Project Family prevention trials based in community-university partnerships: toward scaled-up preventive interventions.
Findings from Project Family are presented to illustrate how a partnership-based program of research on universal family- and youth-focused interventions is addressing a public health challenge. One aspect of this public health challenge is the high prevalence of youth problem behaviors and a second aspect concerns barriers to scaling-up empirically-supported preventive interventions designed to ameliorate those problem behaviors. Illustrative findings are presented within a conceptual framework for scaling-up preventive interventions to achieve greater public health impact. Three interrelated sets of research requirements and findings are addressed within this framework: (a) rigorously demonstrating intervention effectiveness; (b) attaining sufficient levels of intervention utilization in diverse general populations, requiring study of recruitment/retention strategies, cultural sensitivity, and economic viability; and (c) achieving implementation quality, involving investigation of adherence and dosage effects, along with theory-driven, intervention quality improvement. The paper concludes with discussion of the need for careful investigation of community-university partnership models as a key mechanism for large-scale implementation.
Spoth
Richard L
RL
Institute for Social and Behavioral Research, Iowa State University, Ames 50010, USA. rlspoth@iastate.edu
Redmond
Cleve
C
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002653:Child Behavior Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D005196:Family Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D016487:Parenting / Q000523:psychology*; D011634:Public Health; D012106:Research; D012951:Socialization; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology