A sample of 109 middle school youth responded to an anonymous online survey after receiving the single-session evidence-based SPORT (Alcohol/Drug) Prevention Plus Wellness (PPW) program.
SPORT PPW was presented online by the McLaren Bay Region Neighborhood Resource Center in Bay City, Michigan.
Student responses about what they liked best about the SPORT PPW lesson included:
- It let me know what could happen if I ingest drugs or alcohol
- It improved my health by sleeping more
- The positivity to not do drugs
- It helped by knowing that if I did do them (alcohol/drugs) it would harm my health
- It made me think about my goals
- It was fun and it improved my health
- I know how to eat better
- It made me want to do more sports
- Helped me understand how to have a healthy lifestyle
- It helped me not to drugs or alcohol when I’m older
- It helped me improve my healthy habits overall
- It convinced me to return to my healthy habits
- To avoid killing myself because of alcohol
- It made me think about how to change my life for the better
- It showed me how important it is to eat healthy
- I liked learning how physical activity can help us learn better in school
- It made sure I don’t drink or do drugs
- It encouraged me to exercise more
- It taught me drugs and smoking can have a big effect on your overall health
- I know I need more sleep now
- I thought the presentation was amazing
These responses were supported by adolescents’ behavioral intentions to engage in healthy behaviors and avoid substance use in the next year, including:
- 87% were very likely to likely to get physical activity most days a week
- 73% were very likely to likely to get 8 or more hours sleep most nights and eat mostly healthy foods on most days
- 99% were very unlikely to unlikely to use any illegal drugs
- 96%-95% were very unlikely to unlikely to use any marijuana, e-cigarettes or regular cigarettes
- 91% were very unlikely to unlikely to drink any alcohol
Positive results were also found on youths’ perceived harmfulness of regularly using the following substances on their health or healthy behaviors, including:
- 98% strongly agreed or agreed that regular cigarettes and illegal drugs are harmful
- 95%-94% strongly agreed or agreed that alcohol, e-cigarettes and marijuana are harmful
Learn more about the SPORT PPW program: https://preventionpluswellness.com/products/sport-prevention-plus-wellness
Learn more about evaluating your PPW program: https://preventionpluswellness.com/pages/program-evaluation-support