Pride Survey shows decrease in drug use among Homewood students

Almost across the board, Homewood Middle and High School students are less likely to use tobacco, alcohol and other substances than they were three years ago.

Homewood City Schools released the results of its 2016 Pride Survey this week. The Pride Survey is a national study showing middle and high school students' use of and attitude toward tobacco, alcohol and other substances. The last time Homewood students took the survey was in 2013.

HCS Prevention and Development Coordinator Carissa Anthony said the survey included 942 students in 7th, 8th, 10th and 12th grades. This year's results show more students perceive that their parents disapprove of them using alcohol and other substances. Another significant change is that marijuana use is now below the national average, whereas it was above average in 2013.

"I'm hopefully optimistic. I believe these improvements are a result of multiple sectors of the community coming together to employ evidence-based strategies and programs to reduce youth substance abuse," Anthony said.

The survey showed that 30.2 percent of 205 surveyed HHS seniors drink alcohol once or more per month, compared to 36.2 percent in 2013. Alcohol consumption in 10th and 8th grade dropped to 17.6 percent and 5.8 percent, respectively, while use in 7th grade remained about the same at 3.2 percent.

In the 2013 survey, 20.9 percent of 12th graders, 14.1 percent of 10th graders, 5.5 percent of 8th graders and 1.8 percent of 7th graders reported using tobacco once or more per month. The 2016 survey showed those numbers dropping to 10.7 percent in 12th graders, 8.6 percent in 10th graders, 1.5 percent in 8th graders and 0.7 percent in 7th graders.

Use of marijuana also dropped across all four surveyed grades, with the highest use rate among seniors at 19 percent, compared to 27.5 percent in 2013. Abuse of prescription and over-the-counter drugs has decreased in all except 7th grade. Among the 281 surveyed 7th graders in 2016, use of prescription drugs increased about 1 percent from 2013 to about 2.5 percent, and over-the-counter drug use increased fractionally from 1.1 percent to 1.4 percent.

E-cigarettes are a more recent trend and the Pride Survey does have data from Homewood's 2013 survey. In 2016, 19 percent of seniors report using e-cigarettes once per month or more, along with 13.5 percent of sophomores, 4.6 percent of 8th grade students and 2.5 percent of 7th grade students.

Compared to national Pride Survey data, Homewood students are below the national average in use of alcohol and marijuana. Students in 8th and 10th grade are also under the average for prescription drug use, but 7th and 12th grade students are using those substances about on par with the national average. A comparison with national tobacco use rates was not available.

The Pride Survey also studies whether students believe these substances to be harmful. Compared to 2013 results, Homewood 10th and 12th graders in 2016 are more likely to see frequent alcohol use as harmful, while 7th graders were less likely to see it as harmful and 8th grade remained about the same. However, the percentage of students who see frequent alcohol use as risky behavior ranged between 67.2 percent and 75.9 percent across grades, so overall awareness of alcohol's risks remains high.

There was little change in students' perception of the risk of tobacco from 2013 to 2016. Risk awareness increased somewhat in high schoolers and decreased somewhat in middle schoolers, with the largest change in the 10th grade class. In 2013, 80.3 percent of 8th graders saw tobacco use as harmful, compared to 86.5 percent in 2016. All four surveyed grades showed roughly 85 percent of students perceiving tobacco use as harmful.

All four grades were less likely to perceive marijuana as harmful compared to 2013, with 76 percent of 7th graders and only 40.4 percent of high school seniors reporting marijuana use as risky.

However, all four grades showed increased awareness that parents see alcohol, marijuana and tobacco use as wrong. They also reported increased disapproval from friends regarding tobacco and alcohol. Surveyed 7th and 8th graders reported the same increase in disapproval for marijuana, but results from 10th graders stayed about the same and 12th graders were less likely to report disapproval from peers.

The Pride Survey studies whether certain "protective factors" have an effect in increasing or decreasing substance use. Among surveyed high school students, parents setting clear rules had one of the most marked effects, with only 11.5 percent of students whose parents set "a lot" of clear rules reporting use of an illicit drug. This is compared to 31.4 percent of students whose parents "seldom" set clear rules and and 66.7 percent whose parents "never" set clear rules.

"Our youth believe their parents do not want them to use alcohol or other drugs and parents are setting and enforcing clear rules about that. For me, this is clear evidence that parents have more influence over their children than friends, music, TV, the internet and celebrities," Anthony said.

Making good grades had a similarly wide difference, as 71.4 percent of students who report "never" making good grades had also used illicit drugs, compared to only 10.2 percent of students who said they make good grades "a lot."

Other factors, such as attending a church or synagogue and having parents talk about drug use, also showed an impact on substance use, though less dramatically. Being part of a sports team did not show any correlation with drug use among students, but students who frequently took part in other school activities were less likely to use illicit substances.

Anthony is part of the Safe & Healthy Homewood Coalition, which attempts to decrease student substance use by bringing together parents, teachers and other community members to work cooperatively. One of their initiatives in October will be Red Ribbon Week.

There will be a community parent program at Homewood High School on Oct. 25 at 7 p.m. called "Weeding Out the Facts on Marijuana." Peer helpers at the high school will also be visiting elementary and middle school classes to talk about drug use Oct. 25-27.

Anthony said coalition members will be hanging up red ribbons throughout the community and handing out reusable shopping bags to remind parents to "take a shopping break" and talk to their children about drug use.

To learn more about the Safe & Healthy Homewood Coalition, email canthony@homewood.k12.al.us.