Richard Spoth

Analyzing data from experimental studies: A latent variable structural equation modeling approach.

This article illustrates the use of structural equation modeling (SEM) procedures with latent variables to analyze data from experimental studies. These procedures allow the researcher to remove the biasing effects of random and correlated measurement error on the outcomes of the experiment and to examine processes that may account for changes in the outcome variables that are observed. Analyses of data from a Project Family study, an experimental intervention project with rural families that strives to improve parenting skills, are presented to illustrate the use of these modeling procedures. Issues that arise in applying SEM procedures, such as sample size and distributional characteristics of the measures, are discussed.

Direct and indirect latent-variable parenting outcomes of two universal family-focused preventive interventions: Extending a public health-oriented research base.

Recent literature underscores the need for studies of family-based preventive interventions oriented toward public health objectives. This article illustrates a program evaluation approach for the study of family intervention outcomes in general populations. Thirty-three rural schools were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: the Preparing for the Drug-Free Years Program (PDFY), the Iowa Strengthening Families Program (ISFP), and a minimal-contact control group. Self-report and observational data collected from 523 families were used to develop measurement models of 3 latent parenting constructs that included measurement method effects. Analyses were conducted to ensure initial and attrition-related group equivalencies and to assess school effects. Structural equation models of the hypothesized sequence of direct and indirect effects for both PDFY and ISFP were then fit to the data. All hypothesized effects were significant for both interventions. The discussion addresses the potential public health benefits of evaluation research on universal preventive interventions.

PROSPER Community–University Partnership Model for Public Education Systems: Capacity-Building for Evidence-Based, Competence-Building Prevention

This paper presents a model to guide capacity-building in state public education systems for delivery of evidence-based family and youth interventions—interventions that are designed to bolster youth competencies, learning, and positive development overall. Central to this effort is a linking capacity agents framework that builds upon longstanding state public education infrastructures, and a partnership model called PROSPER or PROmoting School–community–university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience. The paper presents an overview of the evolving partnership model and summarizes positive results of its implementation over a 12-year period in an ongoing project.

Research on Family Engagement in Preventive Interventions: Toward Improved Use of Scientific Findings in Primary Prevention Practice

Effective strategies for family engagement are essential in the implementation of models directed toward the application of research findings to primary prevention practice. Although there has been limited investigation of family engagement in preventive interventions for general populations, the research has yielded several preliminary findings that warrant further study. Notably, families in eligible general populations can differ to a significant degree in intervention preferences and beliefs that influence their motivation to engage in interventions or in intervention evaluations. Also, a number of stable family member characteristics, such as internalizing/externalizing problems, have not been predictive of family engagement. Educational attainment has been predictive, but the differences between participants and nonparticipations have tended to be small. In addition, there are several common barriers to engagement, including family scheduling conflicts, that place practical limits on participation levels and need to be carefully addressed through engagement techniques. Collectively, findings from the literature suggest directions for the development of effective engagement strategies; also, they underscore the value of family engagement research in science-based prevention practices.

Preventive Interventions Addressing Underage Drinking: State of the Evidence and Steps Toward Public Health Impact

The epidemiological features of underage drinking and evidence of its social, health, and economic consequences suggest compelling reasons for the development and dissemination of effective preventive interventions. To clarify the nature and extent of the current evidence base on preventive interventions addressing underage drinking, a review of the literature was conducted through extensive searches of the research literature on outcome evaluations, existing reviews of this body of outcome research (N = 25), and summary reports of evidence on specific interventions. More than 400 interventions were identified and screened, and the evidence for 127 was reviewed. Criteria for the evaluation of evidence were established for intervention studies with alcohol-specific outcome measures for 3 developmental periods (<10, 10–15, and 16 to ≥20 years of age). Ultimately, 12 interventions met criteria for “most promising” evidence and 29 met criteria for “mixed or emerging” evidence. Conducting this review revealed clear advances in the number of evidence-based interventions available and the quality of outcome research; however, much work remains to achieve greater public health impact through evidence-based interventions. This work should consider (1) the great need for intervention research related to understudied developmental phases, intervention domains (eg, family, school, community, and media), and populations (eg, early tweens, late teens, young adults not attending college, and nonmajority populations); (2) the critical importance of addressing key issues in research design and methods (eg, limited longitudinal studies, replication studies, and dissemination research); and (3) the need for improved consistency in application of evidence and reporting standards. Finally, we recommend the application of emerging consumer-oriented and community-participatory models for intervention development and research, designed to increase the likelihood of “real-world” public health impact through improved translation of intervention science into practice.

Barriers to Participation in Family Skills Preventive Interventions and Their Evaluations: A Replication and Extension

BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATION IN FAMILY SKILLS PREVENTIVE INTERVENTIONS AND THEIR EVALUATIONS A REPLICATION AND EXTENSION* Richard Spoth, Cleve Redmond, Cathy Hockaday, and Chung Yeol Shin** This study extends a line of programmatic research on families who decline participation in intervention and assessment components of family focused prevention projects. Parents responding to a brief telephone interview (N = 459) identified the most important of 28 barriers concerning project assessments, intervention-related time demands and logistic requirements, beliefs and attitudes about interventions, and family member influences. Results demonstrated that several time-related factors, logistic requirements, and family member influences were important barriers. Findings also showed that sociodemographic factors were associated with unfavorable attitudes about interventions and their assessments. Implications for the development of ef fective recruitment strategies and for future research are presented. This article addresses several issues raised by the literature on barriers to participation in preventive interventions. The literature indicates the importance of gathering data specific to the type of intervention and the type of consumer population targeted by the intervention because barriers can vary with different interventions and can also vary among consumer groups (Carter, Elward, Malmgren, Martin, & Larson, 1991; Lutz, 1989; Pirie et al., 1986; Spoth & Redmond, 1993a, 1993b, 1994, Vernon, Laville, & Jackson, 1990; Wilson, 1990). In addition, this literature suggests that it is important to gather detailed information on a variety of barriers related to practical concerns (e.g., time demands and logistic requirements), social influences (e.g., family member preferences), and attitudinal factors (e.g., perceived intervention efficacy). Nonetheless, there has been a dearth of research directed toward these barriers to participation in a particular intervention of interest-family skills preventive interventions-offered to a particular consumer population of interest, namely, rural families. Further, there has been limited research on barriers to family preventive interventions that are embedded in an evaluation project. There are additional participation barriers to interventions that are being offered as part of an evaluation study (e.g., anticipated invasions of privacy) and these barriers also warrant further study (Coie et al., 1991; Orden, Dyer, & Lui, 1990; Spoth & Molgaard, 1993). To address the issues raised in the relevant barriers literature, the study reported in this article gathered detailed information on a comprehensive set of research-based barriers to participation in assessment and intervention components of a family skills preventive intervention evaluation project. It also examined the relationship between these barriers and parent sociodemographic characteristics. A key interest was the barriers data that can be used to guide the development of effective recruitment strategies, such as data concerning scheduling conflicts or time demands, perceived invasions of privacy, perceived susceptibility to child problem behaviors, and spousal influences. In an earlier retrospective study of participation barriers (Spoth & Redmond, 1993b), data were collected from nonparticipants during a recruitment telephone interview and via a subsequent mail survey. Data were obtained from parents representing 167 families who refused to participate in a family-focused prevention program evaluation study. Parents from refusing families responded to an open-ended interviewer question about their familys decision not to participate in the study. Ninetyseven (59%) of these parents also responded to a brief mail survey concerning 10 reasons for refusal, using a yes/no response format. The present study incorporated a number of substantive and methodological improvements over the previous study. …

Brief Family Intervention Effects on Adolescent Substance Initiation: School-Level Growth Curve Analyses 6 Years Following Baseline

This study examines the effects of 2 brief family-focused interventions on the trajectories of substance initiation over a period of 6 years following a baseline assessment. The 2 interventions, designed for general-population families of adolescents, were the 7-session Iowa Strengthening Families Program (ISFP) (Molgaard & Spoth, 2001) and the 5-session Preparing for the Drug Free Years Program (PDFY) (Catalano, Kosterman, Haggerty, Hawkins, & Spoth, 1999). Thirty-three rural public schools were randomly assigned to the ISFP, the PDFY, or a minimal-contact control condition. The authors evaluated the curvilinear growth observed in school-level measures of initiation using a logistic growth curve analysis. Alcohol and tobacco composite use indices--as well as lifetime use of alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana--and lifetime drunkenness, were examined. Significant intervention-control differences were observed, indicating favorable delays in initiation in the intervention groups.

Assessing a public health approach to delay onset and progression of adolescent substance use: latent transition and log-linear analyses of longitudinal family preventive intervention outcomes.

This study examined the effects of the Iowa Strengthening Families Program (ISFP) and the Preparing for the Drug-Free Years program (PDFY) on young adolescent transitions from nonuse of substances to initiation and progression of substance use. Analyses incorporated 3 waves of data collected over a 2.5-year period from 329 rural young adolescents. Outcomes were analyzed by using log-linear models that incorporated substance use status frequencies derived from latent transition analyses. Effects on delayed substance use initiation were shown for both the ISFP and the PDFY at a 2-year follow-up. Also at this follow-up, the PDFY showed effects on delayed progression of use among those previously reporting initiation.

Evaluation of a social contextual model of delinquency: a cross-study replication.

The present study empirically examined three theoretical approaches designed to predict risk for delinquency during adolescence: an individual difference perspective, a social interactional model, and a social contextual approach. Hypotheses derived from each perspective were tested using two independent samples of early adolescents followed over a 4-year period. Six-hundred sixty-seven children (in sixth grade at Time 1), and their parents comprised the first sample (Project Family); and 451 children (in seventh grade at Time 1), their parents, and a close-aged sibling made up the second sample (Iowa Youth and Families Project). Results from a series of structural equation models suggested that a social contextual approach provided the best fit with the data across both samples and genders. Consistent with the social contextual approach, results indicated that a lack of nurturant and involved parenting indirectly predicted delinquency by increasing childrens earlier antisocial behavior and deviant peer relationships; child antisocial behavior also predicted similar decreases in nurturant parenting over time. Both child antisocial behavior and deviant peer affiliations at Time 2 predicted delinquency 1 year later. Implications for theoretical development and future research priorities are discussed.

Addressing core challenges for the next generation of type 2 translation research and systems: the translation science to population impact (TSci Impact) framework.

Evidence-based preventive interventions developed over the past two decades represent great potential for enhancing public health and well-being. Research confirming the limited extent to which these interventions have been broadly and effectively implemented, however, indicates much progress is needed to achieve population-level impact. In part, progress requires Type 2 translation research that investigates the complex processes and systems through which evidence-based interventions are adopted, implemented, and sustained on a large scale, with a strong orientation toward devising empirically-driven strategies for increasing their population impact. In this article, we address two core challenges to the advancement of T2 translation research: (1) building infrastructure and capacity to support systems-oriented scaling up of evidence-based interventions, with well-integrated practice-oriented T2 research, and (2) developing an agenda and improving research methods for advancing T2 translation science. We also summarize a heuristic “Translation Science to Population Impact (TSci Impact) Framework.” It articulates key considerations in addressing the core challenges, with three components that represent: (1) four phases of translation functions to be investigated (pre-adoption, adoption, implementation, and sustainability); (2) the multiple contexts in which translation occurs, ranging from community to national levels; and (3) necessary practice and research infrastructure supports. Discussion of the framework addresses the critical roles of practitioner–scientist partnerships and networks, governmental agencies and policies at all levels, plus financing partnerships and structures, all required for both infrastructure development and advances in the science. The article concludes with two sets of recommended action steps that could provide impetus for advancing the next generation of T2 translation science and, in turn, potentially enhance the health and well-being of subsequent generations of youth and families.