Evaluating Retailer Behavior in Preventing Youth Access to Harmful Legal Products A Feasibility Test

Matthew W. Courser, Harold D. Holder, David Collins, Knowlton Johnson and Kristen A. Ogilvie
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Matthew W. Courser: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation-Louisville Center, Kentucky
Harold D. Holder: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation-Prevention Research Center, Berkeley, California
David Collins: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation-Louisville Center, Kentucky
Knowlton Johnson: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation-Louisville Center, Kentucky
Kristen A. Ogilvie: Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation-Alaska Office, Anchorage

Evaluation Review, 2009, vol. 33, issue 5, 497-515

Abstract: This article reports results from a feasibility study of a community effort to reduce the availability of legal products that youth can use to get high. The study evaluated the potential of youth purchase attempts to detect actual changes in retail availability of harmful legal products. These results were triangulated with self-reports from retailers about their own policies and practices. Before the intervention, less than half of retailers reported using any of six possible strategies identified as ways to reduce youth access to harmful products, and less than 8% of baseline youth attempts to purchase potentially harmful legal products were refused or questioned. After the low-dosage intervention, retailers reported increased use of three strategies and a statistically significant increase in the percentage of purchase attempts that were either questioned or refused by retail clerks. These findings (a) demonstrate the potential feasibility of retailer-focused environmental strategies and (b) support continued use of youth purchase attempts as a measure of actual retailer behavior.

Keywords: harmful legal products; environmental strategies; youth purchase attempts; Alaskan retailers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:evarev:v:33:y:2009:i:5:p:497-515

DOI: 10.1177/0193841X08320940

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