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ERIC Number: EJ854555
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2009-Sep
Pages: 9
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0094-0771
EISSN: N/A
A Theater-as-Education Project Discourages Tobacco and Alcohol Use
Bell-Ellison, Bethany A.; Forthofer, Melinda S.; McDermott, Robert J.; Zapata, Lauren B.; Nearns, Jodi L.; Curran, K. T.; Calkins, Susan A.; Bryant, Carol A.; McCormack Brown, Kelli R.
Middle School Journal (J3), v41 n1 p11-19 Sep 2009
Theater has been used as an educational tool since the Great Depression era, and it is currently considered an effective tool for health promotion and reducing risk-taking behaviors among youth. Theater projects are well suited for communicating prevention messages to youth audiences because they can depict real-life settings and characters who can change during the performance in different ways as the story unfolds. Although theater-as-education may be effective for addressing a wide range of health and risk behaviors, previous programs that have used this strategy have experienced limitations. First, many programs fail to use a theoretical foundation, thereby ignoring principles that can be transferred to teaching and practice settings. Second, theater-as-education projects often lack systematic assessment of their impacts on audience attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors, so the effects of these programs are not well documented. Last, many theater-delivered programs fail to employ a community-based process, which limits their contextual validity. This article describes the development and assessment of the theater-as-education component of a prevention marketing campaign that addresses attitudes toward tobacco and alcohol use, the demonstration of refusal skills, and the clarification of norms regarding use of these products among young adolescents. This program addresses above limitations, and it provides a replicable model for developing a theater-as-education production for schools and communities to follow. (Contains 3 figures.)
National Middle School Association. 4151 Executive Parkway Suite 300, Westerville, OH 43081. Tel: 800-528-6672; Tel: 800-528-6672; Fax: 614-895-4750; e-mail: info@nmsa.org; Web site: http://www.nmsa.org/Publications/MiddleSchoolJournal/tabid/435/Default.aspx
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: Middle Schools
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Florida
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A