Drug addiction is a serious social issue that affects not only individuals but also their immediate environment. Considering the increasing availability of addictive substances and peer pressure, it is essential to start prevention in early childhood. Elementary school plays a key role in this process – it provides children with knowledge and space to form values and develop the skills necessary to cope with risky situations.

Early and targeted primary prevention helps children build resilience to negative influences, develop critical thinking and make healthy decisions. The effectiveness of prevention is not only in providing information, but also in developing personal skills that will enable children to face peer pressure.

The article presents the results of a research study focused on the effectiveness of the implemented drug addiction prevention program in elementary school.

The prevention program was aimed at increasing knowledge about drugs and shaping the attitudes of elementary school students towards addictive substances. For analysis, a didactic experiment was carried out, two independent groups of respondents were created - control (37 students) and experimental (49 students). The research focused on evaluating the effectiveness of primary prevention of drug addiction in second-grade elementary school students. The aim was to determine whether an educational intervention focused on knowledge about addictive substances (alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, sugar and drugs in general) would lead to increased awareness and change in attitudes among students. The results were compared between the experimental group, which completed the prevention program, and the control group, which continued according to the classic curriculum without intervention. In the test part, the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group in all evaluated sections, with the highest difference recorded in caffeine (average 4.9 versus 3.03 points). The average total score of the experimental group was 22.5 points out of a maximum of 25, while the control group only achieved 15.6. Statistical analyses (Mann-Whitney U test and Cohen's r) showed that the differences between the groups were statistically significant, and the intervention effect was in many cases medium to high.

Additional analysis of selected chemistry questions showed that students who participated in the program better understood substances such as caffeine, nicotine, and sugar. The program apparently supported the acquisition of factual knowledge and the ability to think logically about the consequences of substance use. The results indicate the need to introduce high-quality and practically oriented prevention activities at the primary education level.

Keywords: Drug addiction, didactic experiment, knowledge test, prevention, elementary school.