Critique of Three Journal Articles on Substance- Abuse Prevention

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New Directions For Substance- Abuse Prevention

In the article, New Directions For Substance- Abuse Prevention (2011), Anderson (2011) stated that his main purpose was to describe the problem of substance abuse among college students, discuss strategies that have already been in effect, discuss ways in which college campuses can be more effective in prevention and finally, discuss what things campus leaders should know, say and do in order to help with substance abuse prevention. The article starts of discussing the nature and significance of the substance abuse problem among college students. An estimated of about 1,800 college students loose their lives each year due to the abuse of alcohol. Alcohol abuse can not only cause internal problems in college students, such as emotional difficulties, but can cause external problems as well. Some external problems can include violent confrontations and physical injuries. According to Anderson (2011), “ Campuses leaders also report that alcohol is implicated in 30 percent of the time in students’ lack of academic success, 30 percent of the time in cases of diminished performance on a test or project, and 26 percent of the time in student attrition” (p.47).

Although much of the alcohol abuse occurring on college campuses does cause many problems, in some areas improvements have been made, but not much within the last twenty five years. This isn’t due to the fact that campus leaders haven’t tried prevention techniques, it is the fact that the techniques that have tried to been implemented weren’t very effective. Anderson (2011) states that prevention techniques require dedication and time in order to make them work and this is something that some campus leaders lack. The techniques need...

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...ents. Each one does so in its own particular way, but in the end each one has shown results. These articles show that intervention does work and with the proper knowledge and time, they can begin to become more effective.

References

Anderson, D.S. (2011). New directions for substance- abuse prevention. Journal of Change

43(6), 46-55.

Caudill, B.D., Luckey, B., Crosse, S.B., Blane, H.T., Ginexi, E.M., & Campbell, B. (2007).

Alcohol risk- reduction skills training in a national fraternity: A randomized intervention

trial with longitudinal intent-to-treat analysis. Journal of Studies on Alcohol 68(3), 399-

409.

Mattern, J.L., & Neighbors, C. (2004). Social norms campaigns: Examining the relationship

between changes in perceived norms and changes in drinking levels. Journal of Studies

on Alcohol 65(4), 489-493.

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