Truth and DARE: Tracking Drug Education to Graduation and as Symbolic Politics

This article utilizes a multi-dimensional impact and process evaluation framework to explore the DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program in terms of long-term effects, political potency, and implementation issues. The impact dimension compares questionnaire data from 288 high school seniors exposed to DARE as seventh graders with 335 non-exposed seniors. No significant differences in drug use behaviors or attitudes were found between the two groups. Micro-level process findings from a focus group interview reinforced the quantitative results. At the macro-level, DARE is shown to be a form of symbolic politics, supported by direct and indirect stakeholders, and embedded in a complex and potent organizational support structure. To minimize conflicts with DARE stakeholders and enhance program understanding, we consider how factors associated with the implementation process may have influenced the results. These include contextual factors, disjunctions between program ideals and implementation realities, and program design limitations. This multidimensional evaluation approach provides both context and meaning for understanding the DARE program and for interpreting the results. It also underscores the need for a more multi-faceted discourse on drug prevention programs in order to consider the relative merits of both psychosocial and structural approaches to the issue of drug use.