The Effect of Pretesting on Evaluation of a Drug Education Program

Abstract

An evaluation of a school-based drug education program employed Solomans 4 group design in order to examine the effect of administration of a pre-teaching questionnaire on responses. Significant effects of the pretesting were found on self-reports of drug use and intentions to use drugs among both experimental and control students. The pretesting increased the amounts of alcohol reported consumed and reports of drunkenness and marijuana use. Significant interactions between pretesting and the experience of the drug education program were also present on the latter responses. The results indicate the difficulty of using self-reported drug use or intentions as outcome data in evaluations of drug education programs.