Prevention education has been used as a tool to combat sexual violence, bullying, poor self-esteem, obesity, diabetes, nicotine use, alcohol use, drug use, and domestic abuse and other issues young people face.
What are some benefits of incorporating prevention education into your student conduct programming?
- Reduced Costs of Negative Consequences
Prevention education minimizes the costs associated with student substance use. Why? Because students under the influence often make poor decisions that lead to:
- Property damage
- Accidents and injuries
- Overdose scares and ER visits
- Conflicts with peers
- Late-night disturbances and sleep disorders
- Mental health crises like panic attacks
Prevention education has been shown to reduce negative consequences for those who are using substances. This is good for the person using but also translates into savings for the campus.
- Increases in student retention/attendance
Research shows that students who have taken a prevention education course spend less time under the influence. This creates a ripple effect of benefits. For example, students are better able to think and process new information. This results in higher levels of academic achievement. Higher academic achievement results in increased retention rates.
Students who are dealing with addiction and dependence will spend an excessive amount of time planning their next high, using the drug, or recovering from their drug use. This cycle can severely impact a person’s quality of life.
- Reduction in student violations
Students who have taken prevention courses are less likely to need intervention courses. We have observed this trend over the years as we have worked with colleges and universities. Each year that the school provides prevention education, their number of sanction enrollments goes down.
When secondary schools use detention as a method of sanctioning students for alcohol or drug use violations, it widens the achievement gap. Keeping students in the classroom is vital, so fewer sanctions result in overall increases in achievement.
Fewer sanctions means more students in class and less paperwork for the administration.
- Improved mental health of students
As we mentioned, alcohol and drug use often affects student health, both physical and mental. Prevention education can teach students about the potential consequences of their decisions, help them to manage and deal with peer pressure, and give them strategies and tools for reducing or avoiding use.
Campuses spend a lot of money on mental health services. Prevention education is a proactive approach to boosting and protecting students’ mental health.
- Better rankings and reputation
Prospective college students and their parents look at a lot of factors when considering a college choice. Courses of study, well-known professors, location, and reputation are among them.
At the secondary level, high schools and middle schools are ranked yearly. While parents may not be able to choose a different school based on this information, hiring and firing decisions at the administrative level sometimes hinge on a school’s ranking or score. Parents may also opt out of traditional public schools, which affects funding.
Academic achievement is critical to a campus’ reputation, ranking, or score, so it’s a good idea to address it both proactively and reactively wherever possible.
- Better educators
Students aren’t the only ones shopping around. Teachers and professors are shopping around for the best work environment as well. Maintaining reputation, campus safety, and academic achievement can actually help you recruit the teachers and professors that will help keep your academics strong.
Alcohol Wise, our alcohol prevention program, has been shown to reduce peak BAC levels, increase student retention rates, increase student achievement and GPA, and reduce negative consequences. For more information, download our white paper to see what kinds of benefits other campuses have been experiencing using Alcohol Wise as alcohol prevention education for incoming freshmen.
