UF researchers have found a program focused on promoting anti-substance abuse among teens and pre-teens to be successful.
Health Rocks! is a program run by the UF Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences’ Florida 4-H Youth Development Program. It began in 2009 to teach alcohol and drug abuse prevention to students.
Kate Fogarty, an associate professor in UF/IFAS’ family, youth and community sciences and a study co-author, helped lead the study about the program for students between the ages of 10 to 15.
“I expect that kids, by learning hands-on, are making a difference in some way in their communities,” Fogarty said.
More than 2,000 students in seven Florida counties participated in the program, said Muthusami Kumaran, a UF assistant professor in family, youth and community sciences who helped conduct the study.
Students who participated in at least 10 hours of Health Rocks! took the survey that evaluated the effectiveness of the program, Kumaran said.
The survey asked students to anwer questions using a scale of 1 to 5, with one meaning strongly disagree and five meaning strongly agree.
The average scores for Florida students went up in each of the three areas surveyed. In “drug knowledge,” scores rose from 2.99 to 3.43; in “drug beliefs/attitudes,” scores went from 3.45 to 3.63; and “skills to handle/resist drugs” improved from 3.0 to 3.43.
The average scores show statistically significant improvement for hundreds of children in the program from 2009 to 2012, Fogarty said.
UF/IFAS received a four-year, $160,000 grant from the National 4-H Council to support Health Rocks!
“It’s so sad to see the numbers that (show) nearly a quarter of our children get hooked onto these habits at an early age at the middle school level,” Kumaran said.
“It is just not right to let our children fall through the cracks.”
[A version of this story ran on page 3 on 11/5/2014]
