Peer-reviewed article
Development and Pilot Evaluation of a Drug Abuse Prevention Program for Elementary School Children in Korea.
Lee J, Yang J, Lee A, Ko Y, Shim JK et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study developed and tested a drug abuse prevention program for elementary school children in South Korea, based on social and emotional learning principles. The program was delivered to 194 students in separate curricula for lower and upper grades, adapted to match children's developmental stages. Teachers and students found the program easy to use and engaging, with students reporting high satisfaction. Measures of self-esteem and attitudes toward drug abuse showed small improvements in upper elementary students, though these did not reach statistical significance.
Key points
- Program was based on Social and Emotional Learning framework to build protective factors against drug abuse
- Separate curricula were developed for lower and upper elementary students to match cognitive and socio-emotional development
- Facilitators and experts rated the program as developmentally appropriate, easy to implement, and well understood by students
- Student satisfaction surveys showed high engagement and perceived learning
- Self-esteem scores increased by 0.9 points (Cohen's d=0.21) and attitudes toward drug abuse improved by 0.4 points (Cohen's d=0.14), but changes did not reach statistical significance
Limitations
This is a small pilot study with no control group, so it cannot determine whether observed changes were due to the program or other factors. The sample size and single-school setting limit generalizability to other Korean schools or contexts.
Abstract
Objective The purpose of the present study was to develop and pilot test a culturally tailored, developmentally appropriate, drug abuse prevention program for Korean elementary school children. Methods By grounding the program in the framework of Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), the program aimed to prevent drug abuse by enhancing children's social and emotional competencies. Separate curricula were developed for lower and upper elementary to align with children's cognitive and socio-emotional developmental stages. Expert feedback was solicited from child psychiatrists and elementary school teachers. The program was implemented in an elementary school with 194 participants. Program feasibility and acceptability were assessed through facilitator evaluations and student satisfaction surveys. For upper elementary students (n=99), pre-post measures of self-esteem and attitudes toward drug abuse were also analyzed. Results Experts and facilitators reported that the program was easy to implement, developmentally appropriate, and well understood by students. Satisfaction surveys indicated high levels of engagement and perceived learning. The mean self-esteem score increased from 27.3±4.2 to 28.2±3.9 (Cohen's d=0.21). The attitude toward drug abuse score also improved from 15.2±2.3 to 15.6±3.1 (Cohen's d=0.14). Although both changes did not reach statistical significance, the qualitative and quantitative data support the program's feasibility and positive trend. Conclusion This pilot study suggests that an SEL-based, culturally adapted prevention program is feasible and well accepted in Korean elementary schools. While larger-scale studies are required, early implementation of interactive, developmentally sensitive programs holds promise for strengthening protective factors against drug abuse in children.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- Social and Emotional Learning-based drug abuse prevention program with culturally tailored, developmentally appropriate curricula for lower and upper elementary students
- Population
- 194 elementary school children in Korea; 99 upper elementary students completed pre-post measures
Key finding
Self-esteem mean score increased from 27.3±4.2 to 28.2±3.9 (Cohen's d=0.21)