Gender and drug abuse prevention: Evaluation of the school-based program “Juego de Llaves”

Abstract

Drug use among adolescents is a worrying reality, especially regarding legal substances. One of the main measures undertaken to face this situation is the implementation of school-based drug abuse prevention programs that are focused on promoting the acquisition of healthy attitudes and lifestyles by students. This article aims to know if there are differences in the effects of this type of programmes according to gender. For this purpose, an analysis is performed with the data obtained through the evaluation of the school-based Program “Juego de Llaves”. This evaluation was carried out in the course 2016-2017 with a sample of 4.195 students of compulsory secondary education from 32 Spanish schools. The results show gender-related differences prior to the implementation of the program on topics such as leisure time, social interaction, emotional management, values and information about drugs, which are maintained once it is carried out. The application of the program achieves a differential effect on self-esteem that increases in the group of girls. It concludes by recommending that any preventive program should analyze observed inequalities and specific vulnerability situations and propose the definition of gender indicators to measure the effectiveness of programmes in both sexes.