Effects of Resource Sharing Networks on Community Anti-Drug Coalitions' Outcomes: A Social Network Analysis.

Substance use-related problems continue to be a national public health crisis despite years of prevention efforts. Community anti-drug coalitions are well positioned to address substance use at local levels. Coalitions often rely on their members to connect to resources they need to address community issues and plan for sustainability over time.

Unpacking Technical Assistance (TA) Strategies Within a State-Level Prevention Support System: A Mixed-Method Study in Determining Types and Amount of TA.

The research-practice gap between evidence-based intervention efficacy and its uptake in real-world contexts remains a central challenge for prevention and implementation science. Providing technical assistance (TA) is considered a crucial support mechanism that can help narrow the gap. However, empirical measurement of TA strategies and their variation is often lacking.

Discriminatory Experiences Among Black Youth: How Encounters and Expectations Explain Emotional Well-Being.

Research suggests that encounters with racism are related to depression in Black youth. However, less is known about how experienced racial discrimination can influence other aspects of well-being among Black youth including their socio-emotional development and behavior. In addition, emerging literature highlights the critical ways anticipated racial discrimination may impact the emotional well-being of Black youth.

Understanding community- and system-capacity change over time: A close look at changing social capital in Evidence2Success communities.

Evidence in majority White and low-population areas suggest that community prevention systems can create social capital that is needed to support high-quality implementation and sustainability of evidence-based programs. This study expands prior work by asking the question: How does community social capital change during the implementation of a community prevention system in low-income, highly populated communities of color? Data were collected from Community Board members and Key Leaders in five communities. Linear mixed effect models analyzed data on reports of social capital over time, first as reported by Community Board members then by Key Leaders.

Recurring Parent-Child Conflict: A Mediator between Parental Anger Management and Adolescent Behavior.

Guided by social learning theory, this longitudinal study examined whether parent-child recurring conflict mediated the association between parental anger management, an understudied antecedent to parent-child recurring conflict, and adolescent deviant and problem-solving behaviors in 415 rural families. Parental use of anger management in 6 grade was associated with less parent-child recurring conflict in 9 grade, which was associated with more adolescent problem-solving behavior in 11 grade. Family practitioners seeking to promote adolescent problem-solving behaviors may consider teaching families strategies for reducing parent-child recurring conflict and fostering parental anger management.

Initial conditions and functioning over time among community coalitions.

Developing operationally strong community coalitions is critical to actualizing their potential for public health improvement. The purpose of this study was to measure how substance use prevention coalitions in Mexico functioned across their first 1.5 years, and to test associations between initial community contextual factors and subsequent coalition functioning and outcomes.

Going the Distance: Technical Assistance to Community Prevention Coalitions and its impact on Prevention Coalitions Over Time.

Prevention Coordinators are the linking agents providing technical assistance between universities and communities in the PROSPER model to support the implementation and sustainability of youth and family programs that have reduced substance abuse in prior research. This study examines the outcomes and trajectory of the frequency of contact of technical assistance (i.e.

Protocol for a hybrid type 3 cluster randomized trial of a technical assistance system supporting coalitions and evidence-based drug prevention programs.

Background: Over 5000 community anti-drug coalitions operating in the USA serve as a cornerstone of federal drug prevention. These coalitions, however, have demonstrated effectiveness in preventing substance use only when they use technical assistance (TA) and implement evidence-based programs (EBPs). The absence of TA and EBP implementation by coalitions is a key research-to-practice gap.

The Society for Prevention Research 20 Years Later: a Summary of Training Needs.

The Society for Prevention Research (SPR) aims to continually provide relevant professional development training opportunities to advance scientific investigation of ways to improve the health, well-being, and social and educational outcomes of individuals and communities. Our study, led by the Training Needs Assessment Task Force, designed a quantitative questionnaire informed by semistructured, qualitative interviews of 13 key prevention science informants. The questionnaire was deployed to all SPR members, of which 347 completed it.

Public Health Benefits 16 Years After a Statewide Policy Change: Communities That Care in Pennsylvania.

Communities That Care (CTC), an evidence-based prevention system, has been installed outside of a research context in over 500 communities worldwide. Yet, its effectiveness in a non-research context is unknown. Using a repeated cross-sectional design with propensity score weighting at the school district-level, the purpose of this study was to examine the effect of widespread diffusion of CTC across Pennsylvania on adolescent substance use, delinquency, and depression.

Examining the Highs and Lows of the Collaborative Relationship Between Technical Assistance Providers and Prevention Implementers.

The PROSPER model uses a three-tiered community partnership, university researcher, and Cooperative Extension-based technical assistance system to support the delivery of evidence-based interventions in communities. This study examines the trajectory and predictors of the collaborative relationship between technical assistance providers and community teams across the three phases of organization, implementation, and sustainability. Members of 14 PROmoting School-university-community Partnerships to Enhance Resilience (PROSPER) community teams and directors of local agencies rated communities' levels of readiness and adolescent substance use norms.

Effects of Sectoral Diversity on Community Coalition Processes and Outcomes.

Collaboration with diverse partners is challenging but essential for the implementation of prevention programs and policies. Increased communication with partners from diverse sectors may help community coalitions overcome the challenges that diversity presents. We examined these issues empirically in a study of 17 substance use prevention coalitions in Mexico.

Thriving in School: The Role of Sixth-Grade Adolescent-Parent-School Relationships in Predicting Eighth-Grade Academic Outcomes.

The present study uses an ecological systems perspective to examine how parental involvement in school-related activities in sixth grade influences early adolescents' school bonding and academic achievement in eighth grade. Results of multilevel models of multiple data sources (i.e.

Universal Prevention Exposure as a Moderator of the Community Context: Findings from the PROSPER Project.

This study examined how participation in a universal family skills-building program may interact with community risks and resources to produce youth outcomes. Prior research has noted community-level variability in risk and protective factors, but thus far no study has examined the role that participation on a community-wide intervention may play in moderating the effects of community risks or resources. The study included 14 communities (seven in Iowa, seven in Pennsylvania) that implemented a family focused evidence-based program as part of the PROSPER project.

Pathways to Sustainability: 8-Year Follow-Up From the PROSPER Project.

The large-scale dissemination of evidence-based practices (EBPs) is often hindered by problems with sustaining initiatives past a period of initial grant funding. Communities often have difficulty generating resources needed to sustain and grow their initiatives, resulting in limited public health impact. The PROSPER project, initiated in 2001, provided community coalitions with intensive technical assistance around marketing, communications, and revenue generating strategies.

The power of a collaborative relationship between technical assistance providers and community prevention teams: A correlational and longitudinal study.

Background: Historically, effectiveness of community collaborative prevention efforts has been mixed. Consequently, research has been undertaken to better understand the factors that support their effectiveness; theory and some related empirical research suggests that the provision of technical assistance is one important supporting factor. The current study examines one aspect of technical assistance that may be important in supporting coalition effectiveness, the collaborative relationship between the technical assistance provider and site lead implementer.

Community Prevention Coalition Context and Capacity Assessment: Comparing the United States and Mexico.

Effective planning for community health partnerships requires understanding how initial readiness-that is, contextual factors and capacity-influences implementation of activities and programs. This study compares the context and capacity of drug and violence prevention coalitions in Mexico to those in the United States. Measures of coalition context include community problems, community leadership style, and sense of community.

Understanding the Link between Social Organization and Crime in Rural Communities.

Rural communities make up much of America's heartland, yet we know little about their social organization, and how elements of their social organization relate to crime rates. The current study sought to remedy this gap by examining the associations between two measures of social organization - collective efficacy and social trust - with a number of structural community characteristics, local crime rates, and perceptions of safety in a sample of 27 rural and small town communities in two states. Measures of collective efficacy, social trust, and perceived safety, were gathered from key community members in 2006; other measures were drawn from the 2000 Census and FBI Uniform Crime Reporting system.

Knowledge, Attitudes, and Commitment Concerning Evidence-Based Prevention Programs: Differences between Family and Consumer Sciences and 4-H Youth Development Educators.

In this article, we describe the results of a study designed to assess knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes towards evidence-based and other prevention programs among county Extension educators. We examined differences across educators from the Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) and 4-H Youth Development program areas. Analyses based on a multi-state sample of educators revealed significant differences across program areas such that, compared to their 4-H counterparts, FCS educators were more knowledgeable of evidence-based programs and had more favorable perceptions and attitudes towards evidence-based and other pre-packaged prevention programs.

A multi-level examination of how the organizational context relates to readiness to implement prevention and evidence-based programming in community settings.

Prior theoretical and empirical research suggests that multiple aspects of an organization's context are likely related to a number of factors, from their interest and ability to adopt new programming, to client outcomes. A limited amount of the prior research has taken a more community-wide perspective by examining factors that associate with community readiness for change, leaving how these findings generalize to community organizations that conduct prevention or positive youth development programs unknown. Thus for the current study, we examined how the organizational context of the Cooperative Extension System (CES) associates with current attitudes and practices regarding prevention and evidence-based programming.

The impact of a prevention delivery system on perceived social capital: the PROSPER project.

The current study examined the impact of the PROSPER delivery system for evidence-based prevention programs on multiple indicators of social capital in a rural and semi-rural community sample. Utilizing a randomized blocked design, 317 individuals in 28 communities across two states were interviewed at three time points over the course of 2.5 years.

From the macro to the micro: a geographic examination of the community context and early adolescent problem behaviors.

This study examined how multiple dimensions and levels of the community context associated with early adolescent problem behaviors in rural communities. Four thousand, five hundred and nine eighth-grade students in 28 rural and small town school districts in two states participated in surveys regarding substance use and delinquency in 2005. Locations of alcohol retailers, tobacco retailers, youth-serving organizations, and student residences were geocoded.

Team factors that predict to sustainability indicators for community-based prevention teams.

Because they often set out with a guarantee of only short-term funding, many community partnerships will face a threat to their sustainability almost as soon as the first money runs out. Research into the factors that enable some coalitions and partnerships to meet the challenge when others fail is limited. This study begins to fill this gap in our understanding by examining influences on the process of sustainability planning in the context of a collaborative partnership focused on youth development.

The Community Substance Use Environment: The Development and Predictive Ability of a Multi-method and Multiple-reporter Measure.

This study tested the feasibility and utility of developing a multiple-method and multiple-reporter measure that describes the community substance use environment. Data on community-level norms and availability of substances were reported by 5,261 students and 181 prevention-focused community leaders involved in the 28 PROSPER Project communities between 2002-2005. Additionally, locations of alcohol and tobacco outlets were geocoded.