Program Profile: DARE to be You

This is a multilevel prevention program for high-risk families with children ages 2–5 years, which is designed to lower children’s risk of future substance abuse and other high-risk activities by improving parenting skills. The program is rated Promising. Intervention group parents reported a statistically significant improvement in child development, a reduction in child oppositional behaviors, and an improvement in parental self-efficacy, compared with control group parents.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

This program's rating is based on evidence that includes either 1) one study conducted in multiple sites; or 2) two or three studies, each conducted at a different site. Learn about how we make the multisite determination.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

This program's rating is based on evidence that includes either 1) one study conducted in multiple sites; or 2) two or three studies, each conducted at a different site. Learn about how we make the multisite determination.

Program Goals

DARE to be You (DTBY) is a multilevel prevention program aimed at high-risk families with children ages 2–5. The program is designed to lower children’s risk of future substance abuse and other high-risk activities by improving aspects of parenting that contribute to children’s resiliency. DTBY combines three supporting aspects—educational activities for children, strategies for the parents or teachers, and environmental structures—to enable program participants to learn and practice the desired skills.

Originally, the community-based DTBY curriculum concentrated on youths, their parents, and community professionals. The training component was aimed toward the multiagency community teams who provided services to youth. The parent training of the current DTBY program evolved from the community trainings.

The objectives of the parent–child workshops include improving self-efficacy and self-esteem; increasing internal locus of control; enhancing decision-making skills through effective reasoning; mastering effective child-rearing strategies, particularly communication skills; learning effective stress management; learning developmental norms, to reduce frustration with children’s behavior and increase empathy; and strengthening peer support.

DARE is an acronym for the key constructs of the program: Decision-making, reasoning skills, and solving problems; Assertive communication and social skills; Responsibility (internal locus of control/attributions) and role models; Esteem, efficacy, and empathy

DTBY seeks to improve parent and child protective factors by improving parents’ sense of competence and satisfaction with being parents, providing them with knowledge and understanding of a multilevel, primary prevention program that targets Native American, Hispanic, African American, and white parents and their preschool children.

Program Theory

Each of the program components is based on ecological models of human development, social cognitive theory, and theories of reasoning about moral and social problems. Children are part of several different environments and different circles of influence. Interactions with other people, society, and culture all affect the development of the child. Research in development suggests that a child’s development is best served when there are strong supportive links between and among all environments and when the people in these environments share common values regarding development (Miller–Heyl, MacPhee, and Fritz 2001).

Program Components

The program includes a preschool activity book for children ages 2–5 and developmentally appropriate curricula for children in kindergarten through second grade, in grades 3–5, and in grades 6–8. High school students use a curriculum that encourages them to become teachers or leaders within their communities.

The parent–child workshops offer parents, youths, and families training and activities for teaching self-responsibility, personal and parenting efficacy, problem-solving and decision-making skills, communication and social skills, stress management, and strengthening peer support. Sessions are ideally given in 2½-hour increments over 10–12 weeks and include a 10- to 30-minute joint activity for parents and children to practice skills learned in the session.

After completing the program, parents are welcome to attend annual reinforcement workshops. These boosters are given with a minimum of two series of four 2-hour sessions and are designed to enhance skills learned without duplicating previous activities. The boosters are intended to foster supportive networks and to consolidate the skills gained from DTBY.

Additional Information

DARE to Be You is not affiliated with the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program.

Study

Miller–Heyl, MacPhee, and Fritz (1998) studied the effectiveness of the DARE to be You (DTBY) program that was implemented in four sites across Colorado that differed markedly in their social ecology. The four sites consisted of an urban site, a valley site, a county site, and a mountainous site. The mountainous site—labeled the Ute Mountain Ute site—was a Native American community in the Four Corners area. It is isolated by geography (250 miles from the nearest city with a population of 25,000) and was plagued by high rates of school dropouts, deaths involving alcohol and other drugs, and teen parenthood. The valley site was an isolated agricultural basin, with fewer than five persons per square mile. A large percentage of the site was Hispanic, and the populace faced high unemployment, high rates of adjusted-rate mortgage foreclosures, and low per capita income. The county site was a semirural area in the southwestern high desert. This area also had high rates of unemployment and poverty and higher-than-average rates of substance abuse and child abuse. The urban site had a population of more than 281,000, was highly transient, and polarization along socioeconomic lines eroded the sense of community. This site also had the highest rates of child abuse and teen pregnancy in Colorado.

The DTBY intervention was targeted at high-risk families in these sites who had children ages 2–5. Family risk was defined by a set criterion that included parenting, education, economic, mental health, substance abuse, and psychological risks. Over a 5-year period, 496 parents were randomly assigned to the DTBY intervention group and 301 parents were assigned to the no-treatment control group. There were 168 study participants in the Ute Mountain Ute site, 192 participants in the urban site, 222 in the valley site, and 215 in the county site. Overall, the majority of families were from low-income backgrounds, with the median annual family income of $14,600 and 45 percent received some form of welfare. Parental education attainment varied between 7 and 22 years, but 26.4 percent overall were high school dropouts. The average age of mothers was 29.7 years, and the average age of fathers was 31.5 years. The overall sample was ethnically diverse: 45 percent white, 29 percent Native American, 22 percent Hispanic, 2 percent African American. There were no statistically significant differences between the intervention and control groups on demographic variables.

Each group completed the same battery of pretests before the program began and completed the same measures 1 year after entering the program and at yearly intervals thereafter. The attrition rate for both the intervention and control groups was 75 percent at the year 1 follow-up and 71 percent at the 2-year follow-up. The analysis for the current study included 227 intervention and 136 control parents who completed all year-1 follow-up measures and 137 intervention and 50 control parents who completed year-2 follow-ups.

Measures were administered orally by female program staff who were familiar with the community and knowledgeable about the local cultures. Measures looked at parent self-efficacy and self-esteem, locus of control, parents’ reasoning skills, effective discipline, stress, and normative child behavior. To evaluate parents’ reasoning skills, participants were asked to imagine themselves in three vignettes involving their child and violations of moral standards, violations of household rules, and oppositional behavior. They were then asked to rate four types of causal attribution (lack of ability, task difficulty, insufficient effort, and child blame) as explanations for their difficulty in coping with their child’s behavior. The study authors did not conduct subgroup analyses.

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

Fritz, Janet J., Janet L. Miller–Heyl, Jill C. Kreutzer, and David MacPhee. 1995. “Fostering Personal Teaching Efficacy Through Staff Development and Classroom Activities.” The Journal of Educational Research 88(4):200–8.

MacPhee, David, Janet Fritz, and Janet L. Miller–Heyl. 1996. “Ethnic Variations in Personal Social Networks and Parenting.” Child Development 67:3278–95.

Miller–Heyl, Janet L., David MacPhee, and Janet J. Fritz. 2001. DARE to Be You: A Systems Approach to the Early Prevention of Problem Behaviors. New York, N.Y.: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers.

Following are CrimeSolutions-rated programs that are related to this practice:

Psychosocial Interventions for Antisocial Behavior of Juveniles

This practice involves the use of psychosocial interventions to reduce antisocial behavior in juveniles. Psychosocial interventions consist of both preventive and therapeutic interventions but share the common goal of improving psychosocial functioning. The practice is rated Effective for the reduction of antisocial behavior.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Juvenile Problem & At-Risk Behaviors - Antisocial behaviors

Why might a practice's outcome ratings differ from the ratings of specific programs encompassed by that practice?