Risk Reduction Via Promotion of Youth Development

University Of South Carolina At Columbia, Columbia SC

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

[unreadable] DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This continuing preventive intervention trial, called Early Alliance, is aimed at reducing concurrent risk for early-onset conduct problems, substance abuse, and academic failure in children. This phase builds on the successes from the first project period, including high recruitment and retention rates for schools and families, implementation of a theory driven multicontextual preventive intervention with clear evidence of content and process fidelity, clear support for the coping-competence mediational model, and evidence of early impact on coping-competence and academic performance. Relying on longitudinal methodology, the project aims to examine outcomes in late childhood and early adolescence, test the robustness of the coping-competence model into adolescence, and pursue new knowledge in developmental psychopathology with regard to internalizing problems in an understudied population. The research is intended to contribute to a better understanding and potential reduction of health disparities in minority and low-income populations. [unreadable] [unreadable] The design includes randomization of schools to intervention conditions, sampling of males and females, an epidemiologically drawn sample to enhance generalizability, multi-measure and multiple-respondent assessment, and careful tracking and retention procedures linked to annual assessment of youth and families. The project capitalizes on data-reduction and covariance techniques, multivariate growth curve analysis, and logistic regression in evaluating outcomes, addresses the systematic prevention of conduct disorder, tests the theoretical foundation of the school-based interventions, and blends developmental and epidemiological perspectives.