Too Good For Drugs

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Program Overview:

The evidence-based Too Good for Drugs & Violence High School prepares students with the skills they need for academic, social, and life success. Interactive games and activities provide practical guidance on dating and relationships, building healthy friendships, and refusing negative peer influence.

Lessons foster analysis and discussion of the effects of ATOD use as well as prescription and OTC drug use and various nicotine delivery devices. Students also analyze the impact of social media on decision making, reaching goals, and self identity.

Students learn how to navigate the challenges of social and academic pressures like making responsible decisions, managing stress and anger, reflecting on personal relationships, and resolving conflicts. The lessons use collaborative and experiential learning strategies to help students practice the skills proven to prevent violence and other risky behaviors.

 

Program Summary

Too Good is a comprehensive family of evidence-based substance use and violence prevention interventions designed to mitigate the risk factors linked to problem behaviors and build protection within the child to resist problem behaviors.

Too Good develops a framework of social and emotional skills through the development of goal-setting, decision-making, emotion management, and effective communication skills in addition to peer-pressure refusal, pro-social bonding, and conflict resolution skills. 

Too Good builds the basis for a safe, supportive, and respectful learning environment.

 

Prevention Framework

Effective prevention programs like Too Good promote the development of social emotional skills and educate youth about the effects and consequences of risky behaviors like engaging in substance use and violence.  Because the delivery of information alone rarely changes behaviors, and because other informative or emotional appeal strategies like didactic lectures, scare tactics, alarming statistics, or infrequent or single event presentations have proven to be ineffective in reducing or deterring risky behaviors in children and youth, Too Good takes a skills-based approach to prepare children and adolescents to make healthy responsible decisions.

Too Good programs are based in sound development and prevention theory.  They use a strengths-based approach that builds on strengths and wellness as part of a strategy to address risk aiming to build protective factors.  Too Good programs are interactive and hands-on providing opportunities for skill building and skill application.

Targeted Risk Factors and Protective Factors

Too Good targets the following risk factors and protective factors associated with substance use or antisocial behavior in children and adolescents:

Protective factors targeted for increase

  • Social and emotional competency skills

  • Personal efficacy

  • Exposure to school, community, and cultural norms that reject substance use or antisocial behaviors

  • Increased knowledge and perception of harm of the negative effects of substance use

  • Positive school connectedness

Risk factors targeted for decrease

  • Poor social and emotional skills

  • Favorable attitudes toward substance use or antisocial behavior

  • Norms favorable toward substance use or antisocial behavior

  • Peer rewards for substance use or antisocial behaviors

  • Early initiation of substance use

  • Physical violence

  • Bullying behavior

 

Expected Outcomes

In random control trials Too Good programs have been shown to reduce substance use and antisocial behavior.

Too Good for Drugs Short-Term Outcomes

  • Students show improved social emotional competency and resistance skills.

  • More students perceive substance use as wrong, risky, or harmful; fewer see it as acceptable or cool.

  • More students report that substance use is not the norm and not a positive behavior.

  • More students report a greater sense of self-efficacy.

  • More students report feeling connected with the school/instructor.

Too Good for Drugs Long-Term Outcomes

Following program implementation, students report that as a result of exposure to TGFD, they intend to abstain from/reduce use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana.  In schools that have the ability to measure these behaviors, TGFD leads to fewer incidents of ATOD use.

 

(Source: https://toogoodprograms.org/pages/exploration-phase?_pos=1&_sid=9fd097529&_ss=r     (c) 2021)