title: Advancing the science of community-level interventions.
abstract: Community interventions are complex social processes that need to move beyond single interventions and outcomes at individual levels of short-term change. A scientific paradigm is emerging that supports collaborative, multilevel, culturally situated community interventions aimed at creating sustainable community-level impact. This paradigm is rooted in a deep history of ecological and collaborative thinking across public health, psychology, anthropology, and other fields of social science. The new paradigm makes a number of primary assertions that affect conceptualization of health issues, intervention design, and intervention evaluation. To elaborate the paradigm and advance the science of community intervention, we offer suggestions for promoting a scientific agenda, developing collaborations among professionals and communities, and examining the culture of science.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA. trickett@uic.edu
authors.forename: Edison J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Trickett
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Beehler
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Deutsch
authors.forename: Lawrence W
authors.initials: LW
authors.lastname: Green
authors.forename: Penelope
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hawe
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McLeroy
authors.forename: Robin Lin
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: Bruce D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Rapkin
authors.forename: Jean J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Schensul
authors.forename: Amy J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Schulz
authors.forename: Joseph E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Trimble
mesh_terms: D003256:Community Participation; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D011634:Public Health; D012946:Social Welfare