Prevention Science[JOURNAL]
Sun
200 papers
Addressing Structural Factors to Prevent Youth Violence Through a Multisector Collaborative Approach.
Thompson VM, Watson-Thompson J, Bernard DL … +1 more , Bah L
Prev Sci · 2025 Oct · PMID 41085954 · Full text
Youth violence is a significant public health concern with differential impacts on youth who reside in high-burden communities. Structural factors, including institutional practices and policies, contribute to the concen...
Youth violence is a significant public health concern with differential impacts on youth who reside in high-burden communities. Structural factors, including institutional practices and policies, contribute to the concentration of youth within neighborhoods where violence is more likely to occur. Across disciplines, scholars have identified structural factors that affect not only the prevalence of violence but also environmental conditions that make violence more likely. Consequently, interventions may fall short of addressing the root causes of violence, perpetuating cycles of harm rather than fostering long-term solutions. It is crucial to advance community and societal level approaches to address macro-level factors influencing youth violence. The Institute of Medicine's Framework for Collaborative Public Health Action suggests that community coalitions may contribute to preventing youth violence by facilitating multisectoral engagement across socioecological levels to promote sustainable change. Guided by this framework, the ThrYve Coalition in Kansas City convened over 40 community partners across 15 sectors to address youth violence (Watson-Thompson et al., 2020). Through a collaborative process, 87 change lever strategies (i.e., strategies to implement program, policy, practice changes) were identified to support community and systems-level improvements aligned with risk and protective factors related to youth violence. Between 2018 and 2022, the ThrYve Coalition implemented more than 199 community changes, addressing social and structural determinants related to youth violence. This study examines the collaborative process for facilitating change as part of a comprehensive community intervention to prevent youth violence.
Summer Youth Employment Programs as a Structural Approach to Prevent Youth Violence: an Integrative Review.
Joseph PL, Jay J
Prev Sci · 2025 Oct · PMID 41082080 · Publisher ↗
The growing momentum to combat racial and ethnic disparities in youth violence victimization and exposure by developing structural interventions is an important shift toward addressing the root causes of disparities in y...
The growing momentum to combat racial and ethnic disparities in youth violence victimization and exposure by developing structural interventions is an important shift toward addressing the root causes of disparities in youth violence. However, discussions of structural interventions sometimes overlook existing programs such as Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs). We conduct an integrative review of evaluation studies on SYEPs and use the findings to re-examine the evidence and arguments for SYEPs, advancing this issue's goal of highlighting viable solutions to address youth violence. We identified 13 evaluation studies of SYEPs in Boston, Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Cuyahoga County, OH, and Washtenaw County, MI. Findings from these evaluations suggest that SYEPs impact behavioral and sociocultural environmental determinants of youth violence across the individual, interpersonal, and community levels. No evaluations reported on societal-level determinants of youth violence. Yet, well-designed SYEPs align with key components of interventions to address disparities in youth violence: (1) they are sustainable, having been implemented in several cities and states for decades despite precarious funding; (2) as evidenced by evaluation findings, they address behavioral and sociocultural environmental domains across multiple levels of influence; and (3) they address racial and economic disparities by serving youth disproportionately affected by community violence, Black and Latine youth in economically disadvantaged communities. We argue that when these programs are made universal, they are structural interventions that address youths' lack of employment opportunities at the societal level.
Exploring Spatially Varying Associations of COVID-19 Rates with Contextual Socioeconomic, Health, and Environmental Factors under Partial Population Coverage of Vaccination: A Retrospective Ecological Study in Georgia, USA.
Tu J
Prev Sci · 2025 Dec · PMID 41082079 · Publisher ↗
A good understanding of the associations of COVID-19 infection and mortality with contextual factors when vaccines were not widely available is necessary for human societies to be better prepared for future outbreaks of...
A good understanding of the associations of COVID-19 infection and mortality with contextual factors when vaccines were not widely available is necessary for human societies to be better prepared for future outbreaks of infectious diseases. This retrospective ecological study aimed to explore the spatially varying associations of COVID-19 incidence, death, and case fatality rates with contextual socioeconomic, health, and environmental factors during the period of partial population coverage of vaccination at county level in the state of Georgia, USA. The associations of COVID-19 rates and contextual factors were analyzed using geographically weighted regression (GWR), compared with ordinary least squares regression (OLS) analysis. OLS results showed that most factors were significantly associated with COVID-19 death rate and case fatality rate, but not incidence rate. GWR results demonstrated that the associations of all three COVID-19 rates with factors varied across space: A factor might have a significant positive, significant negative, or nonsignificant association with each rate in certain counties. Most factors for poor health outcomes were significantly associated with higher risks of COVID-19 infection and mortality in more counties compared to non-significant or inverse associations. The spatially varying associations for some contextual factors were related to the socioeconomic and urbanization characteristics of counties. Some factors also affected COVID-19 infection and mortality differently. For example, persons aged 65 and older percentage was not a significant risk factor of COVID-19 infection in most counties, but it was the most spatially consistent risk factor of COVID-19 death in Georgia; fully vaccinated percentage was a more significant indicator of reducing COVID-19 infection in rural counties compared to urban and suburban areas. This study provides useful information for public health agencies and professionals to make and implement more specific and targeted local health policies.
AI-Augmented Clearinghouse to Facilitate Evidence-Based Decision-Making and Social Spending: a Conceptual Framework.
Buckley PR, Fishbein D, Wollman NJ
Prev Sci · 2025 Oct · PMID 41073676 · Publisher ↗
Social spending refers to public or private funds aimed at helping vulnerable groups. Evidence-based decision-making supports social spending by applying existing evidence to inform funding and involves integrating relev...
Social spending refers to public or private funds aimed at helping vulnerable groups. Evidence-based decision-making supports social spending by applying existing evidence to inform funding and involves integrating relevant information from various sources, such as experimental studies and community feedback. Online clearinghouses support evidence-based decision-making by synthesizing evidence on what works, though manually updating literature is incomplete. In addition, passively summarizing evaluations is insufficient for end-users to implement preventive solutions that achieve population impacts. A responsive platform and a dissemination plan are needed to encourage the uptake of equitable and culturally relevant preventive interventions grounded in transparency and rigorous evidence of effectiveness. A two-part conceptual framework is proposed for a clearinghouse platform that integrates stepwise, interactive, AI-driven capabilities safeguarded by human touchpoints. First, clearinghouses should adopt a "living" review to automatically update evaluations-an approach embraced globally by organizations such as the World Health Organization, Cochrane Collaboration, and the U.N.'s Pan American Health Organization. The second component involves adding a chatbot to support assessment and implementation guidance and make recommendations on (1) the provision of all evidence-based preventive interventions (EBPIs) and their key activities, (2) EBPIs shown to achieve equitably distributed outcomes, (3) culturally relevant EBPIs that align with the values and needs of a target population, (4) implementation support, such as materials, training, and fidelity measures, and (5) delivery costs. The resulting platform will ethically expedite the translational process of identifying and scaling EBPIs, leading to a more complete, comprehensive, and accessible body of evidence on effective preventive strategies.
Supplementing Program Profiles in Evidence Clearinghouses with Insights for Practice: a Qualitative Investigation of Application to Youth Mentoring Programs in CrimeSolutions.
Griffith AN, Pryce J, DuBois DL … +3 more , Brezina T, Stewart KE, Garringer M
Prev Sci · 2025 Nov · PMID 41060608 · Full text
Evidence-based program repositories have been designed to help practitioners in their decision-making. Most repositories supplement summaries of effectiveness evidence with information intended to assist with implementat...
Evidence-based program repositories have been designed to help practitioners in their decision-making. Most repositories supplement summaries of effectiveness evidence with information intended to assist with implementation of each included program (e.g., training costs). It is less common for guidance to be included to support translation of findings for a broader range of purposes, such as enhancing related programs already in place. To help address this gap within the area of youth mentoring, the National Mentoring Resource Center has appended "Insights for Mentoring Practitioners" to profiles of 47 mentoring programs included in the CrimeSolutions.gov repository of the National Institute of Justice. We qualitatively analyzed these commentaries to elucidate themes across them that can inform the development and improvement of mentoring programs. Themes included (1) ensuring alignment across program goals, design, implementation, and evaluation; (2) connecting the intervention to mentees' home, parents, and larger environment; (3) tailoring mentor engagement and support to effectively serve youth; and (4) optimizing the role of mentoring within multi-component programs. Discussion focuses on how findings inform the improvement of mentoring programs, and how content geared toward the translation of evidence to practice could enhance and improve evidence repositories.
Depressive Symptoms and Substance Use: Longitudinal Examination of Alcohol and Cannabis Coping Mechanisms in Young Adults.
Graupensperger S, Janson MA, Fairlie AM … +2 more , Larimer ME, Lee CM
Prev Sci · 2025 Nov · PMID 41057711 · Publisher ↗
Depression and substance use are often comorbid, but less is known about these associations in non-clinical community samples. Moreover, existing research is primarily cross-sectional or focuses on long-term trajectories...
Depression and substance use are often comorbid, but less is known about these associations in non-clinical community samples. Moreover, existing research is primarily cross-sectional or focuses on long-term trajectories of depressive symptoms and substance use. The present study examines within-person associations to estimate the extent to which monthly fluctuations in depressive symptoms relate to alcohol and cannabis use. A community sample of 778 young adults (M = 21.1 at baseline, 56% female) completed up to 33 monthly surveys (82.7% total response rate) scattered across a 6-year period (2015-2021). Zero-truncated regression was used to stratify associations with any use and amount of use on months that alcohol and cannabis were reported, respectively. Pertaining to alcohol use, depressive symptoms predicted lower odds of drinking alcohol on a given month; however, if young adults did drink, then depressive symptoms predicted heavier drinking (i.e., more drinks per week). For cannabis, depressive symptoms predicted both greater odds of using cannabis and heavier use in that month (i.e., greater hours high per week). Associations between depressive symptoms and alcohol/cannabis quantity indices were mediated by coping motives. Findings highlight the risks of elevated depressive symptoms for young adults, in terms of alcohol and cannabis use.
Schools' Readiness for Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Education: an Overview of Theoretical Models.
Wu Y, Walsh K, White SLJ … +1 more , L'Estrange L
Prev Sci · 2025 Nov · PMID 41032217 · Full text
Schools' readiness appears an important factor influencing their implementation of violence prevention programs. This review was undertaken to identify, describe, and compare existing theoretical readiness models and the...
Schools' readiness appears an important factor influencing their implementation of violence prevention programs. This review was undertaken to identify, describe, and compare existing theoretical readiness models and their strengths and limitations, and to select an appropriate theoretical model to underpin the study of schools' readiness for child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention education. This, in turn, would guide development of a new instrument to assess schools' readiness for CSA prevention. Searches were conducted from September to December 2022 in ERIC, PsychINFO, PubMed, Science Direct, Sociological Abstracts, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, and handsearches were made in academic journals. We included peer-reviewed papers published in English that reported the development, testing, or use of a theoretical readiness model at an organizational level. We identified three candidate groups of theoretical models from 85 papers: the community readiness model, the multidimensional child maltreatment prevention readiness model, and organizational readiness for change theories. These models were appraised using four criteria for selecting implementation science theories and frameworks (Birken et al. 2017). We propose Weiner's (2009) organizational readiness for change as the most plausible theoretical model with both descriptive and analytical potential for assessing schools' readiness for child sexual abuse prevention education, and discuss the conceptual and empirical strengths and weaknesses of the identified models. The review has demonstrated the utility of applying criteria (Birken et al. 2017) to appraise and select theoretical readiness models in CSA prevention education and other implementation research areas.
AI-Augmented Prevention Science Needs Community-Engaged Prevention Science: a Framework for Greater Accountability.
Rice E, Young LE
Prev Sci · 2025 Sep · PMID 40993344 · Publisher ↗
With the ability to approximate human decision-making and to parse through large and complex data, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as machine learning algorithms stand to play important roles in diagnosing...
With the ability to approximate human decision-making and to parse through large and complex data, artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as machine learning algorithms stand to play important roles in diagnosing, treating, and preventing society's most pressing social, health, and academic challenges. However, some AI applications for these ends have resulted in biased and discriminatory outcomes, demonstrating poor accountability to the communities these technologies impact and serve. The foundational premise of this paper is that AI-augmented prevention science needs community engagement to mitigate these harms. Drawing on a decade of work conducted at the University of Southern California's Center for AI in Society, we present a model of community-engaged AI-augmented prevention science. What sets our formalization apart from previous frameworks for community-engaged AI research is its prevention science orientation. We highlight potential roles for community and AI at each stage of the prevention science life cycle, from problem conceptualization to intervention implementation, and delineate when community input can compel moments of critical retreat in that life cycle to remain accountable to community needs and values. We then illustrate how we integrated AI and community-engaged methods in our work to correct racial biases in a predictive risk algorithm used to prioritize vulnerable people experiencing homelessness for housing interventions. Our case study highlights two moments of critical retreat-informed by the values, experiences, and contextual knowledge of our community partners-that led to more equitable and inclusive outcomes. We conclude with recommendations for how to advance community-engaged approaches in AI prevention science research.
Preschool Expulsion Risk Factors: Teachers' Ratings of Preschoolers' Challenging Behaviors Vary by the Cooperativeness of their Parents.
Zulauf-McCurdy CA, Brooks R, Meltzoff AN
Prev Sci · 2025 Nov · PMID 40954430 · Full text
Preschool children in the United States are expelled at a rate of about 250 per day with a disproportionate number being Black children. There is a need to better understand how to prevent preschool expulsion. Using a ra...
Preschool children in the United States are expelled at a rate of about 250 per day with a disproportionate number being Black children. There is a need to better understand how to prevent preschool expulsion. Using a random-assignment experiment, preschool teachers (N = 95; 92% female; 61% White) were assigned to one of eight conditions: child race (Black vs. White) child gender (boy vs. girl) parental cooperativity (cooperative vs. uncooperative). Teachers read two controlled vignettes: one about a child and one about that child's parents. The child vignette described the child's challenging classroom behavior (identical behavior for all children); the parent vignette described a subsequent meeting with the child's parents (half of the parents were described as uncooperative with the teacher and half as cooperative). After each vignette, teachers were asked to complete sections of the Preschool Expulsion Risk Measure (PERM) to assess two known risk factors for preschool expulsion: (a) teachers' perception of the disruptiveness of the child's classroom behavior and (b) teachers' feelings of hopelessness about changing the child's behavior. Even though the child's challenging behavior was controlled (by experimental design), teachers' construal of the child's behavior and teachers' feelings of hopelessness towards the child were significantly influenced by the descriptions of parental cooperation. Variations in results by child race and child gender are also reported. Findings indicate that teachers' perceptions of parents may be a particularly important factor to prevent children from preschool expulsion.
Why Do Student Perceptions of Teachers' Condemning of the Bullying and Empathy-Raising Lead to Intention to Stop Bullying? The Role of Emotions.
Johander E, Turunen T, Garandeau CF … +1 more , Salmivalli C
Prev Sci · 2025 Nov · PMID 40938493 · Full text
Two strategies used by teachers in targeted antibullying interventions, condemning of the bullying behavior and empathy-raising, have been shown to positively predict bullies' intention to stop bullying. However, the mec...
Two strategies used by teachers in targeted antibullying interventions, condemning of the bullying behavior and empathy-raising, have been shown to positively predict bullies' intention to stop bullying. However, the mechanism through which they work remains unknown. We tested whether moral emotions (guilt and shame), and empathic emotion (sadness) mediated the effects of students' perceptions of teachers' condemning and empathy-raising messages on their intention to stop bullying. A normative sample of 277 seventh-grade students (M = 12.93, SD = 0.49; 47% female) was asked to imagine having bullied a peer and being invited to a discussion with a teacher. They saw a video vignette with one of three messages: condemning, empathy-raising or a combination of both. Analyses revealed that the effects of perceived condemning of the bullying behavior on intention to stop were primarily mediated by feelings of guilt, while the effects of perceived empathy-raising were mediated by both sadness and guilt. Shame was not associated with intention to stop bullying and did not mediate the effects of the perceptions. These findings suggest that targeted anti-bullying interventions should aim to evoke guilt and sadness (or empathic concern) rather than shame.
Sociodemographic and Lifestyle Factors Associated with Adolescent Mental Ill-Health: a Decision Tree Analysis.
Battista K, Smout S, Patte KA … +6 more , Gardner LA, Newton NC, Osman B, Chapman C, Leatherdale ST, Champion KE
Prev Sci · 2025 Nov · PMID 40864387 · Publisher ↗
Mental ill-health is a leading contributor to adolescent disease burden, with females and socioeconomically disadvantaged youth facing higher rates of mental disorders. Adolescence is a key period for the development of...
Mental ill-health is a leading contributor to adolescent disease burden, with females and socioeconomically disadvantaged youth facing higher rates of mental disorders. Adolescence is a key period for the development of lifestyle risk factors for mental disorder, which are increasingly being recognized as important and novel population-level preventive intervention targets. We used decision trees to examine combinations of sociodemographic factors and the "big six" lifestyle behaviours (poor sleep, physical inactivity, sedentary screen time, poor diet, alcohol use and smoking) prospectively associated with worse anxiety, depression and psychological distress scores. We examined survey data from 3978 Australian adolescents (mean age 14.6 at baseline) who participated in the Health4Life study in 2021 and 2022. CART decision trees were run to rank the relative importance of each risk factor and to identify combinations of risk factors that characterize groups with highest anxiety (PROMIS-AP), depression (PHQ-8A) and psychological distress (K6) scores 1 year later. Gender was the primary differentiator of risk, with cisgender females and gender diverse adolescents having consistently worse mental ill-health scores than cisgender males. Inadequate sleep and excessive sedentary recreational screen time were consistently the top lifestyle factors and often emerged in combination to characterize higher risk groups. These findings offer new insights into relative importance of various lifestyle risk factors in adolescent mental health and highlight both the increased risk from engaging in combinations of unhealthy lifestyle behaviours and the need for targeted prevention and early intervention initiatives to reduce the gender gap in adolescent mental health.
Qualitative Mediation Analysis: an Important Method for Exploring Mediating Mechanisms in Prevention Science.
Kim JJ, MacKinnon DP
Prev Sci · 2025 Nov · PMID 40848098 · Full text
Mediating variables serve a primary role in devising intervention theories and applying them to practice. Prevention scientists have repeatedly called for understanding how and why an independent variable (X; e.g., inter...
Mediating variables serve a primary role in devising intervention theories and applying them to practice. Prevention scientists have repeatedly called for understanding how and why an independent variable (X; e.g., intervention) is related to a dependent variable (Y; e.g., drug use). Quantitative mediation is used to describe mediating variables that intervene in the causal path from X to Y. Most methodological development for mediation analysis has focused on statistical methods and the assumptions necessary for valid application of these statistical methods. The current paper describes how qualitative methods extend into mediation research and the unique strength of qualitative mediation in identifying potential mediators and mechanisms of change not previously hypothesized. Taking examples from prevention research, we outline how qualitative mediation generates unique and complementary information about mediating mechanisms that may only be available through interviews, focus groups, observation, archival analysis, and other qualitative methodology. We briefly describe cautions when using qualitative mediation including reliance of retrospective reports, potential to influence interviewees, and selective sampling. We underline how qualitative mediation analysis is particularly well suited for exploratory studies and extracting mechanisms of action for new or adapted interventions in prevention science.
Examining the Relationship Between Community Resources and Early Disability Identification: Variation by Child Race or Ethnicity.
LoCasale-Crouch J, Lenahan T, Shea Z … +5 more , Whittaker J, Zhang Y, Duyile B, Xu Y, Williford A
Prev Sci · 2025 Nov · PMID 40817411 · Full text
Early identification and intervention support for children with disabilities improve their cognitive, educational, and social outcomes. Studies show that disability identification varies by child race and ethnicity, with...
Early identification and intervention support for children with disabilities improve their cognitive, educational, and social outcomes. Studies show that disability identification varies by child race and ethnicity, with children from historically marginalized populations being less likely to be identified during early childhood, where identification tends to happen in the community. One major factor that varies across communities is their resources, broadly defined as the environmental, social, and economic factors within a geographically defined area. While extensive evidence exists noting inequitable distribution of community resources by race and ethnicity, little research has examined whether community resources are associated with differential early disability identification rates. This study explored the association between the availability of community resources and early disability identification and whether it varied by child race or ethnicity. Leveraging 2019 statewide data collected through the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE), we combined information about 91,210 incoming kindergarteners with the Child Opportunity Index 2.0 (COI), a measure of community resources known to be associated with child development. After controlling for multiple covariates, children entering kindergarten at schools in higher-resourced communities were more likely to be identified with a disability prior to kindergarten. Although access to community resources and early disability identification rates varied by child race and/or ethnicity, the interaction effect was not significant. This study has implications for viewing community resources as potential malleable factors to address children's varying needs prior to the start of formal schooling.
Disruptive Child Behavior and Income Inequality: Examining Long-term Maintenance of Family Income Levels in Families Receiving Parent-Training.
Greve LT, Fentz HN, Trillingsgaard T
Prev Sci · 2025 Aug · PMID 40802043 · Full text
This study explores long-term maintenance of family income levels in families receiving parent training for disruptive child behaviors. We use data from the Danish implementation of the Incredible Years Parent training (...
This study explores long-term maintenance of family income levels in families receiving parent training for disruptive child behaviors. We use data from the Danish implementation of the Incredible Years Parent training (IYPT) across 21 municipalities from 2012 to 2019. Utilizing a quasi-experimental design with matching of a subsample of 707 out of the 1229 families from the Danish IYPT sample with 690 control families drawn from the national registers, we compare annual disposable family income in intervention families with the background population and control families from 2 years before to 4 years after pretest. Our findings reveal that intervention families and control families had significantly lower annual disposable family income than the background population families across all time points. For intervention families, the financial gap from the background population families widened from USD 11,268 to USD 16,694 from the first to the last time point. Adjusted regressions comparing intervention families to control families found a small but significant financial gap, so that intervention families had USD 2189 less to their disposal per year from the first time point and USD 7596 less per year at the last time point. These results suggest that intervention families faced increasing financial strain from years before up to 4 years following the IYPT, both in relation to the general Danish population and to the matched control of socioeconomically similar families across an 8-year span. We suggest that this could reflect continued stress and disruption of work schedule due to child behavior problems. Regardless of the underlying mechanism, these findings underscore the importance of considering the long-term economic contexts of families with disruptive child behaviors. Societal strategies that address both parenting challenges and broader contextual inequalities may be needed to support healthy child development.
Perceived Need and Social Relatedness Contribute to Change in Selective Prevention for Mental Illness: a Mixed Methods Study.
Müller AD, Gjøde ICT, Christensen SH … +7 more , Jørgensen SK, Fischer K, Moszkowicz M, Hemager N, Nordentoft M, Piché G, Thorup AAE
Prev Sci · 2025 Aug · PMID 40796986 · Full text
Selective preventive interventions aim to reduce mental illness in high-risk populations, yet the reasons why some children benefit while others do not remain unclear. This study explores participants' perceptions of mec...
Selective preventive interventions aim to reduce mental illness in high-risk populations, yet the reasons why some children benefit while others do not remain unclear. This study explores participants' perceptions of mechanisms contributing to change in a family-based preventive intervention for children of parents with severe mental illness. Using an exploratory sequential mixed methods approach, we conducted an abductive qualitative analysis of focus groups (eight parents, eight children) to identify narratives of mechanisms contributing to change. The qualitative findings informed a subgrouping variable for a quantitative post hoc exploratory subgroup analysis of secondary data from the VIA Family trial (N = 110). The qualitative findings indicate that child mental health problems, parents' personal unmet needs from childhood, children's relatedness to peers and family, and contextual family-focused activities contribute to change within selective prevention. Quantitative results indicated that parents motivated by a need for support at baseline exhibited meaningful improvements in the home environment upon enrollment in the experimental preventive intervention compared with families motivated to support science (mean change: 5.07, 95% CI 2.11 to 8.03). However, no significant subgroup differences were observed in changes in children's global functioning between the allocation groups. Parents' perceived need for support facilitated engagement and home improvements, while children's relatedness to peers and family contributed to their intervention experiences. These findings emphasize the importance of motivation and social connections in intervention outcomes, contributing to the growing field of precision prevention. Future research should explore these mechanisms as potential mediators or mechanisms of action for selective prevention. ClinicalTrial.gov Identifier: NCT03497663.
The Good Behavior Game as a Universal Preventive Intervention: a Systematic Review of its Long-Term Effects.
Smith SD, Rivera FAP, DeFouw ER … +5 more , Walbridge F, Harris T, Wilde ZC, Cotter M, Reichow B
Prev Sci · 2025 Aug · PMID 40788530 · Publisher ↗
The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a team-based classroom management intervention developed to mitigate disruptive behaviors and promote prosocial behaviors of school-aged children. While the short-term benefits of the GBG...
The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a team-based classroom management intervention developed to mitigate disruptive behaviors and promote prosocial behaviors of school-aged children. While the short-term benefits of the GBG are well documented in meta-analyses and systematic reviews, it is less clear for what long-term outcomes the GBG may reduce risk. The goal of this systematic review was to synthesize findings across papers that evaluated the long-term effects of the GBG. A total of 22 papers from 5 original studies examining the influence of the GBG on a myriad of distal outcomes across the lifespan were identified by our search and met inclusion criteria for this review. Distal outcomes were assigned confidence in evidence indicators (i.e., strong, moderate, mixed, no evidence) and we specified for what developmental period and participant subgroup GBG treatment effects were found. Results revealed that there is strong evidence the GBG decreases the risk of tobacco use in late adolescence. There is also moderate evidence that the GBG prevents the progression of disruptive/aggressive behaviors from developing into more severe forms of externalizing behavior (e.g., antisocial/criminal behavior) among persistently aggressive children. When paired with a curriculum enhancement, the GBG is more likely to bolster math/reading achievement, thereby increasing the likelihood of college attendance especially for women. Additional outcomes showed moderate evidence (e.g., illicit substance use, prosocial behaviors, suicidal behaviors) whereas other outcomes showed mixed to no evidence (e.g., social acceptance, alcohol use). Given only a handful of these outcomes have been tested by independent researchers across developmental periods, more replication studies are needed to fully appreciate the GBG's long-term impact on less studied outcomes.
Promoting Long-Term Parent and Caregiver Mental Health Through Universal Postnatal Nurse Home Visiting: Intervention Effects and Mechanisms of Action.
Baziyants GA, Dodge KA, Goodman WB … +3 more , Bai Y, Murphy RA, O'Donnell K
Prev Sci · 2025 Aug · PMID 40748529 · Full text
Poor mental health affects millions of parents and caregivers each year. In the absence of intervention, the duration and magnitude of mental health symptoms can have an adverse impact on parent and caregiver well-being,...
Poor mental health affects millions of parents and caregivers each year. In the absence of intervention, the duration and magnitude of mental health symptoms can have an adverse impact on parent and caregiver well-being, parenting practices, and subsequent children's development. Although home visiting is hypothesized to impact parent mental health, most studies do not demonstrate sustained benefits over time. Family Connects (FC) is a short-term, universal postnatal nurse home-visiting program designed to support children and families. Evaluations of FC demonstrate 6-month impacts on parent mental health, but longer-term (5-years post intervention) benefits have not been investigated, nor the potential mechanisms of the sustained effect. Every resident birthing family in Durham, NC, over an 18-month period (total n = 4777) was randomly assigned by birth date to FC or control condition. Implementation was strong, allowing an intent-to-treat evaluation of the model on maternal mental health. At infant age 60 months, a random, representative sample of parents (FC n = 201; control n = 200) was interviewed by condition-blind researchers with two screening instruments, the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and the Mental Health Continuum scale (MHC - SF). Regression analyses with relevant covariates tested hypothesized (one-tailed) effects on these self-report scales. Parents randomly assigned to FC were significantly (p < .02) less likely to receive a depression score in the clinical range, reported a lower number of depressive symptoms (p < .04), and received better scores for social well-being (p < .04). Quality of the home environment (p < 0.10) was a significant mediator of intervention impact on later parent mental health.
Classes of Caregiver-Student Responsiveness to a Self-Directed Handbook Preventive Intervention and Their Associated Impact on First-Year Student Substance Use.
Bruzios KE, Cooper BR, Duckworth J … +2 more , Hill CM, Hill L
Prev Sci · 2025 Aug · PMID 40745513 · Publisher ↗
The novelty of the college transition places older adolescents and emerging adults at increased risk for engaging in substance misuse. Preventive interventions such as First Years Away from Home, a self-directed handbook...
The novelty of the college transition places older adolescents and emerging adults at increased risk for engaging in substance misuse. Preventive interventions such as First Years Away from Home, a self-directed handbook intervention, can teach caregivers effective strategies for preparing their student for this transition. Responsiveness (i.e., participants' engagement and interest in an intervention), is one implementation dimension that can impact participant outcomes and can be improved by selecting appropriate implementation strategies (i.e., methods that aim to improve implementation outcomes; IS). Using a person-centered analytic approach, this study examines classes of responsiveness to First Years Away from Home among caregivers of first-year college students with data from 543 dyads randomly assigned to two intervention conditions (Handbook, Handbook +) who were exposed to two ISs in the randomized controlled trial. Handbook and Handbook + caregivers had access to a Transition Support Specialist (IS #1) the summer prior to students moving to campus, and Handbook + caregivers received booster messages (IS #2) to remind them of the handbook content throughout the students' first year in college. A multiple group latent class analysis was conducted to identify classes of responsiveness and determine whether the classes differ by Handbook condition. Responsiveness classes were then used to predict any past 30-day student alcohol, cannabis, or simultaneous alcohol and cannabis use during their first semester. We identified four distinct classes of responsiveness among caregiver-student dyads (Non-Responders, Discontinued Average Responders, Average Responders, High Responders). Moreover, class membership varied across Handbook conditions and Average Responders reported any drinking significantly less than Non-Responders in the Handbook + condition. Implications for implementation of self-directed interventions and addressing varying ways participants respond to interventions are discussed. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03227809.
Family-Centered Prevention Attenuates the Association Between Structural Racism Risk and Black Adolescents' Low Self-regulation and Externalizing Behaviors: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.
Kogan SM, Reck AJ, Tiwari B … +9 more , Thapha JR, Carter S, Oshri A, Koss K, Ahn SJ, Beach S, Fisher S, Smith E, Zhang L
Prev Sci · 2025 Aug · PMID 40676489 · Full text
Converging evidence underscores the influence of structural racism on the emergence of externalizing behaviors among Black youth. Recent studies suggest that family-centered prevention may attenuate some of the effects o...
Converging evidence underscores the influence of structural racism on the emergence of externalizing behaviors among Black youth. Recent studies suggest that family-centered prevention may attenuate some of the effects of structural racism on youth mental health. Hypotheses were tested regarding the potential of the Strong African American Families (SAAF) preventive intervention (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03590132) to (a) attenuate the influence of structural racism on low self-regulation, (b) attenuate the influence of low self-regulation on externalizing behaviors, and (c) disrupt the pathway from structural racism to externalizing behaviors via low self-regulation. Hypotheses were tested with data from 472 Black youth (mean age = 11.61 at pre-test) and their caregivers participating in a randomized prevention trial. Structural racism was indexed according to a cumulative risk model based on census-level indicators of Black-White disparities in labor force participation, housing, educational attainment, poverty, and a measure of racial segregation. Consistent with hypotheses, we found that SAAF buffered the influence of structural racism risk on low self-regulation. A significant buffering effect was not detected on the path from low self-regulation to externalizing behaviors. Conditional indirect effect analysis suggested that attending SAAF disrupted the pathway linking structural racism to externalizing behaviors via low self-regulation. Study findings underscore the potential benefits of widespread dissemination of family-centered prevention targeting evidence-based protective processes designed for Black youth. Clinical Trial: Registered at Clinicaltrials.gov, NCT03590132, July 5, 2018.
Adoption and Perceptions of the College Alcohol Intervention Matrix (CollegeAIM) Among Professionals in a Higher Education Statewide Prevention Coalition.
Helle AC, Masters J, Washington KT … +4 more , Sher KJ, Cronce JM, Kilmer JR, Hawley KM
Prev Sci · 2025 Aug · PMID 40637810 · Full text
Alcohol prevention research for college students has resulted in numerous efficacious approaches, but the timeline from development to implementation is long. The College Alcohol Intervention Matrix (CollegeAIM) is a dis...
Alcohol prevention research for college students has resulted in numerous efficacious approaches, but the timeline from development to implementation is long. The College Alcohol Intervention Matrix (CollegeAIM) is a dissemination and implementation tool developed in 2015 and updated in 2019 to aid in the selection of evidence-based alcohol prevention strategies for higher education settings. The present study is the first to examine the use and perceptions of the CollegeAIM tool. Student affairs professionals (N=142) across 23 campuses in a statewide prevention coalition participated in a survey examining CollegeAIM with a focus on implementation outcomes and areas for actionable change. Campuses also provided their prevention strategic plans. Survey data were analyzed via calculation of descriptive statistics. Strategic plans were analyzed via content analysis techniques. Approximately one-third (38%) of participants had heard of the CollegeAIM, but many reported the tool felt unfamiliar and were largely unaware if their departments used the tool to select strategies (16% reported personal use). Over half considered CollegeAIM to be feasible, appropriate, and acceptable for selecting strategies, and CollegeAIM was largely considered to be comprehensive, helpful, and user-friendly. Content analysis of strategic plans revealed that independent of CollegeAIM use, many strategies listed in CollegeAIM were planned for implementation, including many supported by weak evidence. Within one statewide prevention coalition, the CollegeAIM is well-received though is not as widely used by higher education professionals as it could be and has potential for increased uptake with additional dissemination efforts. Recommendations for CollegeAIM use and training are provided.
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