Evaluating the Prevention through Alternative Learning Styles Program

Abstract

This article reports on the evaluation of a two-year alcohol, tobacco and other drug (ATOD) intervention, the Prevention through Alternative Learning Styles ( PALS) program, targeting both teachers and middle-school students. Teachers are taught to recognize students' unique learning styles in the context of the ATOD curriculum and adapt the ATOD messages to these learning styles. The student curriculum consists of 5 topic areas with two lessons per topic area. Student goals include enhancing students' knowledge of the effects of ATOD, promoting students' use of refusal skills and decreasing students' intentions to use ATOD. The program was implemented in school districts in the greater Dayton Ohio area. Support was found for the intervention's overall effectiveness in both years, with statistically significant improvements demonstrated by the students who participated in the PALS program. Students had an increase in their knowledge of ATOD topic areas and a decrease in their intentions to use ATOD.