Task Force Report all endorsed findings that televised violence has a causal effect on aggressive behavior. Another study that emphasizes the influence of attitudes on violent behavior is "Youth Violence: An Overview," conducted in 1994 by D.S. Elliott for the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence (University of Colorado Institute for Behavioral Sciences).
In the case of violence, attitudes may be even more important than information. For example, M.J. Boulton and P.K. Smith's study, "Bully/Victim Problems in Middle-School Children: Stability, Self-Perceived Competence, Peer Perceptions, and Peer Acceptance" (British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 1994), points out that students' attitudes about themselves and others play a major role in the extent to which they continue to be bullies or victims. And B.I. Fagot, et al., in "Developmental Determinants of Male-to-Female Aggression" (in G.W. Russell, ed., Violence and Intimate Adult Relationships, New York: Spectrum, 1988), finds family attitudes and values toward females as a significant factors in children who are consistently violent toward females.
Most studies on the prevention of drug use and violence among young people point to several factors that influence drug-taking and violent behaviors, but invariably the person's attitude and perception of others' attitudes play important roles in determining the type of behavior.
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