An Assessment of Adolescents’ Perceptions of and Attitudes Toward Police Instructors in School-Based Drug Prevention Programs
Year: 2005
Type: article
Abstract: Adolescents have been observed to have negative perceptions and attitudes toward police officers, yet police officers are increasingly being used as resource persons and instructors in school-based drug prevention programs.This research study explored the perceptions and attitudes of students toward police officers and instructors and the factors determining the observed perceptions and attitudes.The study uses data from a longitudinal evaluative study of students in 7 th grade through to 9 th grade, clustered in 82 high schools in six United States geographic regions.The Adolescents Substance Abuse Prevention Study (A.S.A.P.S.), a longitudinal study by the Institute for Health and Social Policy of the University of Akron was undertaken to determine the impact of new curricula on delaying or reducing adolescent substance use.Findings suggest that generally students were impartial in their perception of the police but they were fairly positive in their attitudes toward police instructors of drug prevention programs.These perceptions and attitudes declined over time and were not uniform across the sample.Female students and students with low risk, and low involvement in deviant behaviors were found to have consistently more favorable perceptions and attitudes toward police officers and instructors.Individual characteristics of students were found to affect their perceptions and attitudes toward police officers and instructors.These effects were also influenced by contextual factors.research study, I have received tremendous support from many people and they deserve my sincere appreciation.First, I would like to acknowledge and specially thank members of my dissertation committee namely professors Sonia Alemagno, Peter Leahy, Lucinda Deason, Zili Sloboda, Dennis Keating and Jesse Marquette.Without their intellectual encouragement, guidance and constructive criticism, I could not have acquired the knowledge, capacity and skills for writing this research possible.I wish to acknowledge the
Author: A. M. Hammond
Institution: University of Akron
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2246213872