Navigating Real-World Randomized Clinical Trials: The 'Parents as Teachers' Experience.

The Parents as Teachers Randomized Controlled Trial (PAT RCT) Case Study investigates the multifaceted impact of implementing the PAT RCT in Arizona, U.S.A.

: A Gender-Specific Sexual Education Program to Reduce Sexual Risk Behaviors With High School Males.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility and effectiveness of a gender-specific intervention targeted to adolescent males to reduce sexual risks.

Method: This study used a randomized clinical trial comparing a broad-based male empowerment curriculum with a no-treatment control group. The sample ( = 580) was recruited from schools and was implemented in community-based settings mostly in an after-school context.

A Randomized Controlled Trial of Healthy Families: 6-Month and 1-Year Follow-Up.

Home visitation research remains on the forefront as policy makers look to evidence for programs they believe are worthy of investment, particularly in terms of child abuse prevention. A randomized controlled trial (N = 245) of the Healthy Families Arizona home visitation program was conducted. Outcomes were assessed across several key domains related to child abuse and neglect: safety and resources, parenting attitudes and behaviors, health and maternal outcomes, and mental health and coping.

Go Grrrls: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Gender-Specific Intervention to Reduce Sexual Risk Factors in Middle School Females.

Purpose: Adolescent females continue to face health consequences associated with risky sexual behaviors such as unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a gender-specific intervention targeted to early adolescent females.

Method: This study used an intent to treat randomized clinical trial comparing a broad-based female empowerment curriculum with a dose-matched science and technology female leadership curriculum.

Challenges to Breastfeeding Initiation and Duration for Teen Mothers.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate breastfeeding practices of teen mothers in a pre- and postnatal education and support program.

Study Design And Methods: We studied breastfeeding practices of primarily Hispanic and non-Hispanic White teen mothers who participated in the Teen Outreach Pregnancy Services (TOPS) program, which promoted breastfeeding through prenatal programming and postpartum support. Analyses identified the most common reasons participants had not breastfed and, for those who initiated breastfeeding, the most common reasons they stopped.

Assessing risk of recidivism among juvenile offenders: the development and validation of the recidivism risk instrument.

A recidivism risk instrument was developed and validated on a sample of juvenile offenders (N = 1,987) based on the need to classify juveniles by their likelihood of re-offense. Female recidivism (R(2) = 27%) was predicted by younger age at first expulsion from school, history of parent incarceration, gang involvement, felony class offense, and firearm use. Male recidivism (R(2) = 12%) was predicted by younger age at first adjudication, referrals, school suspensions, history of maternal incarceration, firearm use, running away, gang involvement, and destroying property/stealing.

Development and initial validation of an outcome measure for home visitation: The healthy families parenting inventory.

The Healthy Families Parenting Inventory (HFPI) is a 63-item outcome measure that was designed to examine change in nine parenting-related domains. The HFPI was developed to respond to the need for an outcome measure for home visitation programs that is relevant to the intervention, sensitive to change, and appropriate with a diverse participant base, and would produce data that are immediately useful in practice. The authors detail the steps in the development and initial validation of the HFPI.

The influence of race and ethnicity on substance use and negative activity involvement among monoracial and multiracial adolescents of the southwest.

This study examined predictors of substance use and negative activity involvement among a diverse sample of European American, African American, Hispanic, Native American, and multiracial early adolescents (n = 749) living in a large urban city in the Southwest United States. This study investigated a broad set of predictor variables that tap sociodemographic, peer, family, community, and school influences. Overall, findings from this study confirm that lifetime substance use remains high among youth of color.

The role of community in facilitating service utilization.

Guided by an integrated theory of parent participation, this study examines the role community characteristics play in influencing a parent's decision to use voluntary child abuse prevention programs. Multiple regression techniques were used to determine if different community characteristics, such as neighborhood distress and the community's ratio of caregivers to those in need of care, predict service utilization levels in a widely available home visiting program. Our findings suggest that certain community characteristics are significant predictors of the extent to which families utilize voluntary family supports over and above the proportion of variance explained by personal characteristics and program experiences.

The evaluation of Healthy Families Arizona: a multisite home visitation program.

Healthy Families Arizona is a broadly implemented home visitation program aimed at preventing child abuse and neglect, improving child health and development, and promoting positive parent/child interaction. The program began as a pilot in two sites in 1991 and by 2004 had grown to 48 sites located in urban, rural, and tribal regions of the state. The unique administrative structure of the program and collaboration between evaluation and quality assurance have helped overcome many of the problems familiar to home visitation programs.

Who is Offering and How Often?: Gender Differences in Drug Offers Among American Indian Adolescents of the Southwest.

This exploratory study examines gender differences in the patterns of drug offers among a sample of 71 American Indian middle school students. Participants respond to an inventory of drug-related problem situations specific to the cultural contexts of Southwestern American Indian youth. They are asked to consider the frequency of drug offers from specific groups in their social networks and the difficulty associated with refusing drugs from various offerers.

The implications of ecologically based assessment for primary prevention with indigenous youth populations.

This paper describes a five-stage approach toward conducting an ecologically based assessment with Indigenous youth populations, and the implications of this approach for the development and implementation of culturally grounded prevention interventions. A description of a pilot study funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIH/NIDA) focused on drug use and American Indian youth is presented as one model for operationalizing ecologically based assessment with Indigenous youth populations, and issues related to translating the pilot study into a prevention intervention are discussed. This paper suggests that ecologically based assessment can serve as a foundation for culturally grounded prevention interventions, promoting the social and ecological validity of those interventions.

Improving the quality of home visitation: an exploratory study of difficult situations.

Objective: The primary purpose of this study was to use an ecological assessment model to obtain a better understanding of difficult situations that home visitors confront when implementing home visitation services.

Method: A mixed method study was used which included conducting focus groups to identify specific situations faced by home visitors who implement the Healthy Families America model of child abuse and neglect prevention. The results of the focus groups were used to design a survey.

Evaluation of an empowerment program for early adolescent girls.

This article describes and evaluates the Go Grrrls Program, a preventive intervention specifically designed for early adolescent girls. The 12-session curriculum was designed to address developmental tasks considered critical for healthy psychosocial development, such as achieving competent gender role identification, establishing an acceptable body image, developing a positive self-image, forming satisfactory peer relationships, achieving independence, learning to utilize resources, and planning for the future. Middle school students received the intervention and were compared with a no-intervention peer group.

An Ecological Assessment of Drug-Related Problem Situations for American Indian Adolescents of the Southwest.

This study examined difficult situations related to drug and alcohol use as identified by American Indian youth in the South-west. Sixty-two contextually based items were developed from focus group data, and were administered to 71 American Indian youth. The items measured the frequency in which youth experienced specific drug-related situations, as well as the perceived difficulty in resisting drug use offers in those situations: The results indicated that the most frequent and difficult drug and alcohol situations occurred primarily with friends or cousins at their homes or after school.

The public's perception of social work: is it what we think it is?

This article reports on the public's current perception of the social work profession as examined in a nationally representative, random digit telephone survey of 386 people. The survey asked respondents about their knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes regarding the profession and its practitioners and required respondents to make comparisons between social workers and other helping professionals such as psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, nurses, and clergy. Results of the survey indicated that for the most part, a majority of the public understands the social work profession and in many ways recognizes its value.