Prevention of Substance Abuse: Can Museums Make a Difference?

ABSTRACT After declining during the 1980s, use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs is again rising in junior and senior high schools nationwide. A field‐trip program developed at the Hall of Health (HOH) in Berkeley, California, attempts to reverse or lessen this trend by communicating in a museum...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Curator (New York, N.Y.) N.Y.), 1997-09, Vol.40 (3), p.197-210
Main Authors: Cartmill, Randi S., Day, Lucille Lang
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addiction
Drugs
Health education
Museums
Substance abuse
Youth
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Summary:ABSTRACT After declining during the 1980s, use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs is again rising in junior and senior high schools nationwide. A field‐trip program developed at the Hall of Health (HOH) in Berkeley, California, attempts to reverse or lessen this trend by communicating in a museum setting the dangers of drugs and addiction. Pre‐visit and post‐visit surveys collected from 823 students in fifth through eighth grade showed the HOH program had an immediate, significant impact on statements of intent to use alcohol, tobacco, diet pills, downers, and inhalants as well as illegal drugs in high school. Two weeks after the field trip in a follow‐up study of 172 students, those who initially intended to experiment with drugs still showed a significant reduction in their original intent (as indicated in their pre‐visit survey) to use 12 of 15 drugs. The program may serve as a model for museums desirous of reversing the trend toward drug use by young people.
ISSN:0011-3069
2151-6952
DOI:10.1111/j.2151-6952.1997.tb01303.x