Effects on students opinions, attitudes and behaviour, in relation to smoking, drinking and drug use, based on school policy to test or not
Authors
Egan, Mary
Issue Date
2004
Degree
MA in Addiction Studies
Publisher
Dublin Business School
Rights holder
Rights
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Abstract
This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of school's policy of prevention based on their policy to test for alcohol and drugs The experimental hypotheses were; that students from schools with a policy to test, would have more negative attitudes and opinions and engage less in smoking drinking and drug use. The Independent Variable (IV) was a policy to test or not, demographic variables age and social class were also taken into account. The dependant variables (D V) were smoking, drinking and drug use. A researcher-designed questionnaire was circulated to 4 post- primary schools, 2 with a policy to test and 2 with a no test policy( n= 149). Frequencies and A one-way independent samples ANOVAs were conducted to evaluate the impact of (1) age, (2) gender on smoking, drinking and drug use. A significant difference was found between age of males (16.63) and females (16.37). 2.9% of the variance was accountedfor by difference in age. (F [1,47]= 4.32, P<0.05), Eta squared = 0.029. A significant difference was found between age and smoking (F [1, 147] = 5.12, P<0.05), Eta squared = 0.034.A 3% of the variance between groups, based on age, was accounted for by smoking, with older students reporting a higher rate of smoking. ANOVA was conducted to evaluate the impact of gender on lie scale. No significant difference was found between groups based on lie score (F [1, 145] = 10.262, p<0.05). Eta Squared = 0.067. A 6.7% of variance between groups was based on lie score. ANOVAs were conducted to evaluate the impact of policy on smoking (F[1, 147] = 5.2, p, 0. 05), drinking (F[I, 146]=2.193,p, 0. 05 and drugs (Fl, 147]=3.3,p, 0. 05). A series of Chi-square, Cross tabulations and Multiple Regressions were conducted. Males engaged in drinking, more thanfemales (B=3.22 p, 0. 05). Policy was not a predictor of drug status. The conclusion was that there was insufficient evidence that a policy to test had any influence over student's attitudes or behaviours in relation to smoking, drinking or drug use.