Evaluation of the NIDA (National Institute on Drug Abuse) Drug Abuse Prevention Media Campaign, 1983-1984

摘要

The principal goal of the evaluation was to provide NIDA and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation of DHHS with relevant and timely information on the effects of the media campaign on youths (aged 12-14) and their parents. The evaluation was based on a research design that provided for the measurement of campaign effects in two experimental and two control sites. Pre- and post-campaign surveys were developed for youth and their parents. The principal findings and conclusions of the evaluation were: (1) There was no definitive evidence that the media campaign had a significant impact upon the attitudes and behavior of the youth target audience during the evaluation. (2) This same finding was true for the parent target audience. (3) The NIDA PSA's may have been aired too infrequently by local television and radio stations to have had a significant impact upon the target audiences. The NIDA campaign was targeted appropriately in terms of its focus upon the 12 to 14-year age group. Finally, the report lays out recommendations for more effective marketing and dissemination of PSAs and cautions against the use of quasi-experimental research designs where the campaign is likely to represent a relatively small scale intervention.