MOUNT VERNON — Knox County is trending in the right direction when it comes to addressing teens and substance abuse. The Knox County Substance Abuse Action Team got its first look at the results from the 2017 PRIDE survey Tuesday and the numbers were promising.
The PRIDE survey was completed by Knox County students in sixth, eighth, 10th, and 12th grades, and collected information drugs, alcohol, violence, social influences, and policies. The data was gathered by Measurement Resources, a Powell-based company, and was presented by research associate Elizabeth Pafford.
“I know one of the big questions is so what does that mean for the greater community? How are we moving the needle? To be honest, it’s hard to correlate the work that you’re doing with the larger community trend,” Pafford acknowledged. “I’m here to tell you, based on the PRIDE results this year there’s evidence to suggest that your efforts collectively are making a difference in the population.”
In all, the 2017 PRIDE survey featured 1,789 responses across the four grades. The data revealed that nine out of 10 students were not using tobacco or drugs and nearly eight out of 10 students were not using alcohol.
The data also suggested that students were less likely to binge use. Those numbers showed that 96 percent of students reported they did not use tobacco every day, 98 percent did not use marijuana every day, and 98 percent did not drink alcohol once a week.
Compared to 2015, the last time a PRIDE survey was conducted, the frequency of students using substances within the past 30 days decreased from 26 percent to 16 percent. The frequency of substance use in a year, whether it was tobacco, alcohol, or marijuana, also decreased from 2015 to 2017.
“Evidence suggests that the work that you are doing is making a difference,” Pafford said. “Students are perceiving drugs and alcohol to be less accessible.”
KSAAT targeted risk and protective factors to attempt to reduce alcohol, tobacco, and drug use amongst teens. Part of that initiative in 2017 involved collaborating with schools and local organizations, increasing students’ knowledge and perception of harm relating to substance abuse, improving decision-making, self-regulation, and refusal skills, and rolling out the Teen Advisory Council. KSAAT’s Youth Committee also worked to decrease commercial availability by conducting compliance checks with alcohol vendors and holding Hidden in Plain Sight trainings that helped family members identify substance abuse warnings.
As a result of that work, students reported that lack of access to drugs or alcohol, perception of harm, and their friends’ disapproval impacted their decision to use. The number of students that knew how to access those substances reduced between 2015 and 2017. Seventy-seven percent of the respondents said they did not know where or how to get drugs or alcohol.
The numbers showed that students who did know how or where to access drugs and tobacco were twice as likely to use marijuana, prescription drugs, and cigarettes. They were one-and-a-half times as likely to use alcohol or e-cigarettes.
The data revealed that students’ reported use of drug and alcohol increased when the overall effect — or the high — and the adverse behaviors increased. Students were also three times as likely to use prescription drugs or marijuana if a friend used. They were twice as likely to use alcohol, cigarettes, or e-cigarettes if their friend did.
Pafford suggested targeted interventions with peer groups in order to address the issue of peer pressure.
On the other hand, a friend’s disapproval helped decreased a student’s decision to use tobacco, drugs, or alcohol. An increased awareness of perception of harm and a rise in parental discipline also proved to decrease a student’s use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs. Being engaged in a sport, however, did not significantly impact students’ decision to use.
Of the respondents, 87 percent said their parents’ disapproval played a part in less alcohol, tobacco, and drug use. That was followed up by 79 percent reporting that a lack of adverse behaviors, such as skipping school or getting in trouble with the police, drove less substance abuse.
“I know that some students use, I know that they use too much, and I know that there’s horrific consequences in some situations,” Pafford said. “But I also want you to celebrate the fact that prevention strategies seem to be working in Knox County. The majority of students are not using.”
Tuesday was the first time Nick Clark, chairman for the KSAAT Coalition and the Youth Committee, saw the data from the PRIDE survey, but he was thrilled with the results.
“I was particularly excited to see the last bank of slides that [Pafford] showed us, which showed a lot of the work our community is coming together to do is working and that we should stay on that path,” Clark said. “When we look at things like prevention and awareness, it’s actually making a tangible impact. A lot of times we get caught up in all the committee work that we’re doing … you wonder to yourself — is this work actually making a difference? It is.”
