Advancing Intervention and Prevention Research for Behavioral Health Problems Through Data Synthesis.

This commentary on the special issue, "Innovations and Applications of Integrative Data Analysis (IDA) and Related Data Harmonization Procedures in Prevention Science" summarizes the utility of data synthesis techniques to elucidate prevention effects in important ways, including effects on low base-rate conditions and effects across multiple small-scale studies of preventive interventions, long-term and crossover effects of preventive interventions, and addressing for whom preventive interventions work, and for how long. In addition, articles tackle methodological challenges by integrating and harmonizing data. Much progress has occurred in the past 5 years.

Substance use prevention research funded by the NIH.

Background: Substance use is a leading preventable cause of death in the U.S. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) provides public funding to advance understanding on the causes of substance use disorders and apply that knowledge to improve public health through research that develops new and improved strategies to prevent substance use.

Commentary on Scaling-up Evidence-based Interventions in US Public Systems to Prevent Behavioral Health Problems.

As evidence-based interventions (EBIs) to prevent mental, emotional, and behavioral health problems continue to become available, approaches for implementation in systems and settings, at scale, are needed. The article, Scaling-up Evidence-based Interventions in U.S.

Commentary on Participation in Preventive Interventions.

In this commentary on the special issue, Preventive Parenting Interventions: Advancing Conceptualizations and Enhancing Reach, operationalization of participation, who engages in prevention interventions, and common themes from the studies are discussed. The papers in the special issue illustrate the importance of studying factors that increase participation in prevention and point out the need for additional research to understand these factors. These papers highlight the diverse conceptualizations of participation as well as a need to move toward standardization of methods to assess related constructs.

Risky and protective contexts and exposure to violence in urban African American young adolescents.

Contexts of risk for and protection from exposure to violence were identified and the relation of exposure to violence to delinquent behaviors and symptoms of trauma was examined. Using the Experience Sampling Method (ESM), the immediate daily experience of risky and protective contexts was examined. One hundred sixty-seven African American 6th-, 7th-, and 8th-grade children from urban neighborhoods carried watches and booklets for 1 week.