New study shows Partnership for a Drug Free Canada's messages are prompting more parents to talk to their kids about drugs. Français
Research reveals other encouraging results and PDFC continues the positive momentum by launching a new website and creating a new ad campaign.
TORONTO, Feb. 13, 2013 /CNW/ - A recent national survey¹ commissioned by Partnership for a Drug Free Canada (PDFC), shows important differences in awareness, attitudes and behaviours between parents who recalled seeing PDFC's drug prevention education messages and those who didn't.
Six (6) out of ten (10) Canadian parents surveyed recalled seeing or hearing PDFC's ads² in the past year (ads which focused on the serious problem of abuse of prescription drugs by teens). Almost 80% of those parents who recalled the ads recognized prescription drug abuse as a problem, compared to only 69% of parents who had no recall of the ads. 76% of parents, who recalled the ads also believed that teens will use prescription drugs to get high, compared to only a 64% agreement rate among those parents with no recall of the ads.
The survey also showed that parents are more likely to talk to their kids about drugs when exposed to PDFC drug prevention media messages (95% vs. 86%) and specifically talk about the misuse of prescription drugs (57% vs. 39%) compared to parents that could not recall the ads. Marc Paris, Executive Director of the Partnership for a Drug Free Canada emphasized the critical importance of this finding noting, "Other research shows that children in families that discuss the issue of drug use are only half as likely to use drugs as children in families who have not had this discussion."
Paris went on to say that "PDFC will continue directing messages to parents since, while only a quarter of all parents think that what they will say will have an influence on their children's use of drugs, 69% of teens say that a main reason for not trying drugs is because they don't want to disappoint their parents."
The survey also revealed that a very low number of parents are using the Internet to get information about drugs (19%) compared to nearly 60% of kids. According to Paris, "Kids know more about drugs than parents and that's a problem. When it comes time to engage in a conversation with a teenager on a difficult subject like drugs, you better be prepared."
That is why PDFC has just launched a new website www.canadadrugfree.org which will be one of the most comprehensive sites in Canada for parents who want to learn about drugs and teen drug abuse and who also want valuable parenting tips on this subject.
PDFC is also creating another new national multi-media campaign that will launch shortly. "The recent survey has demonstrated the effectiveness of our media messages," said Paris. "There is still more left to do, and we are confident our new ad campaign will build on the positive impact our messages have had thus far."
The Partnership for a Drug Free Canada is a private sector, non-profit organization that creates and disseminates drug education and prevention messages³ with the help of their partners in advertising, research and media. PDFC also offers tools and practical tips on how to start the dialogue at www.canadadrugfree.org
¹The online national survey was conducted between November 9th and 16th, 2012 by Vision Critical (Toronto) with a sample of 411 parents with kids aged 13 to 19 and with 307 kids aged 13 to 19. (Based on prompted recall).
²The current campaign was created pro bono by BBDO Toronto in English and DesArts Communications in French.
³Campaign messages can be seen and heard at: http://immersionmedia.ca/PDFC_Ads/ or TV messages can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/user/drugfreecanada
SOURCE: Partnership for a Drug Free Canada
For more information: Marc Paris, Executive Director, Partnership for a Drug Free Canada (PDFC) [email protected] (416) 479-6972.
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