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Protecting You/Protecting Me

Public Health & Prevention: School-based
  Literature review updated June 2016.

Protecting You/Protecting Me (PY/PM) is a classroom-based alcohol prevention program for elementary school students. The program aims to reduce underage alcohol use, and injury or death associated with riding in vehicles with drunk drivers. PY/PM consists of a series of 40 developmentally appropriate lessons, with 8 lessons per year for grades 1-5. Weekly lessons are approximately 30 minutes or 1 hour in duration, depending on the grade level, and are delivered by teachers or high school students. PY/PM lessons and activities focus on teaching children about alcohol and the brain, vehicle safety, and life skills.
 
ALL
META-ANALYSIS
CITATIONS

Meta-analysis is a statistical method to combine the results from separate studies on a program, policy, or topic to estimate its effect on an outcome. WSIPP systematically evaluates all credible evaluations we can locate on each topic. The outcomes measured are the program impacts measured in the research literature (for example, impacts on crime or educational attainment). Treatment N represents the total number of individuals or units in the treatment group across the included studies.

An effect size (ES) is a standard metric that summarizes the degree to which a program or policy affects a measured outcome. If the effect size is positive, the outcome increases. If the effect size is negative, the outcome decreases. See Estimating Program Effects Using Effect Sizes for additional information on how we estimate effect sizes.

The effect size may be adjusted from the unadjusted effect size estimated in the meta-analysis. Historically, WSIPP adjusted effect sizes to some programs based on the methodological characteristics of the study. For programs reviewed in 2024 or later, we do not make additional adjustments, and we use the unadjusted effect size whenever we run a benefit-cost analysis.

Research shows the magnitude of effects may change over time. For those effect sizes, we estimate outcome-based adjustments, which we apply between the first time ES is estimated and the second time ES is estimated. More details about these adjustments can be found in our Technical Documentation.

Meta-Analysis of Program Effects
Outcomes measured No. of effect sizes Treatment N Effect sizes (ES) and standard errors (SE) Unadjusted effect size (random effects model)
ES SE Age ES p-value
Alcohol use before end of middle school
Any use of alcohol by the end of middle school, typically by age 13.
10 1 280 -0.067 0.244 11 -0.204 0.381

Citations Used in the Meta-Analysis

Padget, A., Bell, M., Shamblen, S., & Ringwalt, C. (2006). Does learning about the effects of alcohol on the developing brain affect children's alcohol use? Prevention Science, 7(3), 293-302.