Refusal skills are a set of skills designed to help children avoid participating in high-risk behaviors. Programs designed to discourage crime

Crime

Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction...

, drug use

Recreational drug use

Recreational drug use is the use of a drug, usually psychoactive, with the intention of creating or enhancing recreational experience. Such use is controversial, however, often being considered to be also drug abuse, and it is often illegal...

, violence

Violence

Violence is the use of physical force to apply a state to others contrary to their wishes. violence, while often a stand-alone issue, is often the culmination of other kinds of conflict, e.g...

, and/or sexual activity frequently include refusal skills in their curricula to help students resist peer pressure

Peer pressure

Peer pressure refers to the influence exerted by a peer group in encouraging a person to change his or her attitudes, values, or behavior in order to conform to group norms. Social groups affected include membership groups, when the individual is "formally" a member , or a social clique...

 while maintaining self-respect. One such program is Drug Abuse Resistance Education

Drug Abuse Resistance Education

Drug Abuse Resistance Education, better known as DARE, is an international education program that seeks to prevent use of controlled drugs, membership in gangs, and violent behavior. D.A.R.E., which has expanded globally since its founding in 1983, is a demand-side drug control strategy of the U.S....

. Programs may focus on: offering alternative activities, saying "no", being honest, and using humor.

External links

• Refusal Skills page of the Worth the Wait campaign
• Refusal skills for teens
• Teaching Children Refusal Skills