Case Study: Region VIII ATOD Study
Overview
Evaluation planning is an essential part of any grant proposal. Entities granting monies for projects and programs want to know that the money they are providing is going to make a difference. The only way to ensure a difference is made is to evaluate the outcomes of these programs and projects, usually by some form of pre and post survey to measure and analyze the accomplishment of the objectives. DLN Consulting Inc., in collaboration with Community Action Partnership and The Southwest Coalition of Safe Communities, began this grant performance evaluation process by assessing the requirements and measures required by the grantor, SAMHSA.
Community Action Partnership and The Southwest Coalition of Safe Communities encompass the eight counties in southwest North Dakota commonly known in the state government as "Region VIII". Region VIII consists of Adams, Billings, Bowman, Dunn, Golden Valley, Hettinger, Slope, and Stark counties. This grant, which was awarded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Drug Free Communities Support Program (DFCSP), served all of the counties in Region VIII.
Objectives
The purpose of the DFCSP grant is to reduce substance abuse among youth and, over time, among adults by addressing the factors in a community that increase the risk of substance abuse and to establish and strengthen collaboration among communities to prevent and reduce substance abuse among youth. As part of the grant performance evaluation process, the following data and performance measures were required:
·Age of onset of any drug use (including alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco)
·Frequency of use in the past 30 days (including alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco)
·Perception of risk or harm (including alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco)
·Perception of disapproval of use by peers and adults (including alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco)
Activities
DLN met with the Southwest Coalition of Safe Communities Coordinator to determine what data was needed and how best to gather and analyze the data.
Two surveys were developed. The first, the Community Perception survey was developed and administered to parents/guardians of students in Region VIII to obtain insight and opinions from parents of school age children grades 6-12 throughout Region VIII. The second, the Youth and Young Adult Perception survey was developed and administered to students in grades 6-12 in Region VIII to obtain insight and opinions from them to meet the data and performance measure requirements of the DFCSP grant.
The Community Perception surveys were mailed by Community Action to 1500 parents of students in grades 6-12. Five hundred and thirty-two surveys were returned. The Youth and Young Adult Perception surveys were administered on site at 29 of the 32 schools throughout Region VIII, to students in grades 6-12. In all, 2250 surveys were collected from the students in Region VIII. The schools in Halliday, Mott, and Regent declined to participate, so no surveys were collected from the parents or students in those communities.
DLN Consulting trained Community Action staff in anonymous survey administration and assisted in the survey administration. DLN Consulting then conducted the data entry, quality assurance, and created spreadsheets, graphs, and analysis reports of the Community Perception and Youth and Young Adult Perception surveys.
Analysis
Community Perception Survey
The majority of adults expressed moderate to great risk when evaluating the use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other drug use by youth and adults. The concerns expressed by adults were very similar for both youth and other adults. Eight out of ten adults reported moderate to great risk about the use of alcohol by those under 21 and over 21.Adults indicated the same amount of concern about youth and adult use of tobacco, with over three of four adults who responded moderate to great risk. More than seven of ten adults reported concern about adult use of marijuana, with slightly less, about two of three indicating concern about youth use of marijuana. The least amount of concern was reported by adults about the use of drugs other than marijuana. About 13 of 20 adults were concerned about the youth use of other drugs with slightly more, almost seven of ten concerned about adult use of other drugs.
When asked about the visibility of smoking and drinking in public, most of the adults indicated very little visibility of youth partaking in these activities. Fewer than four out of ten adults reported they often or very often see youth smoking in public and only one out of ten stated they often or very often see youth drinking in public. Adult visibility was a bit higher, with almost eight out of ten reporting they have observed adults smoking in public often or very often, and over four of ten indicated they view adults drinking in public often or very often.
Fewer than one in ten adults believed underage youth would be able to purchase alcohol or tobacco products themselves. About half thought it would not be difficult for underage youth to sneak alcohol or tobacco from home or a friend's home, or to get an adult to purchase these items for them. Only about three in twenty though, thought these adults would be the youth's parents/guardians. When asked about the availability of marijuana and other drugs, over seven out of every ten adults thought it would be easy or only slightly difficult for youth to purchase these items.
Nineteen of twenty adults believed people under age 18 should not be using tobacco. Eighteen of twenty were against people under 18 using alcohol, even if they did not get drunk or drive afterward. Only three out of four believed people age 18-20 should not drink, however. Four out of twenty adults expressed the belief that there are some occasions when it is OK for people under 21 to use alcohol, and eight out of twenty indicated it is OK for parents to serve their own underage youth alcohol on special occasions. Seven out of twenty communicated the belief that drinking is accepted in their community.Surprisingly, adults seemed to paradoxically agree unanimously that youth who experiment with alcohol neither use it responsibly nor become alcoholics when they are adults. They equally seem to concur that youth who experiment with other drugs neither grow out of it nor become addicts when they are adults.
Seven to eight out of every ten adults believe prevention helps to reduce alcohol and other drug problems for both youth and adults. Generally, these same people think prevention is a good investment and is needed for both youth and adults in their communities. Only about four out of ten adults believe their community is willing to change, though.
About eight out of ten respondents strongly or somewhat favored Law Enforcement spending time enforcing the underage drinking and smoking laws in their community. These laws included, the minimum drinking and smoking age, and laws that prohibit the sale of alcohol or tobacco to people who are underage.
When asked about personal behaviors, about thirteen of twenty respondents reported consuming alcohol in the past 30 days, and over three-fourths of these people indicated consuming less than five drinks at a time. About three of twenty adults indicated smoking or using other tobacco products in the last 30 days. Almost seven out of ten indicated they always wear their safety belt, and more than eight out of ten stated they always require any passengers in their vehicle who are under 18 to be properly restrained.
Youth and Young Adult Perception Survey
The youth and young adults who responded to the survey expressed much lower levels of concern than their adult counterparts about the use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other drugs. A little more than thirteen out of twenty indicated moderate to great risk about youth use of alcohol; whereas, about eleven out of twenty expressed moderate to great risk about adult use of alcohol. Youth were similarly concerned about adult and their peers use of tobacco products with about eleven out of twenty indicating moderate to great risk. Almost half of the youth respondents reported moderate to great risk related to youth and adult use of marijuana. Commonly, the respondents considered youth risks slightly greater than adult risks, except in the question concerning other drugs. The question about the risks of other drugs was the only one in which the youth considered adult risk slightly greater than youth risk, with a little less than half of the respondents indicating moderate to great risk.
Eighteen out of twenty youth personally believe the use of alcohol by people under the age of 21 to be wrong, and seventeen out of twenty perceive their parents/guardians to hold similar beliefs. A little more than eighteen of twenty youth view the use of tobacco by people under 18 to be wrong and the exact same amount of youth consider their parents/guardians to hold the same opinion. Nineteen out of twenty youth have the attitude that marijuana use is wrong, and a slightly greater number think their parents/guardians share this opinion. Overall, youth's personal and perceived parental/guardian beliefs were the strongest against marijuana. Tobacco was viewed by youth and perceived as viewed by the parents/guardians as the second most risky substance. Alcohol had the least number of people who believed and perceived their parents/guardians think the use of alcohol was wrong.
More than two out of three youth indicated they have tried alcohol. Almost six in twenty of those who have tried alcohol did so before the age of 10. Tobacco had been tried by seven out of twenty youth, and almost half had done so before the age of 12. A little more than two in twenty youth indicated they had tried marijuana. Almost half reported they were age 15 or older before they tried it.
The number of youth who have tried alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana dramatically increases as the grade level does. Almost nine in twenty 6th grade students have tried alcohol, and by 12th grade almost seventeen in twenty have. Two out of twenty 6th graders have tried tobacco. In contrast, almost twelve of twenty have tried it by the 12th grade. Marijuana had the lowest reported use rates. In 6th grade only one out of one hundred students has tried marijuana, but by 12th grade five out of twenty have.
Six out of twenty youth reported using alcohol in the past 30 days. Of those who indicated having used alcohol, seven out of twenty reported drinking an average of five or more drinks at a time, which is referred to as "binge drinking". Nearly three out of twenty respondents stated they have used tobacco in the past 30 days, and less than one in twenty reported use of marijuana in the past 30 days.
Self reported safety belt use was very low. Less than nine out of twenty respondents claimed they always wear their safety belt, and about eight of twenty stated they require passengers in their vehicle to wear a safety belt.
Contact DLN Consulting today for more information on how our Survey Methodology and Evaluation Analysis services can benefit your organization as it did for Community Action Partnership and The Southwest Coalition of Safe Communities in Southwest North Dakota.
