ERIC Number: EJ862306
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009
Pages: 20
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1067-828X
EISSN: N/A
A Longitudinal Comparison of Two Versions of an Interactive Multimedia Substance Abuse Education Program
Epstein, Joel; Thomson, Nicole Renick; Collins, Karen Kadela; Pancella, Thom
Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, v18 n3 p302-321 2009
Using a grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, The Missouri Institute of Mental Health produced a series of media tools designed to teach fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade children from African-American churches about the science of drug addiction. Beginning with a core curriculum, we created two separate interventions. In the "SpaceScouts" version of the program, the content is embedded within a narrative storyline delivered via an interactive DVD. In the "LockerTalk" version of the program, content is delivered in a more didactic form via an interactive CD-ROM. Youths from a dozen churches were randomly assigned to one of these two conditions or to a wait-list control. We conducted pretest, posttest, and four- and eight-month follow-up evaluations. We ran an additional sample of youths through our programs during a summer camp. Analyses of our programs revealed that students who received our interventions demonstrated some modest gains in knowledge. Specifically, students who viewed "SpaceScouts" demonstrated improvements from baseline on one of the three sub-modules at post-test. Students who viewed "LockerTalk," however, showed greater overall mastery of the content as compared to the students who viewed "SpaceScouts" or were in the wait-list control condition. (Contains 4 figures.)
Descriptors: Core Curriculum, Churches, Drug Addiction, Computer Assisted Instruction, Drug Abuse, Longitudinal Studies, Grade 4, Grade 5, Grade 6, African Americans, Intervention, Multimedia Instruction, Pretests Posttests, Comparative Analysis, Control Groups
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Grade 4; Grade 5; Grade 6
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Missouri
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A