Preventing Substance Abuse in Special Education Students

描述（由申请人提供）：本项目的目标是创建一个旨在防止精神发育迟滞和发育障碍（MRDD）青少年滥用药物的互动程序。患有MRDD的年轻人努力像他们的非残疾同龄人一样，并被他们的非残疾同龄人接受。研究表明，MRDD青年更容易使用非法药物来应对社会（即，同龄人）的压力和建模比他们的非残疾同龄人。此外，大约一半使用物质（包括酒精）的MRDD患者可能被定性为物质滥用者。滥用药物的MRDD患者与没有MRDD的人一样，遭受与健康相关的社会，经济和情感后果。 该项目将开发四个独立的交互式多媒体程序，专门用于防止四个用户分组（即，初中和高中年龄的男性和女性）与MRDD。 在每个程序中，识别和应对物质使用风险情况所需的社会和行为技能将通过一个互动的无文本程序来教授，该程序包含图形，动画和视频组件。直接指导（DI）的方法将被用来促进程序内容的掌握。 200名MRDD高中和初中的男性和女性将在随机析因设计中评估该计划。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this project is to create an interactive program designed to prevent substance abuse among youth with mental retardation and developmental disabilities (MRDD). Young people with MRDD strive to be like, and be accepted by their non-disabled peers. Research has shown that MRDD youth are more apt to use illicit substances in response to social (i.e., peer) pressure and modeling than their non-disabled peers. Additionally, approximately half of individuals with MRDD who use substances (including alcohol) may be characterized as substance abusers. Individuals with MRDD that abuse substances suffer the same health-related, social, economic, and emotional consequences as people without MRDD. This project will develop four stand-alone interactive multimedia programs specifically designed to prevent substance use by four sub-groups of users (i.e., middle and high school age males and females) with MRDD. Within each program, the social and behavioral skills required to recognize and respond to substance use risk situations will be taught via an interactive text-free program that incorporates graphic, animation, and video components. Direct Instruction (DI) methodology will be employed to facilitate mastery of program content. Two hundred MRDD high school and middle school males and females will evaluate the program in a randomized factorial design.