Background
As part of its commitment to the youth of Franklin County, the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Consortium of the Educational Council sponsors a triennial needs assessment survey for students in sixth through twelfth grades throughout Franklin County. In 2006, more than 81,000 students in Franklin County schools participated in the seventh Primary Prevention Awareness, Attitude and Use Survey.
With the information from PPAAUS, county and district prevention personnel are able to make decisions that guide prevention and intervention programs, planning, and policy. Many items and topics in PPAAUS have remained the same over the years to allow the Consortium to also track trends in behavior and attitudes. This year, the Consortium is especially interested in correlations between targeted behaviors and substance use. By finding these relationships, the Consortium will better be able to assist young people discover paths that will help them make healthy choices. Funding assistance for the 2006 survey was provided by the Alcohol Drug and Mental Health Board of Franklin County, Columbus Medical Association Foundation, Safe & Drug-Free Schools Consortium, United Way of Central Ohio, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
In November 2006, surveys were administered primarily in standard classroom settings, with students marking their responses directly on the questionnaires. The Consortium provided coordination among all participating schools, training for survey administration, teacher scripts, written instructions, and envelopes for classroom collection. Diagnostics Plus, an independent survey-research organization, provided project coordination, survey scanning, data management, data analyses, and comprehensive reports and graphics.
