The Attitudes and Beliefs of Special and General Educational Professionals Concerning Alcohol and Drug Problems

Drug and alcohol abuse is one of the greatest challenges of public education. Substance abuse affects student academic performance. Teacher attitudes concerning substance use are linked to drug and alcohol use by students. The purpose of this study was to assertion teacher attitudes and beliefs about drug and alcohol use. The data were collected using a questionnaire. The questionnaire was a modified version of the Addiction Belief Inventory (ABI) based on the five constructs (e.g., coping, efficacy, disease, lack of efficacy, moral weakness) of substance abuse (Broadus, Hartje, Roget, & Cahoon, 2010; Luke, Ribisi, Walton, & Davidson, 2002). The participants were special and general education teachers from a large southwestern school district. A total of 119 special education and 117 general education teachers completed the questionnaire. The results of the analysis (e.g., ANOVA, independent t-test) indicated that there were two significant differences for the construct of efficacy. There was a significant difference in the attitudes of special education and general education teachers. The other significant difference was in the attitude of male and female general education teachers for the construct of efficacy. The results of the analysis (e.g., ANOVA, independent t-tests) did not show any significant difference for the constructs: (a) coping, (b) disease, (c) lack of efficacy, and (d) moral weakness. The findings from this study create a baseline from which to further understand teacher attitudes and beliefs concerning substance use and abuse by children and youth in educational settings. While these data are preliminary, they do provide valuable information as education begins to develop curricula for teachers and students in this very important social area