Literature
259 publications on Communities That Care and the risk and protective factor approach, with links to the originals.
259 of 259
| Year | Title | Link | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Delawalla, M. L. M., Rhew, I. C., Martinez, G., Skinner, M., Oesterle, S., & Guttmannova, K. | StudyAssessment of Measurement Equivalence of the Communities That Care Brief Depression Scale by Immigrant Generation Status in Latinx Youth | Study | English | |
SummaryMeasurement-equivalence study of the Communities That Care Brief Depression Scale (CTC-BDS), the short screener for depressive symptoms carried in the CTC youth survey. The sample of 1,779 young people – 17.8% Latinx children of immigrants, 9.3% Latinx children of non-immigrants and 72.8% non-Latinx white youth – was surveyed in Grades 6, 8, 10 and 12. One-factor confirmatory factor analyses tested configural, metric and scalar equivalence across the three groups at each grade and across grades, using individual and incremental fit statistics. The one-factor structure held, and the scale showed measurement equivalence across ethnicity, immigrant generation and the course of adolescence. The authors conclude that the CTC-BDS can be used in community monitoring and research to compare depressive symptoms between Latinx youth of different immigrant generations and white youth. For European coalitions serving diverse populations the study models the invariance testing that should precede group comparisons on any survey scale. Read more →CitationDelawalla, M. L. M., Rhew, I. C., Martinez, G., Skinner, M., Oesterle, S., & Guttmannova, K. (2026). Assessment of Measurement Equivalence of the Communities That Care Brief Depression Scale by Immigrant Generation Status in Latinx Youth. Journal of Community Psychology, 54(2), Article e70098. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.70098 | |||||
| 2026 | Health Research Board. Irish National Focal Point to the European Drugs Agency | ReportFocal Point Ireland: national report for 2025 – Prevention | Report | English | |
SummaryPrevention workbook of Ireland's national report to the European Union Drugs Agency for 2025, compiled by the Health Research Board as Irish focal point (authors Lucy Dillon, Brian Galvin, Ciara Guiney, Suzi Lyons and Sean Millar) and written in September 2025. It follows the EUDA template: national profile, policy and organisation (T1.1), prevention interventions by environmental, universal, selective and indicated level (T1.2), quality assurance (T1.3), trends and new developments. Communities That Care appears in three places: the funding section notes that CTC is under way in one area and that survey data collection had not yet begun, alongside Planet Youth in five task-force regions; the universal-prevention section records the first Irish cycle from January 2025 to the end of 2026; and the new-developments section describes the Newbridge pilot led by SURF with support from the Department of Health, the Department of Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, and Kildare County Council. The workbook also documents the UNODC Review of Prevention Systems in Ireland, the Safe Futures project and the drafting of a new national drugs strategy. A monitoring report; it contains no evaluation of CTC. Read more →CitationHealth Research Board. Irish National Focal Point to the European Drugs Agency (2026). Focal Point Ireland: national report for 2025 – Prevention. Health Research Board. Source: https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/25264/1/2025%20Prevention.pdf | |||||
| 2026 | Lutterbach, S., & Beelmann, A. | StudyRadicalisation as deviant social development: Evidence from the 2024 Communities That Care Youth Survey in Lower Saxony | Study | English | |
SummaryCross-sectional study using the 2024 Communities That Care Youth Survey in Lower Saxony, Germany, to test the social-developmental model of radicalisation. The sample comprised 5,721 adolescents and young adults aged 13–24 (mean 15.6). Structural equation models estimated the unique contribution of four proximal radicalisation processes – antisocial attitudes and behaviour, prejudice, identity problems, and political or religious ideology – to two indicators of extremism: extreme political attitudes and affinity for political violence. All four processes were significant predictors of both indicators, with political/religious ideology the strongest across models. Multi-group analyses by gender, age and migration background revealed systematic differences in the predictive pathways, which the authors read as evidence that developmental stage and social background shape how radicalisation unfolds. Because the data are a single cross-section, causal claims are not possible. For European CTC practice the study shows the routine youth survey, run with the Lower Saxony State Prevention Council, informing extremism prevention alongside its usual purposes. Read more →CitationLutterbach, S., & Beelmann, A. (2026). Radicalisation as deviant social development: Evidence from the 2024 Communities That Care Youth Survey in Lower Saxony. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 90, 102182. DOI: 10.1016/j.avb.2026.102182 | |||||
| 2026 | Röding, D., von Holt, I., Decker, L., & Walter, U. | Study„Capacity building“ an Schulen – Schullevelanalysen zur Effektivität der Intervention WEITBLICK | Study | German | |
SummaryPeer-reviewed study (in German) testing whether Weitblick, which transfers the Communities That Care system to the individual school, builds a school’s capacity for science-based prevention. In a sequential design the control group is formed from the baseline data of schools that start later: of 51 schools recruited between September 2023 and March 2026, 29 entered the control and 11 the intervention group. Several key informants per school were surveyed every two years (n = 356); responses were aggregated to school level and analysed with paired t-tests. On the primary outcome, adoption of science-based prevention, only the intervention group improved (g = 0.82; 95% CI 0.15–1.45). Cross-sector cooperation also improved only there, though the confidence interval just includes zero (g = 0.66; 95% CI −0.03–1.45). Social norms worsened in the intervention group (g = −0.93; 95% CI −1.91 to −0.15), but also in the control group. The effects are of the order reported for CTC and support the school adaptation; few schools and a non-randomised design limit the conclusions. Read more →CitationRöding, D., von Holt, I., Decker, L., & Walter, U. (2026). „Capacity building“ an Schulen – Schullevelanalysen zur Effektivität der Intervention WEITBLICK. Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung. DOI: 10.1007/s11553-026-01352-6 | |||||
| 2026 | Röding, D., von Holt, I., Decker, L., Walter, U. | StudyEarly Effects of Communities That Care on System Transformation: a Non-randomized Community Trial in Germany | Study | English | |
SummaryNon-randomised community trial (2020–2023; DRKS00022819) testing whether the system-level effects seen in the US Community Youth Development Study replicate in Germany, under the constraints of the COVID-19 pandemic. Twenty-two a-priori matched community pairs in four federal states were enrolled and key informants were surveyed twice in an open-cohort design (318 respondents from 18 intervention and 11 comparison communities). Outcomes were adoption of a science-based approach to prevention (primary), cross-sector collaboration and collaboration on concrete prevention activities, analysed in three-level mixed models and extended to account for the uneven implementation progress across intervention communities. Compared with comparison communities, the primary outcome and prevention collaboration showed no significant change and cross-sector collaboration declined non-significantly; implementation progress was unrelated to any outcome, and sensitivity analyses on panel and non-imputed data agreed. The authors conclude that no system-transformation effect was detectable and recommend longer follow-up given how little implementation was possible during the pandemic. Previously circulated as a preprint. Read more →CitationRöding, D., von Holt, I., Decker, L., Walter, U. (2026). Early Effects of Communities That Care on System Transformation: a Non-randomized Community Trial in Germany. Prevention Science. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-026-01961-9 | |||||
| 2026 | Serban-Dragan, F. B., Bonilla, C., Gaitan, A., Scarlett, A., Paley, V., Leve, L. D., St. George, S. M., & Brown, E. C. | StudyFactors That Contribute to the Contextual Adaptation of Communities That Care for Romania: A Thematic Key Informant Analysis | Study | English | |
SummaryQualitative key-informant study exploring what would help or hinder adapting Communities That Care for Romania, where illicit drug use among young people is rising and prevention infrastructure is thin. The authors interviewed 15 international CTC experts and then validated the themes with nine Romanian community stakeholders. Anticipated obstacles were a shortage of evidence-based interventions, scarce resources, cultural differences and resistance to change. Experts identified improved community readiness, continuous adaptation, favourable facilitator and champion characteristics, and community engagement as conditions for success. Romanian stakeholders suggested that rural communities might offer particularly favourable conditions and stressed partnerships that reflect local groups’ needs and attention to Romanian values – strong family ties, religious traditions, respect for authority – alongside wider experiences such as migration, funding limits and long-standing distrust of institutions. The findings rest on expert and stakeholder opinion, not on an implemented pilot. They are framed as relevant to the Balkans and other European countries new to prevention science. Read more →CitationSerban-Dragan, F. B., Bonilla, C., Gaitan, A., Scarlett, A., Paley, V., Leve, L. D., St. George, S. M., & Brown, E. C. (2026). Factors That Contribute to the Contextual Adaptation of Communities That Care for Romania: A Thematic Key Informant Analysis. Journal of Prevention. DOI: 10.1007/s10935-026-00914-w | |||||
| 2026 | Serdar Čerpnjak, K. | ThesisDoprinos rizičnih i zaštitnih čimbenika iz okruženja zajednice i obitelji u objašnjenju korištenja sredstava ovisnosti kod mladih | Thesis | Croatian | |
SummaryDoctoral thesis on how family and community protective factors modify the relation between family and community risk factors and adolescent alcohol and cannabis use, within the Social Development Strategy. The data come from the Croatian arm of the EU project Frontline Politeia: 733 pupils (47 per cent girls) of three secondary schools in Samobor completed the Croatian CTC questionnaire for children and young people (Mihić et al., 2010) in January 2023. Confirmatory factor and principal component analyses reduced the scales to six predictors, followed by ordinal regression and path analysis. Community disorganisation with availability of substances and weapons, and family history of antisocial behaviour with parental attitudes favourable to substance use and antisocial behaviour, predicted past-month alcohol use; for cannabis the same community factor and, in the family, antisocial history and parental attitudes were risks, while poor supervision and conflict lost significance in the moderation test. Community opportunities and rewards for prosocial involvement did not protect against either substance; family attachment with family opportunities and rewards protected against cannabis but not alcohol. No moderation effects were found, which the author reads as evidence that protection in one setting does not offset risks from another, supporting multi-component community strategies. Read more →CitationSerdar Čerpnjak, K. (2026). Doprinos rizičnih i zaštitnih čimbenika iz okruženja zajednice i obitelji u objašnjenju korištenja sredstava ovisnosti kod mladih [Doctoral thesis, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences; mentor Martina Ferić; defended 24 June 2026]. Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet. Source: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:158:203997 | |||||
| 2026 | Thurow, C. F., Franzoloso, T., Silva, G. G., Corrêa, A. de O., Gentil, C. G., Brown, E. C., Noto, A. R., & Schneider, D. R. | StudyCommunity readiness in the system pilot of "Communities That Care" in Brazil | Study | English | |
SummaryQuantitative, descriptive cross-sectional study of community readiness in the Brazilian pilot of Communities That Care. Community readiness combines leaders’ perception of the need for change in their territory with the local capacity to bring change about. The authors assessed it with 34 community leaders in São Paulo and 36 in Florianópolis. Results showed difficulties in driving change in both places and structural differences between the two communities, yet leaders’ opinions within each community were cohesive. There was unanimous recognition that drug use is a risk behaviour and that drugs are easily accessible locally, and a perceived urgency to implement preventive programmes, although such programmes were not well known. The authors conclude that investing in readiness assessment can be crucial preparation for community interventions. The samples are small and the design cross-sectional, limiting generalisation. For European sites the study is a practical example of using readiness measurement as a Phase 1 diagnostic before committing a coalition. Read more →CitationThurow, C. F., Franzoloso, T., Silva, G. G., Corrêa, A. de O., Gentil, C. G., Brown, E. C., Noto, A. R., & Schneider, D. R. (2026). Community readiness in the system pilot of "Communities That Care" in Brazil. Psicologia: Teoria e Pesquisa, 42, Article e42407. DOI: 10.1590/0102.3772e42407.en | |||||
| 2026 | Toumbourou, J. W., Osborn, A., Varcoe, J., Smith, R., Doery, E., Kremer, P., Abraham, C., Benstead, M., Coomber, K., & Rowland, B. | StudyDesign and Feasibility Trial of Interventions to Reduce Young Adult Alcohol Use with Communities That Care Coalitions | Study | English | |
SummaryFeasibility study from Victoria, Australia, extending Communities That Care coalitions to a group they rarely target: young adults aged 18–29. Three intervention components were piloted in three municipalities and community trends monitored. In 2017 a screening-and-brief-intervention campaign ran through youth-serving organisations in Warrnambool; a randomised waitlist trial with 30 staff in 15 organisations found significantly higher staff confidence (effect size 0.8 SD) and a non-significant rise in screening behaviour (ES 0.4). From 2017 to 2019 revised materials were scaled through 102 organisations across Warrnambool, Geelong and Cardinia, with 4,500 brochures distributed and 33,184 online views. In 2019 monitoring of 12 Geelong bars, with feedback letters, saw a non-significant fall from 92% to 83% of outlets serving intoxicated patrons (ES 0.4). Alcohol-related hospitalisation among 18–29-year-olds fell 15.1% in the target municipalities from 2016/17 to 2019/20 while the state trend rose 1.5%. The authors present these as promising design features that need testing in more rigorous community trials. Read more →CitationToumbourou, J. W., Osborn, A., Varcoe, J., Smith, R., Doery, E., Kremer, P., Abraham, C., Benstead, M., Coomber, K., & Rowland, B. (2026). Design and Feasibility Trial of Interventions to Reduce Young Adult Alcohol Use with Communities That Care Coalitions. Prevention Science. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-026-01950-y | |||||
| 2026 | Valenzuela, N., Trujillo, A., & González, M. R. | StudyParental Warmth as a Moderator Between Family Conflict and the use of Corporal Punishment: Adolescents’ Perspectives | Study | English | |
SummaryCross-sectional study from Colombia examining, from adolescents’ own perspective, whether parental warmth weakens the link between family conflict and corporal punishment. A sample of 3,279 adolescents aged 10–19 from six municipalities in the department of Cundinamarca completed the Communities That Care Youth Survey. Multiple linear regression and moderation analysis showed that higher parental warmth buffers the association: as perceived warmth increases, the effect of family conflict on the use of physical punishment decreases. The authors draw implications for interventions and public policy aimed at reducing harsh discipline in Colombia. Because the design is cross-sectional and relies on adolescent report, the direction of the effects cannot be established. The study illustrates a secondary use of CTC survey data that European sites could replicate: the family-domain scales gathered for community planning also allow analysis of protective processes within families, here pointing to warmth as a modifiable lever. Read more →CitationValenzuela, N., Trujillo, A., & González, M. R. (2026). Parental Warmth as a Moderator Between Family Conflict and the use of Corporal Punishment: Adolescents’ Perspectives. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 19(3), 1743–1753. DOI: 10.1007/s40653-026-00867-6 | |||||
| 2025 | Bremer, K., Brender, R., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. | Conference paperGrüne Liste Prävention – Ein Evidenzregister für wirksame Maßnahmen zur Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference contribution (in German) in a congress supplement of Das Gesundheitswesen by the Hannover Medical School team that runs the Grüne Liste Prävention together with the Lower Saxony Crime Prevention Council. The published abstract is one sentence: the register offers an overview of currently available prevention and health-promotion measures whose effectiveness has been tested, with a focus on the psychosocial health of children and adolescents. No figures are reported. The contribution belongs to a series of conference reports by the same group that document how the register works and where it is heading: programmes are admitted on criteria for concept, implementation and evaluation quality, graded into evidence levels and searchable by risk and protective factors, and the register is being extended to nutrition, physical activity and structural prevention. For European readers it marks the register’s current position as the German counterpart to Blueprints and Xchange; the detailed analyses are in the companion entries of this bibliography. Read more →CitationBremer, K., Brender, R., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. (2025). Grüne Liste Prävention – Ein Evidenzregister für wirksame Maßnahmen zur Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung. Das Gesundheitswesen, 87. | |||||
| 2025 | Decker, L., Röding, D., von Holt, I., & Walter, U. | Conference paperMeasuring school capacity at health promoting schools: a validation study | Conference paper | English | |
SummaryConference abstract from the European Public Health Conference 2025 presenting a German-language instrument for measuring school capacity for prevention and health promotion, adapted from an existing community-capacity tool. The instrument covers five constructs: adoption of a science-based prevention strategy (an index of 21 items), inter-sectoral collaboration (10 items), an integrated whole-school strategy (10 items), support for prevention (4 items) and social norms (8 items). Within the quasi-experimental Weitblick study, 108 key informants from 20 schools have been interviewed since March 2024. Preliminary results show acceptable to good internal consistency (α = .732–.831). At school level the integrated strategy correlates with support for prevention (r = .652) and with adoption of a science-based strategy (r = .668). The share of variance attributable to differences between schools ranges from 34.8% for the integrated strategy to 94.8% for adoption. Confirmatory factor analyses are still to come. The tool matters for school-based offshoots of CTC in Europe, which need capacity measures of their own. Read more →CitationDecker, L., Röding, D., von Holt, I., & Walter, U. (2025). Measuring school capacity at health promoting schools: a validation study. European Journal of Public Health, 35(Supplement_4), Article ckaf161.1676. DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckaf161.1676 | |||||
| 2025 | Decker, L., von Holt, I., Ünlü, S., Walter, U., & Röding, D. | StudyEarly Effects of Communities That Care on the Adoption and Implementation Fidelity of Evidence-Based Prevention Programs in Communities: Results from a Quasi-experimental Study | Study | English | |
SummaryQuasi-experimental study from the German CTC-EFF trial asking whether Communities That Care makes municipalities adopt more evidence-based prevention programmes (EBPs). Twenty-two intervention and 22 matched comparison communities in four federal states were surveyed twice (T0 2021/22, T1 2023/24) on which EBPs were running, how many people they reached and how faithfully they were delivered; 17 intervention and 12 comparison communities took part at baseline, and 15 and 11 entered the paired analyses. The groups did not differ at baseline. In CTC communities the mean number of EBPs per 10,000 residents rose from 3.57 to 8.57 (p = 0.004); in comparison communities the rise from 1.88 to 3.41 was not significant (p = 0.089). Reach grew in both groups without reaching significance, and fidelity stayed high throughout. As the first German outcome paper on CTC it suggests the system accelerates EBP uptake, with the caveats of possible confounding and a short observation window that calls for longer follow-up. Read more →CitationDecker, L., von Holt, I., Ünlü, S., Walter, U., & Röding, D. (2025). Early Effects of Communities That Care on the Adoption and Implementation Fidelity of Evidence-Based Prevention Programs in Communities: Results from a Quasi-experimental Study. Prevention Science, 26(6), 873–885. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-025-01823-w | |||||
| 2025 | Dillon, L. | ArticleCommunities That Care in Ireland | Article | English | |
SummaryBulletin article in Drugnet Ireland announcing the first implementation of Communities That Care in Ireland, in Newbridge, County Kildare, from 2025. It is led by the South Western Regional Drug & Alcohol Task Force's Substance Use Regional Forum (SURF) with support from the Department of Health, the Department of Justice and Kildare County Council. The article outlines the model's origins with Hawkins and Catalano, the community-coalition strategy, the Social Development Strategy and the five phases as summarised in the Health Research Board's 2024 evidence review on place-based responses (Pratschke et al.), from which it also takes the description of typical challenges: engaging diverse stakeholders, implementing several programmes at once with quality, and securing long-term funding. On the Irish pilot it records that the initial cycle is planned from January 2025 to the end of 2026, that a coordinator works within the Foróige Drug Prevention & Education Initiative, and that a key-leader orientation meeting was held on 26 February 2025 with Tusla, An Garda Síochána, the county council, education bodies, Foróige and local schools, delivered with the Center for Communities That Care. A descriptive announcement; it reports no survey or outcome data. Read more →CitationDillon, L. (2025). Communities That Care in Ireland. Drugnet Ireland, (91), 32–34. Source: https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/43357/ | |||||
| 2025 | Fleming, C. M., Oesterle, S., & Catalano, R. F. | StudyRural Adolescent Gang Involvement and Associated Outcomes in Early Adulthood | Study | English | |
SummaryLongitudinal study of gang involvement outside big cities, using panel data from 2,002 young people in the 12 rural and small-town control communities of the Community Youth Development Study, the community-randomised trial of Communities That Care. Repeated-measures latent profile analyses, run separately for males and females, sorted adolescents in Grades 7–12 into gang members, gang-associated youth and non-affiliated youth. Logistic regressions then compared outcomes at age 19. Both gang members and gang-associated adolescents, of either gender, had significantly greater odds of delinquency, substance use and poorer well-being than non-affiliated youth. The authors conclude that prevention should include gang-associated young people, not only formal members. Only control communities were analysed, so the paper says nothing about CTC’s own effect; its relevance lies in showing that gang-related risk is real in rural areas and that CTC survey panels can be mined to sharpen prevention targets. Read more →CitationFleming, C. M., Oesterle, S., & Catalano, R. F. (2025). Rural Adolescent Gang Involvement and Associated Outcomes in Early Adulthood. Justice Quarterly, 43(4), 979–1000. DOI: 10.1080/07418825.2025.2594186 | |||||
| 2025 | Franzoloso, T., Thurow, C. F., Noto, A. R., Brown, E. C., & Schneider, D. R. | StudyImplementação do sistema de prevenção “Communities That Care” em uma comunidade brasileira | Study | Portuguese | |
SummaryPortuguese-language implementation evaluation of the Brazilian pilot of Communities That Care, adapted there as Comunidades que Cuidam (CQC). The study describes the implementation process, assesses fidelity and identifies the main adaptations made during the first two CTC phases in one community in the state of Santa Catarina. The design was qualitative, exploratory and descriptive, with a non-probabilistic convenience sample; data came from the CQC milestones-and-benchmarks checklist and from documents produced between 2020 and 2022, analysed descriptively. Most planned goals were achieved, the core elements of the system were preserved, and the main cultural adaptations concerned how the trainings were delivered. The chief obstacles were delays in administering instruments during the Covid-19 pandemic, difficulties in running the trainings and the work of forming the coalition. The authors judge the adaptation a promising route to consistent community-based prevention in Brazil. There are no outcome data; the value is the documented fidelity of a pilot in a new country. Read more →CitationFranzoloso, T., Thurow, C. F., Noto, A. R., Brown, E. C., & Schneider, D. R. (2025). Implementação do sistema de prevenção “Communities That Care” em uma comunidade brasileira. Psi Unisc, 9. DOI: 10.17058/psiunisc.v9i.18972 | |||||
| 2025 | Groeger-Roth, F. | Conference paperCommunities That Care (CTC) in Deutschland – Umsetzung in fünf Phasen | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryCongress abstract in German published in Das Gesundheitswesen (2025, vol. 87), in the supplement of the 74th Scientific Congress of the German public health physicians’ association (BVÖGD) held together with the 11th Bavarian Congress for the Public Health Service. The one-paragraph abstract announces a presentation of the goals, concept and implementation of Communities That Care in Germany, structured along the five CTC phases, and of how the approach can work together with the public health service (Öffentlicher Gesundheitsdienst, ÖGD). It appeared alongside the workshop contribution by Walter and colleagues and companion abstracts on the Grüne Liste Prävention and on the CTC-EFF results in the same supplement. There is no further published text; the entry is listed because it documents the presentation of CTC to Germany’s public health service in 2025, a sector whose closer involvement the German CTC community has been seeking. Read more →CitationGroeger-Roth, F. (2025). Communities That Care (CTC) in Deutschland – Umsetzung in fünf Phasen. Das Gesundheitswesen, 87. | |||||
| 2025 | Kingston, B. E., Mattson, S. A., Little, J. S., Steeger, C. M., Sigel, E. J., Carrillo, U. L., Bechhoefer, D., Argamaso, S., & D'Inverno, A. | StudyEffects of the Communities that Care (CTC) Prevention System on Youth Violence Outcomes in Two Violence-Impacted Denver Communities | Study | English | |
SummaryQuasi-experimental evaluation of Communities That Care as a youth-violence prevention strategy in two high-burden, marginalised neighbourhoods of Denver, Colorado. The primary outcome was the official annual rate of arrests for violent offences among 10- to 24-year-olds, tracked for five years before (2012–2016) and five years after the start of the intervention (2017–2021) and analysed with interrupted time series and difference-in-differences models against synthetic control areas. In Community B arrest rates fell early in the intervention period and stayed significantly below the synthetic control during the intervention years; in Community A neither method detected an effect. The authors therefore report a reduction in violent-offence arrests in one of the two sites and call for research into why the same mobilisation process worked in one neighbourhood and not the other. For European readers it is one of the few CTC evaluations in an urban setting that uses police-recorded rather than self-reported violence. Read more →CitationKingston, B. E., Mattson, S. A., Little, J. S., Steeger, C. M., Sigel, E. J., Carrillo, U. L., Bechhoefer, D., Argamaso, S., & D'Inverno, A. (2025). Effects of the Communities that Care (CTC) Prevention System on Youth Violence Outcomes in Two Violence-Impacted Denver Communities. American Journal of Criminal Justice, 51(1), 281–308. DOI: 10.1007/s12103-025-09811-0 | |||||
| 2025 | Malmö stad, Arbetsmarknads- och socialförvaltningen | ReportRapport: Tidigare åtgärder och effekter av "Communities That Care" | Report | Swedish | |
SummaryReport by Malmö's labour-market and social administration, requested by the executive board after it withdrew the CTC decision in 2024, summarising what the city's CTC work achieved between 2018 and 2024 and how the lessons will shape universal prevention in future. It draws on the CTC surveys of 2017, 2019 and 2023, the area teams' annual process evaluations, programme pre- and post-measurements and the 2023 Public Partner review. Against a baseline averaged from 2017 and 2019, seven of the nineteen problem outcomes prioritised by the five area teams improved by 2023, five were unchanged and seven worsened; 18 of 26 prioritised risk and protective factors moved in the intended direction. About 2,200 people from roughly 70 organisations were trained in the Social Development Strategy. Class-level measurements for the Good Behaviour Game (Hjärnspelet) show a mean 57.2 per cent reduction in rule-breaking behaviour among 1,000 pupils, and areas with long-running EFFEKT delivery show lower alcohol and tobacco use than the city average. Guiding Good Choices was piloted but never rolled out. The report attributes the incomplete implementation to weak governance, staff turnover and conceptual confusion and sets out seven principles for future work. Effects are uncontrolled and the authors advise caution. Read more →CitationMalmö stad, Arbetsmarknads- och socialförvaltningen (2025). Rapport: Tidigare åtgärder och effekter av "Communities That Care". Malmö stad, Arbetsmarknads- och socialförvaltningen, Preventionsenheten. | |||||
| 2025 | Röding, D., & Walter, U. | Conference paperWirksamkeit von Communities That Care (CTC) in Deutschland – Ergebnisse der quasi-experimentellen CTC-EFF-Studie | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference contribution (in German) in a congress supplement of Das Gesundheitswesen presenting the CTC-EFF study, the quasi-experimental evaluation of Communities That Care in Germany funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), and its results at the level of the municipality. The published abstract is a single sentence and reports no figures; the substance lies in the talk itself. CTC-EFF compared municipalities introducing CTC with a priori matched comparison municipalities across several federal states, surveying key informants before and after implementation on community-level outcomes such as adoption of a science-based prevention approach, cross-sector collaboration and support for prevention. Detailed results from the same study are published elsewhere in this bibliography: the protocol and baseline-equivalence paper, the conference report on effects on local prevention structures and the peer-reviewed early-effects paper. This entry is therefore best read as a pointer to that body of work rather than as a source in its own right. Read more →CitationRöding, D., & Walter, U. (2025). Wirksamkeit von Communities That Care (CTC) in Deutschland – Ergebnisse der quasi-experimentellen CTC-EFF-Studie. Das Gesundheitswesen, 87. | |||||
| 2025 | Röding, D., Brender, R., Bremer, K., Schmidt, N.-D., Ünlü, S., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. | Book chapterDigitale Technologien im kommunalen Präventionssystem ‚Communities That Care‘ – CTC | Book chapter | German | |
SummaryGerman-language book chapter (pp. 241–252) in the Springer volume Technologiegestützte Ansätze in der Community-basierten Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung, asking where digital technologies fit into community-level health promotion and using the German implementation of Communities That Care as its worked example. It introduces CTC as a municipal prevention system aimed at adolescent problem behaviour such as substance use, bullying, violence and delinquency, in which a municipality works through a five-phase process of roughly 24 months while a CTC transfer office provides coaching, training and technical support; in Lower Saxony that office is the Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen, everywhere else in Germany it sits at the FINDER Akademie in Berlin. The authors then situate tools such as public indicator portals and the online evidence register Grüne Liste Prävention within that process and touch on the digital infrastructure on which such support depends. For European readers it is a concise account of how a national support structure for CTC can be organised and digitally equipped. Read more →CitationRöding, D., Brender, R., Bremer, K., Schmidt, N.-D., Ünlü, S., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. (2025). Digitale Technologien im kommunalen Präventionssystem ‚Communities That Care‘ – CTC. Source: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-662-71115-6_16 | |||||
| 2025 | Röding, D., Lenz, M.-C., Decker, L., von Holt, I., & Walter, U. | PreprintStudy protocol of a quasi-experimental evaluation of the school-based prevention system Weitblick | Preprint | English | |
SummaryStudy protocol, posted as a preprint on Research Square in 2025 and registered as DRKS00034046, for the first effectiveness evaluation of Weitblick, the German school-based sister system to CTC. The quasi-experimental design is sequential: roughly 12 schools enter at each of six time points about six months apart, 72 schools in all, take baseline measures, implement Weitblick within 12 months and are then followed with post and follow-up measures at yearly intervals. About five school key informants per school are interviewed every 12 months (open cohort), the number and reach of evidence-based programmes is documented every two years, and some 2,300 sixth-graders from 43 schools are surveyed longitudinally at two-year intervals. Change is analysed in a three-level model of waves within respondents within schools. The primary hypotheses concern adoption of science-based prevention and the number and reach of programmes; changes in risk and protective factors, behaviour and well-being are expected downstream. No results yet. Read more →CitationRöding, D., Lenz, M.-C., Decker, L., von Holt, I., & Walter, U. (2025). Study protocol of a quasi-experimental evaluation of the school-based prevention system Weitblick. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. DOI: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-6367600/v1 | |||||
| 2025 | Röding, D., Lenz, M.-C., von Holt, I., Decker, L., & Walter, U. | StudyEinflussfaktoren der Implementation von Präventionsstrategien – Validierung eines Messinstruments für den Schulkontext | Study | German | |
SummaryPeer-reviewed validation study (in German) of an instrument for measuring the factors that help or hinder implementation of a prevention strategy in schools. The Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) names many facilitating and inhibiting factors to track during implementation, but Germany had no validated instrument for schools. The authors transferred an instrument validated in municipal prevention and health promotion to the school context and tested it with 92 respondents from 23 schools that were starting a school-wide prevention and health-promotion strategy. Exploratory factor and reliability analyses were run for 22 constructs. Internal consistency of the multi-item scales was satisfactory to very good (Cronbach’s alpha 0.642 to 0.981), and intracluster correlation coefficients between 0.218 and 0.664 show that a substantial share of the variance lies between schools. Inhibiting factors correlate with one another not at all or positively, as do facilitating factors, while correlations between the two groups are mostly absent or negative. The pattern is theoretically plausible and fits earlier findings; the instrument suits research and ongoing monitoring. Read more →CitationRöding, D., Lenz, M.-C., von Holt, I., Decker, L., & Walter, U. (2025). Einflussfaktoren der Implementation von Präventionsstrategien – Validierung eines Messinstruments für den Schulkontext. Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung, 21(2), 322–328. DOI: 10.1007/s11553-025-01208-5 | |||||
| 2025 | Röding, D., von Holt, I., Decker, L., Ünlü, S., & Walter, U. | Conference paperHow Communities That Care strengthens evidence-based practice in Germany – community-level analyses | Conference paper | English | |
SummaryConference abstract from the European Public Health Conference 2025 with community-level analyses from the German CTC-EFF study on what shapes the quality of CTC implementation and how the resulting system changes translate into wider use and reach of evidence-based programmes. In 2023, 22 members of seven CTC coalitions were surveyed on influencing factors and an implementation-monitoring tool was applied (n = 13). In 2021 and 2023, 330 key informants from 17 CTC and 16 comparison communities were interviewed on system-change outcomes, and programme implementers on delivery and reach. Bivariate community-level regressions found nine factors associated with implementation quality. Higher quality was linked to more collaboration for prevention (β = .637) and higher progress to greater adoption of a science-based approach (β = .565); adoption (β = .368) and financial support (β = .500) predicted more programme implementation, and community support broader reach (β = .393). With limited power only large effects reached significance; the pattern matches the CTC logic model. Read more →CitationRöding, D., von Holt, I., Decker, L., Ünlü, S., & Walter, U. (2025). How Communities That Care strengthens evidence-based practice in Germany – community-level analyses. European Journal of Public Health, 35(Supplement_4), Article ckaf161.1494. DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckaf161.1494 | |||||
| 2025 | Trujillo, Á., & Cardona-Isaza, A. de J. | StudyFactorial Structure Analysis of the Communities that Care Youth Survey (CTC-YS) in Colombian Adolescents | Study | English | |
SummaryPsychometric study in the Journal of Prevention testing the factor structure of the Communities That Care Youth Survey in Colombia, one of the few validations outside North America and Europe. A total of 2,963 volunteers aged 12–19 (mean 14.25, SD 1.53; 53% female) completed the survey, and confirmatory factor analysis was run for the risk and protective factors of each domain. Fit indices were adequate for risk and protective factors in the community and school domains and for protective factors in the family and the individual/peer domains. Risk factors in the family and individual/peer domains did not reach the optimal indices, and the authors recommend revisions there. Overall the results support the reliability and construct validity of the survey domains and its use for assessing risk and protection among Colombian adolescents, with further psychometric work advised. For European sites adapting the survey, the pattern – protection scales travelling better than some risk scales – will look familiar. Read more →CitationTrujillo, Á., & Cardona-Isaza, A. de J. (2025). Factorial Structure Analysis of the Communities that Care Youth Survey (CTC-YS) in Colombian Adolescents. Journal of Prevention, 46(4), 565–582. DOI: 10.1007/s10935-025-00855-w | |||||
| 2025 | Valdebenito, S., Baidawi, S., Rankin, S., Jiang, J., Smith, S., Lewis, J., & Shlonsky, A. | ReportCommunities That Care: Toolkit technical report. | Report | English | |
SummaryTechnical report for the Youth Endowment Fund's Toolkit, prepared with the National Children's Bureau, presenting a mixed-methods systematic review of Communities That Care. A multilevel meta-analysis pooled 13 publications (41 effect sizes) from four primary datasets, the US multisite randomised trial, the Pennsylvania and Chicago quasi-experiments and the Australian evaluation, on youth violence and offending. Areas using CTC showed a 7% lower risk of violence and offending than comparison areas (RR 0.93; 95% CI 0.84–1.02); the estimate is substantively meaningful but not statistically significant, and certainty is rated low because so few studies exist. There was no strong evidence that effects differed by country or baseline violence, only weak evidence of larger reductions for violent than for offending behaviour. A narrative review of 24 implementation papers identified adoption of a science-based prevention approach, prior experience with evidence-based programmes and evaluation, and an active coalition with community capacity and partnerships as the conditions under which CTC is most likely to succeed. Read more →CitationValdebenito, S., Baidawi, S., Rankin, S., Jiang, J., Smith, S., Lewis, J., & Shlonsky, A. (2025). Communities That Care: Toolkit technical report. Youth Endowment Fund. | |||||
| 2025 | von Heyden, M., Groeger-Roth, F., & Voit, V. | ArticlePrävention nachhaltig finanzieren: Wie Kommunen und Krankenkassen mit CTC erfolgreiche Partnerschaften gestalten | Article | German | |
SummaryPractice-oriented article in German from forum kriminalprävention (2/2025) on how municipalities can fund Communities That Care through Germany’s statutory health insurers. The authors start from the observation that adolescent health problems and delinquency share the same risk and protective factors and cite the Australian benefit-cost analysis of CTC, in which 93% of the economic benefit came from reduced crime, itself a downstream effect of prevented alcohol use. They then show how the funding route opened by §20a of Social Code Book V (settings-based prevention paid for by health insurers) can finance durable CTC structures, and illustrate it with two cases: a mid-sized city of about 100,000 residents that used a three-year grant to build school-specific prevention plans, and a rural district of about 150,000 residents in southern Germany that financed district-wide coordination. Recommendations include political backing by council resolution, at least half a post for coordination and twelve months of lead time before funding starts. The article argues that CTC’s data-driven, evidence-based method already meets the insurers’ quality criteria, placing it at the interface of health and public safety. Read more →Citationvon Heyden, M., Groeger-Roth, F., & Voit, V. (2025). Prävention nachhaltig finanzieren: Wie Kommunen und Krankenkassen mit CTC erfolgreiche Partnerschaften gestalten. | |||||
| 2025 | von Heyden, M., Hayn, K., & Voit, V. | Conference paperSchule trifft Kommune: Ein Beispiel für datengestützte, Setting übergreifende Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryCongress contribution to the 74th Scientific Congress of the German Public Health Service (Erlangen, April 2025), published as an abstract in Das Gesundheitswesen. Using the FINDER programmes Schools That Care and Weitblick as the example, the contribution shows how the Communities That Care logic is carried into a single school and how the anonymous pupil survey on risk and protective factors can be linked with municipal data, so that school and municipality plan their prevention on the same evidence base. It is a practice and concept paper without outcome data of its own; the external evaluation of Weitblick by Hannover Medical School is published separately (study protocol Röding et al., 2025; school-level analyses Röding et al., 2026). Read more →Citationvon Heyden, M., Hayn, K., & Voit, V. (2025). Schule trifft Kommune: Ein Beispiel für datengestützte, Setting übergreifende Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung. Das Gesundheitswesen, 87. | |||||
| 2025 | von Holt, I., Decker, L., Röding, D., Ünlü, S., & Walter, U. | ArticleHinweise zur Wirksamkeit von CTC in Deutschland: Ergebnisse einer Re-Analyse von Daten der CTC-EFF-Studie | Article | German | |
SummaryGerman-language article in forum kriminalprävention (2/2025) presenting a re-analysis of data from the CTC-EFF study, the first controlled evaluation of Communities That Care in Germany. Because adolescent development is shaped mainly by neighbourhood, school, peers and family, and CTC has proven effects in the United States and Australia, the authors ask whether the same system-level mechanisms appear in 34 municipalities from three federal states surveyed in 2021 and 2023, while the COVID-19 pandemic slowed implementation (six of 19 CTC municipalities never formed an area team; the mean implementation score across completed phases was about 70%). CTC communities tended towards stronger adoption of science-based prevention, better prevention collaboration and more public and financial support than controls, while cross-sector cooperation moved the other way; none of these system-level differences reached significance. The number of evidence-based programmes rose significantly in CTC communities (3.57 to 8.57, p = 0.004) but not in controls (1.88 to 3.41, p = 0.089), with no significant change in reach; in the 12 remaining matched pairs the CTC municipality led on science-based prevention in eight. The authors read this as first evidence of effectiveness in Germany, pending a third survey wave. Read more →Citationvon Holt, I., Decker, L., Röding, D., Ünlü, S., & Walter, U. (2025). Hinweise zur Wirksamkeit von CTC in Deutschland: Ergebnisse einer Re-Analyse von Daten der CTC-EFF-Studie. | |||||
| 2025 | von Holt, I., Decker, L., Ünlü, S., Walter, U., & Röding, D. | Conference paperFactors Influencing the Effectiveness of Communities That Care in Germany: A Meta-Analysis | Conference paper | English | |
SummaryConference abstract from the European Public Health Conference 2025 examining how much the short-term effects of Communities That Care vary across German communities in the CTC-EFF study, and why. The design is a non-randomised cluster-controlled study with twelve a-priori matched pairs of CTC and comparison communities. The primary short-term outcome is adoption of an evidence-based prevention strategy; secondary outcomes are prevention and cross-sector collaboration. Community means from 205 key informants were pooled meta-analytically across pairs, and meta-regressions tested implementation quality and community characteristics as moderators. CTC had a positive overall effect on adoption (g = 0.57, p = .02) with significant between-pair variation and substantial heterogeneity (I² = .59). Implementation quality significantly predicted the adoption effect (b = 1.61, p = .02) and explained 40.5% of the heterogeneity. Effects appeared larger in deprived and peripheral communities, but those moderator estimates were not significant (p = .16–.25). The message for European sites: implementation quality, not mere participation, drives what CTC delivers. Read more →Citationvon Holt, I., Decker, L., Ünlü, S., Walter, U., & Röding, D. (2025). Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Communities That Care in Germany: A Meta-Analysis. European Journal of Public Health, 35(Supplement_4), Article ckaf161.173. DOI: 10.1093/eurpub/ckaf161.173 | |||||
| 2025 | Walter, U., & Röding, D. | ReportHandlungsempfehlungen für die Implementation von Communities That Care | Report | German | |
SummaryReport in German from the Hannover Medical School for the project Effects of Communities That Care on the development of municipal prevention structures and the local introduction of evidence-based prevention measures, funded by the Stiftung Deutsches Forum für Kriminalprävention, project period May to December 2024 (05–12/2024). It draws on the CTC-EFF study (38 CTC and comparison municipalities in three federal states, surveyed twice in 2021–2023) to identify what makes a high-quality CTC implementation and what follows for training and process support. It asks how community capacity for prevention changed in CTC municipalities compared with others, how that capacity affected the achievement of CTC milestones, and how systemic changes relate to rural or urban location and deprivation. Path models on a small base of 7 to 12 municipalities point to team communication, conflicts, barriers, opportunity costs and a positive attitude towards CTC as the strongest influences on implementation quality. The report then formulates recommendations on staffing (at least half a post for CTC coordination), communication and integration within the area team, training and advice by the transfer offices, participants’ motivation and attitude, CTC-specific prevention knowledge, public relations and participation in the local process. Read more →CitationWalter, U., & Röding, D. (2025). Handlungsempfehlungen für die Implementation von Communities That Care. Source: https://wegweiser-gruene-liste.de/fileadmin/user_upload/wwgl/PDFs/CTC-Handlungsempfehlungen.pdf | |||||
| 2025 | Walter, U., Groeger-Roth, F., Bremer, K., Brender, R., Neyer, K., & Röding, D. | Conference paperKommunale Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung kompetent, gemeinsam und evidenzbasiert stärken: Die Rahmenstrategie Communities That Care (CTC) | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryWorkshop abstract (in German) from a public-health congress supplement of Das Gesundheitswesen, by the Hannover Medical School team and the Lower Saxony Crime Prevention Council. It argues that municipalities, which bring together education, health, social services, public order and safety, are the natural level for an integrated strategy on adolescent psychosocial health, bullying, violence, delinquency and substance use, and presents Communities That Care as the framework for it. CTC was developed in the USA, transferred to Germany by the Lower Saxony council, tested for transferability in a pilot in 2009–2012 and is now implemented in over 50 German municipalities. The authors summarise the BMBF-funded replication study (2020–2023): two years after implementation began, CTC communities had adopted a science-based prevention approach more strongly than control communities, implemented more evidence-based programmes and reached more people with them. The workshop presents the concept, its instruments and the research findings and discusses closer involvement of the public health service, an angle relevant wherever local health authorities are asked to lead prevention. Read more →CitationWalter, U., Groeger-Roth, F., Bremer, K., Brender, R., Neyer, K., & Röding, D. (2025). Kommunale Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung kompetent, gemeinsam und evidenzbasiert stärken: Die Rahmenstrategie Communities That Care (CTC). Das Gesundheitswesen, 87. | |||||
| 2024 | Abimanyi-Ochom, J., Wanni Arachchige Dona, S., Bohingamu Mudiyanselage, S., Mehta, K., Kuklinski, M., Rowland, B., Toumbourou, J. W., & Carter, R. | StudyAustralian Communities That Care (CTC) intervention: Benefit-cost analysis of a community-based youth alcohol prevention initiative | Study | English | |
SummaryBenefit–cost analysis of the first four Australian Communities That Care sites (2001–2015), taken from a limited societal perspective and focused on reduced alcohol use among 10- to 14-year-olds. Earlier Australian outcome analyses had linked CTC to lower adolescent alcohol and drug use, less antisocial behaviour and reduced alcohol availability; here the monetised benefits were adjusted for joint effects to avoid double counting across outcomes and years. The trial returned AUD 2.6 for every dollar invested: savings from lower alcohol consumption were estimated at about AUD 123 per young person over 15 years (AUD 8 per person per year) against average costs of AUD 48 per young person over the same period (AUD 3 per year). Reduced crime and violence accounted for 93% of the primary benefits. The authors judge the early Australian implementation strongly cost-effective and expect modelling of further outcomes beyond the trial window to improve the economic case, which is useful for European funders weighing coalition-based prevention. Read more →CitationAbimanyi-Ochom, J., Wanni Arachchige Dona, S., Bohingamu Mudiyanselage, S., Mehta, K., Kuklinski, M., Rowland, B., Toumbourou, J. W., & Carter, R. (2024). Australian Communities That Care (CTC) intervention: Benefit-cost analysis of a community-based youth alcohol prevention initiative. PLOS ONE, 19(11), e0314153. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0314153 | |||||
| 2024 | Aljama, K. | ThesisNoorte vaimse tervise probleemid ja nendega seotud tegurid: Hooliva kogukonna noorteuuringu testimine | Thesis | Estonian | |
SummaryMaster's thesis in public health at the University of Tartu, supervised by Kersti Pärna and Karin Streimann, using the 2022 pilot data of the Estonian Communities That Care Youth Survey (Hooliva Kogukonna Noorteuuring) from Hiiumaa and Märjamaa parishes (n = 250, ages 12 to 19). It assesses the internal consistency of the risk and protective factor scales relevant to mental health, describes prevalence, and tests associations between factors and belonging to a mental health problem (MHP) risk group defined by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, using chi-square tests and logistic regression. Of twenty scales, eleven reached acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha 0.71 to 0.93); the individual protective factor scales performed weakest. Overall 36.8 per cent of respondents fell into the MHP risk group, 26.5 per cent of boys and 48.3 per cent of girls. In adjusted models, girls (OR 2.49, 95% CI 1.38 to 4.50), family conflict (OR 2.38), poor family finances (OR 2.24) and interaction with antisocial peers (OR 2.24) were associated with risk-group membership. The author concludes that several scales need revision before a larger Estonian survey and that the results provide input for that expansion. Written in Estonian with an English summary. Read more →CitationAljama, K. (2024). Noorte vaimse tervise probleemid ja nendega seotud tegurid: Hooliva kogukonna noorteuuringu testimine [Master's thesis (Magistritöö rahvatervishoius, public health), University of Tartu]. Tartu Ülikool, Peremeditsiini ja rahvatervishoiu instituut. Source: https://hdl.handle.net/10062/100117 | |||||
| 2024 | Birgel, V., Röding, D. & Walter, U. | ArticleCommunity Capacity für Gesundheitsförderung – Ergebnisse der CTC-EFF-Studie | Article | German | |
SummaryShort German-language article in Public Health Forum (2024, vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 181–185) summarising what the CTC-EFF study found about community capacity, the bundle of collaborative, planning and resource-related abilities that a municipality needs to run effective prevention and health promotion. Drawing on data from the CTC-EFF study in German municipalities, the authors examine how community capacity relates to the use of evidence-based prevention and health-promotion strategies and to adolescent substance use. Municipalities with higher capacity levels were more likely to work with evidence-based strategies and showed lower prevalences of substance use among young people. The authors conclude that capacity building deserves a place of its own within prevention strategies, which is precisely what the coalition-building and training phases of Communities That Care are designed to deliver. For European readers it is a compact statement of the mechanism that CTC relies on, drawn from German rather than US data. Read more →CitationBirgel, V., Röding, D. & Walter, U. (2024). Community Capacity für Gesundheitsförderung – Ergebnisse der CTC-EFF-Studie. Public Health Forum, 32(3), 181–185. | |||||
| 2024 | Bremer, K., Brender, R., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. | ArticleGrüne Liste Prävention - Ein Beitrag zur Evidenzbasierung | Article | German | |
SummaryShort German-language article in Public Health Forum (2024, vol. 32, no. 4, pp. 386–389) presenting the Grüne Liste Prävention, the German evidence register that lets municipalities and practitioners choose evaluated prevention and health-promotion programmes according to local need. Programmes are admitted only if they meet criteria for evaluation quality, concept quality and implementation quality, and they are displayed in three evidence levels that reflect how strong the effectiveness evidence is. At the time of writing the register described 106 programmes for the psychosocial health of children and adolescents, and an extension to the topics of physical activity and nutrition was under way. The register is freely accessible online and forms part of framework strategies such as Communities That Care, where it supplies the menu from which CTC coalitions pick programmes matched to their prioritised risk and protective factors. Read more →CitationBremer, K., Brender, R., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. (2024). Grüne Liste Prävention - Ein Beitrag zur Evidenzbasierung. Public Health Forum, 32(4), 386–389. | |||||
| 2024 | Brender, R., Bremer, K., Kula, A., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. | StudyEvidenzregister Grüne Liste Prävention – Analyse der gelisteten wirksamkeitsgeprüften Programme | Study | German | |
SummaryDescriptive analysis in German, published in Das Gesundheitswesen (2024, vol. 86, no. 7, pp. 474–482), of every programme listed in the Grüne Liste Prävention, the online evidence register of effectiveness-tested prevention and health-promotion programmes for children and adolescents in Germany. The authors set out to characterise the listed programmes, identify focal points and under-represented areas, and improve the register’s search functions. Working from the register’s existing categories, they refined them inductively and deductively into sub-categories, operationalised them and coded every entry with a standard form. The 102 programmes listed as of 2/2024 address children and adolescents directly and, as secondary target groups, mainly teachers and parents; social and life-skills programmes and parent training dominate. Violence and bullying (63.7%), addiction (46.1%) and mental health (35.3%) are frequent topics, whereas nutrition and physical activity (4.9%) are barely represented, and 88.2% of the programmes can be mapped to the health insurers’ funding criteria under §20a of Social Code Book V. For CTC coalitions the paper documents how broad the German programme menu is and where its gaps lie. Read more →CitationBrender, R., Bremer, K., Kula, A., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. (2024). Evidenzregister Grüne Liste Prävention – Analyse der gelisteten wirksamkeitsgeprüften Programme. Das Gesundheitswesen, 86(07), 474–482. DOI: 10.1055/a-2308-7256 | |||||
| 2024 | Eisenberg, D., & Raghavan, R. | Book chapterCommunities That Care (Chapter 7, Economic Evaluation of Interventions for Children with Mental Health Needs) | Book chapter | English | |
SummaryChapter 7 of Investing in Children's Mental Health, a book on the economic evaluation of interventions for children with mental health needs, closes the volume's case studies with Communities That Care. Unlike the specific interventions examined in the other chapters, CTC is a framework for building the community-wide infrastructure that lets many interventions take root: in the authors' gardening image, individual programmes are seeds and CTC is the soil, which needs its own careful preparation. The chapter sets out CTC's road map for that preparation, from community-led problem identification and coalition building through local data collection and outcome tracking to collaboration with external knowledge brokers and community ownership of programme choice and results. It argues that collective action of this kind can produce impressive and durable results and places CTC within the book's economic framework, giving European decision-makers a concise account of why a prevention system, rather than a single programme, may be the better investment. Read more →CitationEisenberg, D., & Raghavan, R. (2024). Communities That Care (Chapter 7, Economic Evaluation of Interventions for Children with Mental Health Needs). In Investing in children's mental health (pp. 102–113). Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190942014.003.0008 | |||||
| 2024 | Fagan, A. A. | Book chapterSystems of Change: Communities That Care | Book chapter | English | |
SummaryChapter in the Oxford Handbook of Evidence-Based Crime and Justice Policy presenting CTC to a criminal-justice policy audience. Fagan starts from a gap familiar across Europe: evidence-based interventions that prevent crime exist in numbers, yet many communities keep funding untested or ineffective strategies. CTC is described as a system built deliberately to close that gap – a structured process with training and coaching that raises a coalition’s knowledge of evidence-based interventions, its willingness to adopt them and the quality with which it implements them to prevent youth substance use, delinquency and violence. The chapter summarises the evidence that CTC is itself evidence-based, citing the community-randomised trial and several quasi-experimental evaluations that found increased use of tested interventions and reductions in youth problem behaviour, and argues that wide implementation as an installation mechanism for such interventions could lower crime rates. A concise, current overview by a lead trial investigator, useful for briefing policy-makers. Read more →CitationFagan, A. A. (2024). Systems of Change: Communities That Care. In The Oxford handbook of evidence-based crime and justice policy (pp. 407–423). Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197618110.013.21 | |||||
| 2024 | Franzoloso, T., Thurow, C. F., Gomes, G., & Schneider, D. R. | ReviewBarriers and facilitators to implementing Communities That Care (CTC) in different countries | Review | English | |
SummaryIntegrative review by a Brazilian research group of what is known about the barriers and facilitators to implementing or adapting Communities That Care in different communities and countries. Searches in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO and the Virtual Health Library combined the terms “Communities That Care” or “CTC” with fidelity and implementation; 16 studies published between 2005 and 2021 met the inclusion criteria, most of them quantitative or mixed-methods, experimental or quasi-experimental and longitudinal. The main obstacles reported were mobilising the coalition, low community readiness for change, collecting epidemiological data and putting evidence-based interventions in place. The consistent facilitators were training and technical assistance, which raised readiness, strengthened coalition work and made communities aware of why evidence-based prevention matters. A compact orientation for European sites planning a first CTC cycle, and a reminder that the system's support structure is part of the intervention. Read more →CitationFranzoloso, T., Thurow, C. F., Gomes, G., & Schneider, D. R. (2024). Barriers and facilitators to implementing Communities That Care (CTC) in different countries. CONTRIBUCIONES A LAS CIENCIAS SOCIALES, 17(7), e8720. DOI: 10.55905/revconv.17n.7-352 | |||||
| 2024 | Gorenoi, V., Bremer, K., & Brender, R. | Conference paperEvidenzregister „Grüne Liste Prävention“: Modifikation der Bewertungskriterien auf Basis international relevanter Kategorisierungskonzepte | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference report (in German, GMS proceedings) on revising the rating criteria of the Grüne Liste Prävention, the German evidence register of prevention programmes. A programme is listed if it meets criteria for concept and implementation quality and has at least one scientific evaluation from a German-speaking country with positive results; listed programmes are sorted into three levels by the strength of that evidence. The criteria dated from 2011 and had nothing to say about structural and setting-based measures. The authors compared the categorisation concepts of two international registers, Blueprints and Xchange, and of key institutions of evidence-based medicine and prevention (IQWiG, Cochrane, GRADE, AHRQ, BZgA, CDC) and derived modified criteria for single studies, for the certainty of the overall effect and for the final rating. Risk of bias and the designs typical of structural prevention now weigh more; certainty considers bias, consistency, precision, transferability, sustainability and applicability to Germany. Interventions with stronger support are labelled as demonstrated effectiveness, weaker ones as potential effectiveness, each with two subcategories. Read more →CitationGorenoi, V., Bremer, K., & Brender, R. (2024). Evidenzregister „Grüne Liste Prävention“: Modifikation der Bewertungskriterien auf Basis international relevanter Kategorisierungskonzepte. German Medical Science GMS Publishing House. DOI: 10.3205/24gmds685 | |||||
| 2024 | Gorman-Smith, D., Garthe, R. C., Schoeny, M. E., Cosey-Gay, F. N., Harris, C., Brown, C. H., & Villamar, J. A. | StudyThe Impact of the Communities That Care Approach in Reducing Violence and Crime Within an Urban, High-Burden Community | Study | English | |
SummaryEvaluation of Communities That Care in a large, high-burden urban neighbourhood, a setting quite different from the small towns of the original trial. The Chicago Center for Youth Violence Prevention, one of the national Youth Violence Prevention Centers funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was among the first to implement CTC as a data-driven, collective-impact approach in a big-city district. The study compares trends in aggravated assaults and robberies in the Bronzeville community with those in similar Chicago communities. Findings show reductions in these violent crimes in Bronzeville relative to the comparison communities. The design is a quasi-experimental comparison of area-level crime trends rather than a randomised trial, and the published abstract gives no effect sizes, so the strength of the effect should be read from the full paper. For European cities the study is relevant evidence that the CTC process can be applied in dense, disadvantaged urban settings. Read more →CitationGorman-Smith, D., Garthe, R. C., Schoeny, M. E., Cosey-Gay, F. N., Harris, C., Brown, C. H., & Villamar, J. A. (2024). The Impact of the Communities That Care Approach in Reducing Violence and Crime Within an Urban, High-Burden Community. Prevention Science, 25(6), 863–877. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-024-01707-5 | |||||
| 2024 | Groeger-Roth, F. | ArticleCTC: kommunale Gesundheitsförderung bei Kindern und Jugendlichen | Article | German | |
SummaryShort German-language overview in Public Health Forum by Frederick Groeger-Roth of the Lower Saxony Crime Prevention Council, the body that transferred Communities That Care to Germany. It sets out the foundations of CTC as a method for municipal health promotion and how a municipality puts it into practice: a local steering structure, a youth survey that measures risk and protective factors, and a data-driven action plan that concentrates prevention on the factors that matter most locally for health-related behaviour problems among children and adolescents. Programmes whose effectiveness has been tested are selected from the Grüne Liste Prävention register to fit the identified needs and anchored permanently in the municipality’s regular institutions rather than run as add-on projects. Written for public-health readers rather than crime-prevention specialists, it is a concise entry point for European practitioners who want the CTC logic in a few pages; it presents no new empirical data. Read more →CitationGroeger-Roth, F. (2024). CTC: kommunale Gesundheitsförderung bei Kindern und Jugendlichen. Public Health Forum, 32(3), 242–244. | |||||
| 2024 | Heide, S., Glans, M., & Månsson, B. | ReportUppväxtvillkor för barn och unga i Malmö, resultat av CTC-enkäten: Om risk- och skyddsfaktorer i barns livsmiljöer | Report | Swedish | |
SummaryResults report on the autumn 2023 wave of Malmö's CTC youth survey, compiled by the central CTC development leaders at the city office's sustainability department. All pupils in school years 6 to 9 and in the first two years of upper secondary school were invited; 18,635 answered, a response rate of 82.3 per cent. The survey measures 24 risk and 12 protective factors and problem outcomes such as substance use, offending, violence and mental ill-health, reported for the city's fourteen statistical areas, including the nine without CTC area teams. City-wide, mental ill-health is the most widespread problem, girls' use of snus and e-cigarettes has risen markedly, alcohol shows no uniform trend, and self-reported offending among boys rose in ten of fourteen areas. Permissive attitudes towards carrying weapons, theft, violence and truancy and low school commitment are the most prevalent risk factors; peer substance use fell and family attachment rose in every area since the previous wave. In the five CTC areas most prioritised factors moved in the intended direction, though changes were small and two area teams were vacant; school-level results are shown for the Good Behaviour Game (Hjärnspelet) and EFFEKT. A descriptive report without control groups. Read more →CitationHeide, S., Glans, M., & Månsson, B. (2024). Uppväxtvillkor för barn och unga i Malmö, resultat av CTC-enkäten: Om risk- och skyddsfaktorer i barns livsmiljöer. Malmö stad, Stadskontoret, Hållbarhetsavdelningen. | |||||
| 2024 | Henriques, S., & Rabelo, R. P. | StudyAdaptação do Communities That Care Youth Survey para Portugal: Um estudo piloto | Study | Portuguese | |
SummaryPilot study on the Portuguese adaptation of the Communities That Care Youth Survey (CTCYS), the instrument that measures the risk and protective factors predicting adolescent substance use, violence and delinquency. Adapted in 2022, the Portuguese version covers the community, family, school and individual/peer domains. The US questionnaire was translated and refined with focus groups of students and professionals, then pre-tested in one municipality of the Azores to check internal consistency; the final version was administered to 1,218 students across the Autonomous Region of the Azores and re-examined for reliability and construct validity. The adapted structure captured the intended risk and protective factors, and the clearest associations emerged for psychoactive substance use. The authors conclude that the CTCYS is a workable tool for identifying the risk factors that matter most for adolescent substance use in Portugal and for directing community prevention, a first step towards CTC-style community profiles in another European country. Read more →CitationHenriques, S., & Rabelo, R. P. (2024). Adaptação do Communities That Care Youth Survey para Portugal: Um estudo piloto. Revista Foco, 17(12), Article e7361. DOI: 10.54751/revistafoco.v17n12-187 | |||||
| 2024 | Mihić, J., Ferić, M., Novak, M., & Kranželić, V. | StudyVršnjačko nasilje kod adolescenata u Hrvatskoj | Study | Croatian | |
SummaryPreliminary communication reporting peer violence among Croatian secondary-school pupils from the five-city school survey of the Zagreb prevention laboratory. A quota sample of 10,138 pupils of all grades and programme types in Zagreb, Pula, Split, Osijek and Varaždin (47.4 per cent boys, 4.5 per cent without gender data, mean age 16.2 years) completed a socio-demographic questionnaire and the peer-abuse and violence scale of the Croatian CTC questionnaire for children and young people (Mihić, Novak and Bašić, 2010). In the previous month 38.9 per cent had witnessed peer abuse at least once, 18.2 per cent had been exposed to it and 11.8 per cent had experienced cyberbullying. The frequency of experiencing, perpetrating and witnessing individual forms of abuse, and of its consequences, differed by gender, town, grade and type of school programme; the authors note that some communities and programme types carry higher risk for girls. They call for timely, comprehensive and continuous investment in evidence-based prevention and psychosocial support. The study is descriptive and cross-sectional; it documents the use of one CTC survey scale in a large Croatian sample but does not evaluate any intervention. Read more →CitationMihić, J., Ferić, M., Novak, M., & Kranželić, V. (2024). Vršnjačko nasilje kod adolescenata u Hrvatskoj. Ljetopis socijalnog rada, 31(1), 31–58. | |||||
| 2024 | Pratschke, J., Glanville, J., & Kelly, P. | ReviewIntegrative review on place-based and other geographically defined responses to drug-related threats in communities | Review | English | |
SummaryIntegrative evidence review commissioned by the Health Research Board (HRB Drug and Alcohol Evidence Review 9) on place-based and other geographically defined responses to drug-related threats. Method: a review of reviews and an extensive database search, screened down to 41 publications, followed by a thematic synthesis around five questions on how place and drug-related threats are linked, how sites are selected, which initiatives show promise, which indicators measure impact and how far they apply to Ireland. Results: the report profiles ten initiatives, among them PROSPER, the Icelandic Prevention Model, the HEALing Communities Study and Communities That Care, for which it summarises the Community Youth Development Study, the Pennsylvania roll-out and the transfers to Germany, the Netherlands and Croatia, noting the shortage of evidence-based programmes outside the United States. Conclusion: the first generation of large place-based initiatives can be effective and cost-efficient in their original context, but population-level effects on drug use appear modest and do not seem to endure beyond school; nearly all were implemented in the USA, rarely targeted deprived areas and depend on practitioners embracing their logic. Ireland's Local and Regional Drug and Alcohol Task Forces are identified as analogous structures. Read more →CitationPratschke, J., Glanville, J., & Kelly, P. (2024). Integrative review on place-based and other geographically defined responses to drug-related threats in communities. Health Research Board. Source: https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/40846/ | |||||
| 2024 | Reder, M., Runge, R. A., Schlüter, H., & Soellner, R. | StudyThe German Communities That Care Youth Survey: dimensionality and validity of risk factors | Study | English | |
SummaryPsychometric evaluation of the German Communities That Care Youth Survey, in use since 2008 but never formally tested for the dimensionality and validity of its adapted risk-factor scales. Using a sample of 1,911 pupils in grades 6 to 11 in Lower Saxony, the authors examined 23 risk-factor scales across the peer/individual, family, school and community domains. Confirmatory factor analyses (CFI, SRMR, RMSEA) assessed whether each scale is unidimensional, and latent regressions tested concurrent criterion validity against violent and delinquent behaviour, substance use and depressive symptoms. All evaluable risk factors showed acceptable to good fit and predicted violence, delinquency and substance use more strongly than depressive symptoms; two factors were unrelated to substance use and two to depressive symptoms. The authors conclude that most scales are unidimensional and valid, so the survey is a viable basis for a community risk profile, while factors that did not meet the criteria should be interpreted cautiously and monitored in future waves. Read more →CitationReder, M., Runge, R. A., Schlüter, H., & Soellner, R. (2024). The German Communities That Care Youth Survey: dimensionality and validity of risk factors. Frontiers in Public Health, 12, Article 1472347. DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1472347 | |||||
| 2024 | Röding, D., Decker, L., von Holt, I., Ünlü, S., & Walter, U. | Conference paperEffekte von Communities That Care auf kommunale Präventionsstrukturen – Ergebnisse der quasi-experimentellen CTC-EFF-Studie | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference report (in German, GMS proceedings) with the first German findings on whether Communities That Care changes municipal prevention structures. CTC has five core elements: network building, training, local data on risk factors, selection of evidence-based programmes and quality-assured delivery. US and Australian research (Community Youth Development Study) indicates that around 95% of CTC’s effect on adolescent problem behaviour runs through communities adopting a science-based approach to prevention. The quasi-experimental CTC-EFF study followed 21 intervention and comparison communities in four federal states (2020–2023); 79 key informants were surveyed at baseline (2021) and follow-up (2023). The primary outcome was adoption of evidence-based prevention on a 21-item index; secondary outcomes were cross-sector cooperation, quality of collaboration, community support and the budget share for prevention. At follow-up the intervention communities were significantly ahead on the primary outcome (30% vs 10%; p = 0.034); secondary outcomes improved descriptively but not significantly. The authors read this as support for CTC in Germany, to be interpreted cautiously given pandemic disruption and reduced samples. Read more →CitationRöding, D., Decker, L., von Holt, I., Ünlü, S., & Walter, U. (2024). Effekte von Communities That Care auf kommunale Präventionsstrukturen – Ergebnisse der quasi-experimentellen CTC-EFF-Studie. German Medical Science GMS Publishing House. DOI: 10.3205/24gmds298 | |||||
| 2024 | Röding, D., von Holt, I., Decker, L., Ünlü, S., & Walter, U. | StudyKommunale Gesundheitskompetenz und kommunale Kapazitätsentwicklung | Study | German | |
SummaryGerman-language article in Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung (2024, vol. 19, pp. 512–520) that reads community capacity for health promotion through the lens of critical health literacy: a municipality should be able to shape the social determinants of health on its own territory. Because capacity-building approaches are spreading in German community health promotion but remain little researched, the authors describe how facets of that capacity are developed in selected German towns and whether the COVID-19 pandemic affected local health promotion. The data come from the second wave of the CTC-EFF key-informant survey in 2023 (n = 235) in 30 towns and municipalities in Lower Saxony, Rhineland-Palatinate and Baden-Württemberg, analysed descriptively. Problem-solving ability, inter-organisational information exchange and public support for prevention were well developed in most places; strategic planning, linking and coordinating measures, resources and resource sharing, evidence-based practice and public relations showed deficits. The pandemic had a large impact on prevention work, with signs of catch-up effects. The authors conclude that effective capacity-building approaches should be used and note limited generalisability, describing the very gaps that the CTC process is meant to close. Read more →CitationRöding, D., von Holt, I., Decker, L., Ünlü, S., & Walter, U. (2024). Kommunale Gesundheitskompetenz und kommunale Kapazitätsentwicklung. Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung, 19(4), 512–520. DOI: 10.1007/s11553-024-01143-x | |||||
| 2024 | Serdar, K., Ferić, M., & Belošević, M. | ReviewSpremnost zajednice za preventivna ulaganja | Review | Croatian | |
SummaryNarrative review from the Zagreb Laboratory for Prevention Research on community readiness as the first step of implementing prevention in communities. Drawing on a literature search across eleven databases without date limits, it presents readiness models (Self-Organizational Community Readiness Model, Community Readiness for Change, the Tri-Ethnic Center's Community Readiness Model, the APPEAL stages model) and assessment instruments (Community Readiness Inventory, Minnesota Community Readiness Survey, Community Prevention Readiness Self-Assessment Tool, Community Key Leader Survey), tabulating the advantages and limitations of each. A section on Croatia summarises the readiness work of the Istrian Communities That Care project (2002–2005 and 2006–2009; a key-leader survey of 151 people on four dimensions, followed by almost a year of key-leader training), the UNDP and Ministry of the Interior evaluation of the Čakovec and Split prevention councils (2010) and the „Prevencija u zajednici“ project (2017–2018) in three communities around Zagreb, which used a modified Community Readiness Model with focus groups, mayor interviews and key-leader and coalition questionnaires across five areas. The authors recommend a readiness assessment before any community investment and name the turnover of key people with political cycles as a recurring obstacle. No new data are reported. Read more →CitationSerdar, K., Ferić, M., & Belošević, M. (2024). Spremnost zajednice za preventivna ulaganja. Kriminologija & socijalna integracija, 32(1), 104–124. DOI: 10.31299/ksi.32.1.6 | |||||
| 2024 | Siilbek, E., & Streimann, K. | StudyAdaptation of the Communities That Care Youth Survey for Use in Estonia: A Pilot Study | Study | English | |
SummaryPilot study in the Journal of Prevention documenting the Estonian adaptation of the CTC Youth Survey. The 2022 Estonian version covers 38 risk and protective factors plus measures of substance use, antisocial behaviour, mental-health problems and self-harm. The adaptation moved from translation through focus groups with students and specialists to a pilot in two municipalities with 265 students. The original CTC framework largely captured the key issues in Estonia, and the survey showed good validity, with risk and protective factors predicting problem outcomes. After one item was removed, internal consistency reached acceptable levels for all but eight subscales; the weakest were Prosocial Involvement, Social Skills and Belief in the Moral Order. Municipal representatives found the measure useful but pointed to problems of practicality and comprehensibility, and the authors conclude that communities need additional support to turn results into prevention decisions. A template for European countries preparing a first CTC assessment, with a small sample and real reliability gaps. Read more →CitationSiilbek, E., & Streimann, K. (2024). Adaptation of the Communities That Care Youth Survey for Use in Estonia: A Pilot Study. Journal of Prevention, 45(4), 483–500. DOI: 10.1007/s10935-024-00777-z | |||||
| 2024 | Silveira, B. B. da, & Schneider, D. R. | StudyRelação pessoa-ambiente no sistema de prevenção Communities That Care | Study | Portuguese | |
SummaryQualitative study from Brazil bringing environmental psychology into dialogue with Communities That Care. The authors asked how place identity and place attachment shape whether community leaders commit to the CTC process, using one district of Florianópolis as the setting. Methods combined walks through the neighbourhood, observation of environmental traces and semi-structured interviews; the material was analysed thematically and organised into two categories, “affect and interactions” and “place and belonging”. The turning points in leaders’ relationship to the process were the perceived importance of cultural practices, socio-environmental care, safety and habitability, and identification and affection for the community. The authors conclude that a strong relationship with place – identity, attachment, shared values and experience of collective action – strengthens adherence to CTC and eases the planning of community prevention against drug use and violence. The study is small and interpretive; its contribution is to name the local, emotional preconditions of coalition engagement that implementation checklists rarely capture. Read more →CitationSilveira, B. B. da, & Schneider, D. R. (2024). Relação pessoa-ambiente no sistema de prevenção Communities That Care. Revista Projetar - Projeto e Percepção do Ambiente, 9(2), 93–102. DOI: 10.21680/2448-296x.2024v9n2id34272 | |||||
| 2024 | Ünlü, S., von Holt, I., Röding, D., Decker, L., & Walter, U. | Conference paperImplementation des kommunalen Präventionssystems Communities That Care: Eine Analyse von Gelingensbedingungen | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference report (in German, GMS proceedings) on how far German municipalities had got with Communities That Care by the end of the CTC-EFF study. CTC runs in five phases over 24 to 30 months, from network building and training through a community profile of risk and protective factors to a needs-based action plan and its evaluated delivery. CTC-EFF (2020–2023, BMBF-funded) was a non-randomised, cluster-controlled replication with 21 CTC and 21 comparison communities in four federal states. Between December 2023 and March 2024, 13 local coordinators completed the Milestone-and-Benchmark Tool and 30 members of seven area teams rated ten success conditions in the Coalition Board Interview; analysis was descriptive. The average implementation of completed phases ranged from 56% to 80%, 64% overall. Every team lacked prevention expertise, five reported too little influence and high implementation barriers; diversity, turnover, cohesion, efficiency and conflict were deficits in single teams. The pandemic slowed implementation; the authors recommend involving more diverse actors and improving the expertise on offer to team members. Read more →CitationÜnlü, S., von Holt, I., Röding, D., Decker, L., & Walter, U. (2024). Implementation des kommunalen Präventionssystems Communities That Care: Eine Analyse von Gelingensbedingungen. German Medical Science GMS Publishing House. DOI: 10.3205/24gmds304 | |||||
| 2024 | ΕΚΤΕΠΝ [Greek Documentation and Monitoring Centre for Drugs] | ReportΚοινότητες που Νοιάζονται: Προσαρμογή στα ελληνικά, πιλοτική εφαρμογή και έλεγχος της αξιοπιστίας του ερωτηματολογίου | Report | Greek | |
SummaryWeb report of the Greek adaptation of the CTC youth survey, carried out by the Greek drugs monitoring centre EKTEPN under the EU project Frontline Politeia. The 2014 US questionnaire was translated in 2022, reviewed with a youth focus group of the ORAMA prevention centre in March 2023 and piloted in March and April 2023 in Edessa, Pefka, Ano Toumba (Thessaloniki) and one school in Veroia with 669 pupils. Of 36 scales, 20 reached a reliability above 0.70, eight lay between 0.62 and 0.70 and eight below. The report is the reference for the Greek instrument that EKTEPN has since run with local prevention centres in Attica and Thessaloniki; it documents a pilot and its reliability, not a community process or outcomes. Read more →CitationΕΚΤΕΠΝ [Greek Documentation and Monitoring Centre for Drugs] (2024). Κοινότητες που Νοιάζονται: Προσαρμογή στα ελληνικά, πιλοτική εφαρμογή και έλεγχος της αξιοπιστίας του ερωτηματολογίου. University Mental Health, Neurosciences and Precision Medicine Research Institute (UMHRI), Athens. Source: https://www.ektepn.gr/ctc-2023 | |||||
| 2023 | Arungwa, S., & Osho, G. S. | StudyPolicy Implications and Cost of Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency: A Willingness Survey of College-Educated-Adults for Communities That Care | Study | English | |
SummaryExploratory paper in the Journal of Sociological Research on the cost of preventing juvenile delinquency, approached through a “willingness survey” of college-educated adults regarding support for Communities That Care, which the authors label WITS4CTC. They argue that juvenile crime is experienced at the level of the local community, where national statistics can lull residents into thinking their own neighbourhood is unaffected, and that latent support for community prevention among educated adults and colleges is under-explored. The paper aims to draw policy recommendations from the survey and to serve as a starting model for future studies from this perspective. The published abstract reports no sample size, response data or quantitative results, and the paper should be read as a position piece rather than an empirical evaluation. It is included here for completeness as one of the few attempts to ask what publics are willing to contribute to CTC-style prevention. Read more →CitationArungwa, S., & Osho, G. S. (2023). Policy Implications and Cost of Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency: A Willingness Survey of College-Educated-Adults for Communities That Care. Journal of Sociological Research, 15(1), 32. | |||||
| 2023 | Birgel, V., Decker, L., Röding, D., & Walter, U. | ReviewCommunity capacity for prevention and health promotion: a scoping review on underlying domains and assessment methods | Review | English | |
SummaryScoping review in Systematic Reviews from the Hannover Medical School group that evaluates CTC in Germany, mapping how ‘community capacity’ – the characteristics that let a community identify and act on health and social problems – has been assessed. The authors searched PubMed, Web of Science and ScienceDirect for English-language studies from 1990 to 2022 that described their capacity assessment explicitly and met at least two of three criteria: a theoretical basis, a participatory approach or a field test. From 4,779 records, 38 studies were included (19 mixed-methods, 11 qualitative, 8 quantitative). The domains in use were consolidated into nine: participation, knowledge and skills, resources, leadership, community power, sense of community, collaboration, critical awareness and problem-solving, and community structure, with four sub-domains (commitment, communication, shared values and goals, sustainability). The review supplies the conceptual grid for the group’s later key-informant measure of capacity, useful for CTC coalitions asking which local conditions they should be building. Read more →CitationBirgel, V., Decker, L., Röding, D., & Walter, U. (2023). Community capacity for prevention and health promotion: a scoping review on underlying domains and assessment methods. Systematic Reviews, 12(1), Article 147. DOI: 10.1186/s13643-023-02314-1 | |||||
| 2023 | Birgel, V., Röding, D., Decker, L., & Walter, U. | Conference paperZusammenhang zwischen Community Capacity und Alkohol-, Tabak- sowie Drogenkonsum von Heranwachsenden: Ergebnisse einer Mehrebenen-Analyse | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference report (in German) from the CTC-EFF study testing whether a community’s capacity for prevention is related to adolescent substance use, using baseline data from 29 municipalities. 7,439 pupils were surveyed on alcohol use, binge drinking, smoking and drug use, and 182 key informants rated ten domains of community capacity, from participation and knowledge to leadership and critical awareness. Eleven hierarchical logistic models per outcome covered the ten domains and a total score. A higher total capacity score was associated with lower prevalence of smoking (OR = 2.48; 95% CI 1.66–8.54) and alcohol use (OR = 3.19; 95% CI 1.21–8.42), but not with drug use or binge drinking. The individual domains showed a consistent pattern of lower use where capacity was higher. The authors conclude that higher community capacity goes with less adolescent substance use and argue for capacity building in municipal prevention. The design is cross-sectional, so the association cannot be read as causal; the odds ratios are given as the authors report them. Read more →CitationBirgel, V., Röding, D., Decker, L., & Walter, U. (2023). Zusammenhang zwischen Community Capacity und Alkohol-, Tabak- sowie Drogenkonsum von Heranwachsenden: Ergebnisse einer Mehrebenen-Analyse. Das Gesundheitswesen, 85(08/09), 784–784. | |||||
| 2023 | Birgel, V., Röding, D., Reder, M., Soellner, R., & Walter, U. | StudyContextual effects of community capacity as a predictor for adolescent alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use: A multi-level analysis | Study | English | |
SummaryCross-sectional multilevel analysis of baseline data from the German CTC-EFF trial, linking community capacity for prevention to the four-week prevalence of adolescent substance use. In 28 communities, 7,210 pupils in grades 5 to 11 reported tobacco, alcohol and other-drug use and binge drinking, and 158 local key informants rated ten capacity domains (commitment, knowledge and skills, resources, leadership, inclusiveness, prevention collaboration, sectoral collaboration, cohesion, problem-solving and needs orientation), which were also combined into a total score. Higher total capacity was associated with lower odds of any substance use (OR 0.28; 95% CI 0.12–0.56), alcohol use (OR 0.30) and tobacco use (OR 0.09); for binge drinking and illicit drug use the associations were not significant. Community size was unrelated to any outcome, and community type mattered only for binge drinking. Being cross-sectional, the study cannot establish causation, but it supports the premise of capacity-building systems such as CTC that stronger local prevention structures go with less youth substance use. Read more →CitationBirgel, V., Röding, D., Reder, M., Soellner, R., & Walter, U. (2023). Contextual effects of community capacity as a predictor for adolescent alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drug use: A multi-level analysis. SSM - Population Health, 24, 101521. DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmph.2023.101521 | |||||
| 2023 | Birgel, V., Walter, U., & Röding, D. | StudyRelating community capacity to the adoption of an evidence-based prevention strategy: a community-level analysis | Study | English | |
SummaryCommunity-level analysis in the Journal of Public Health from the German CTC evaluation, testing whether community capacity explains why some municipalities adopt an evidence-based prevention strategy and others do not. Data are a secondary analysis of 182 key-informant interviews in 38 communities; structural validity, internal consistency and inter-rater agreement supported measuring ten capacity domains from such reports. In logistic regressions, adoption was associated with sense of community (OR 6.62), prevention collaboration (OR 26.05), cross-sector collaboration (OR 10.49), community power (OR 19.29) and community structure (OR 4.79); available leadership also predicted adoption (OR 5.21). A 2025 correction (J Public Health 33:1765) fixed two confidence intervals in Table 3 – community power 1.74–28.12, prevention collaboration 5.98–33.39 – whose upper bounds had been printed below the point estimates; the corrected intervals are wider, the odds ratios and conclusions unchanged. Small sample and wide intervals, but direct European evidence on what CTC’s capacity-building phase should aim at. Read more →CitationBirgel, V., Walter, U., & Röding, D. (2023). Relating community capacity to the adoption of an evidence-based prevention strategy: a community-level analysis. Journal of Public Health, 33(8), 1755–1764. DOI: 10.1007/s10389-023-02159-x | |||||
| 2023 | Bremer, K., Brender, R., & Groeger-Roth, F. | Conference paperGrüne Liste Prävention: wirksame Verhältnisprävention stärken | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryChapter (in German) in the proceedings of the German Congress on Crime Prevention, explaining why and how the Grüne Liste Prävention added its first entry devoted entirely to structural prevention. Of the register’s 100 programmes nearly all were behavioural, and CTC communities had repeatedly asked for environmental measures against the risk factor of alcohol availability. The authors searched the literature for evaluations of measures that reduce young people’s access to alcohol and sorted them by whether a German municipality can implement them itself. The resulting collective entry, online since autumn 2022, groups 78 studies into seven areas: retail, gastronomy and nightlife, sports clubs, public space, road traffic and public transport, media, and community multi-level programmes such as STAD. It is rated at evidence level two, because international evaluations cannot reach the top level given limits to transferability. The chapter concludes that combining measures raises the overall effect, that municipal scope is narrowed by federal and state law, and that the strongest levers, pricing and advertising bans, lie beyond local competence. Read more →CitationBremer, K., Brender, R., & Groeger-Roth, F. (2023). Grüne Liste Prävention: wirksame Verhältnisprävention stärken. Universität Tübingen. DOI: 10.15496/publikation-108389 | |||||
| 2023 | Bremer, K., Brender, R., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. | Conference paperGrüne Liste Prävention: Identifizierung von Risiko- und Schutzfaktoren zur Erweiterung der Datenbank um Maßnahmen zur Ernährung und Bewegung | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference report (in German) from the team that maintains the Grüne Liste Prävention, describing the groundwork for extending the register to nutrition and physical activity. In January 2023 the register listed 100 evidence-based programmes for the psychosocial health of children and adolescents, mostly on addiction and violence, with only three programmes on nutrition and two on physical activity. The authors ran a rapid review of behavioural and environmental risk and protective factors for nutrition and physical activity in young people, searching by hand and in PubMed/Medline and LIVIVO against defined inclusion criteria; a factor counted as established when at least two methodologically sound longitudinal studies showed the effect. The review identified behavioural, biological, prenatal and early-childhood, psychosocial, social and contextual factors, as well as prevention and health-promotion measures themselves. The factors now serve the register’s appraisal of behavioural and structural measures and its keywording, so that programmes can be selected precisely, for example within the school-development method Schools That Care. Read more →CitationBremer, K., Brender, R., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. (2023). Grüne Liste Prävention: Identifizierung von Risiko- und Schutzfaktoren zur Erweiterung der Datenbank um Maßnahmen zur Ernährung und Bewegung. Das Gesundheitswesen, 85(08/09), 780–781. | |||||
| 2023 | Decker, L., Röding, D., Birgel, V., & Walter, U. | Conference paperGelingensbedingungen für Implementation, Umsetzungstreue und Reichweite evidenzbasierter Präventionsprogramme – Ergebnisse der CTC-EFF-Studie | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference report (in German) from the CTC-EFF study asking whether local conditions shape three quantities that drive the effectiveness of municipal prevention: the number of evidence-based programmes (EBPs) delivered, the number of people they reach and the fidelity of delivery. In 38 municipalities, local prevention practitioners (n = 242) were interviewed about EBPs, reach and fidelity, and 182 key informants about community capacity for prevention (cross-sector cooperation, integrated collaboration, support for prevention and financial support) and adoption of science-based prevention. Deprivation, spatial type and population size came from official statistics, analysed with bivariate correlations. The number of EBPs correlated positively with adoption of science-based prevention, cross-sector cooperation, financial support, deprivation and rurality (r = 0.185–0.576) and negatively with population size and support for prevention. Reach correlated positively with cross-sector cooperation, support for prevention, deprivation and population size and negatively with rurality; fidelity correlated negatively with rurality. The authors conclude that what a community-based prevention approach achieves depends on local conditions, which is why CTC invests in capacity before programmes. Read more →CitationDecker, L., Röding, D., Birgel, V., & Walter, U. (2023). Gelingensbedingungen für Implementation, Umsetzungstreue und Reichweite evidenzbasierter Präventionsprogramme – Ergebnisse der CTC-EFF-Studie. Das Gesundheitswesen, 85(08/09), 784–784. | |||||
| 2023 | Henriques, S., & Rabelo, R. P. | ReportComunidades que Cuidam – Questionário a Jovens. Açores, Portugal. Relatório | Report | Portuguese | |
SummaryReport by CIES-Iscte on the first full application of the Communities That Care Youth Survey in Portugal, carried out within the EU-funded Frontline Politeia project (JUST-2020-AG-DRUGS), for which Portugal was among the countries lacking systematic data to support prevention decisions. Method: specialised translation with cultural adaptation, validated by an expert focus group and by cognitive and pilot pre-tests that also checked classroom procedures, reliability and scale validity; online administration to pupils of the third cycle of basic education and of secondary education in the public schools of the Autonomous Region of the Azores between March and May 2023, yielding 1,218 complete responses. Results: sections on demographic characteristics, risk factors (drug use, early use, access, delinquency-related behaviour) and protective factors (opportunities and rewards for prosocial involvement); only 4 per cent reported lifetime illicit drug use, but about two thirds of secondary pupils had tried alcohol and 32 per cent drank regularly, almost a quarter of secondary pupils had tried cannabis, and most reported high family involvement. Recommendations call for evidence-based prevention, continuous and longitudinal data collection with representative samples, workforce training and networking. A descriptive diagnostic report on a non-representative sample; no CTC coalition or programme process is proposed. Read more →CitationHenriques, S., & Rabelo, R. P. (2023). Comunidades que Cuidam – Questionário a Jovens. Açores, Portugal. Relatório. CIES-Iscte, Iscte – Instituto Universitário de Lisboa. Source: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.2/15013 | |||||
| 2023 | Public Partner | ReportGenomlysning av arbetet med Community that Cares (CTC): Malmö stad | Report | Swedish | |
SummaryConsultancy review commissioned by the City of Malmö's directorate for sustainability and safety after the 2020 council decision to spread Communities That Care to the whole city had not been implemented. Public Partner interviewed the central CTC staff at the city office and senior managers and development leaders of the labour-market and social, pre-school, primary school, leisure and culture departments and read the city's steering documents; the report is dated October 2023. It finds broad agreement on the value of the CTC youth survey, the risk and protective factor logic and the area teams, and credits the local development leaders with concrete results, but identifies weaknesses in governance: an unclear council mandate, a system-leadership role at the city office that sits uneasily with Malmö's decentralised model of strong sector committees, poor communication, and the absence of the planned research follow-up, so that effects could not be attributed with confidence. It concludes that the failure to implement is not due to the CTC system itself and recommends keeping CTC's core components and process steps while toning down CTC as a label and moving system leadership to a sector department. The review is qualitative and reports no outcome data. Read more →CitationPublic Partner (2023). Genomlysning av arbetet med Community that Cares (CTC): Malmö stad. Public Partner, Stockholm, on behalf of Malmö stad (Stadskontoret). | |||||
| 2023 | Röding, D., Birgel, V., Decker, L., Ünlü, S., & Walter, U. | ArticleWie gelingt kommunale Prävention bei Kindern und Jugendlichen? Erste Erkenntnisse aus der CTC-EFF-Studie | Article | German | |
SummaryPractice-oriented article in German from forum kriminalprävention (1/2023) giving the first applied overview of results from the CTC-EFF study, the first German dataset on which local conditions make municipal prevention of adolescent substance use, violence and delinquency work. The authors surveyed 182 key informants in 38 municipalities in Lower Saxony, Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate and linked their answers to a student survey of 7,210 pupils in 28 municipalities and to telephone interviews with 242 local prevention actors. Three capacity factors stood out: municipalities with good collaboration for prevention were 26 times more likely to pursue effective prevention strategies, those able to respond to identified needs 20 times, and those with strong cross-sector cooperation 10 times. Higher community capacity went with lower adolescent substance use; low-capacity municipalities had roughly three times as many regular drinkers. Municipalities with a strong science-based approach ran almost twice as many evidence-based programmes and reached about 50% more people. A first look at 17 CTC municipalities shows implementation slowed by the pandemic, with an average implementation score of around 70%. The article closes with recommendations for municipal prevention practice. Read more →CitationRöding, D., Birgel, V., Decker, L., Ünlü, S., & Walter, U. (2023). Wie gelingt kommunale Prävention bei Kindern und Jugendlichen? Erste Erkenntnisse aus der CTC-EFF-Studie. | |||||
| 2023 | Röding, D., Reder, M., Soellner, R., Birgel, V., Stolz, M., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. | Study protocolEvaluation des wissenschaftsbasierten kommunalen Präventionssystems Communities That Care: Studiendesign und Baseline-Äquivalenz intermediärer Outcomes | Study protocol | German | |
SummaryGerman-language paper in Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung (vol. 18, 2023, pp. 316–326; online 2022) presenting the design of the CTC-EFF study and its first results on baseline equivalence. CTC translates prevention science into municipal practice through training and tools, with citizen participation, cross-sector collaboration, science-based prevention, monitoring and quality development as core elements, and US findings suggest its effects run through five intermediate outcomes. The study is quasi-experimental: 21 municipalities introducing CTC and 21 comparison municipalities matched a priori on demographic, economic and crime-statistics characteristics. In 2021, 192 municipal key informants were surveyed and the groups compared bivariately on eight sociodemographic characteristics and on ratings of prevention collaboration, cross-sector cooperation, financial support, public support and adoption of science-based prevention. The groups did not differ significantly except in the share with a university entrance qualification (86% vs 96%), and most intermediate outcomes were rated alike; the exception was adoption of science-based prevention, where intervention municipalities had a small lead that the authors consider plausible because they had already begun training and implementation before the survey. Matching therefore largely achieved baseline equivalence. Read more →CitationRöding, D., Reder, M., Soellner, R., Birgel, V., Stolz, M., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. (2023). Evaluation des wissenschaftsbasierten kommunalen Präventionssystems Communities That Care: Studiendesign und Baseline-Äquivalenz intermediärer Outcomes. Prävention und Gesundheitsförderung, 18(3), 316–326. DOI: 10.1007/s11553-022-00972-y | |||||
| 2023 | Rowhani-Rahbar, A., Oesterle, S., Gause, E. L., Kuklinski, M. R., Ellyson, A. M., Schleimer, J. P., Dalve, K., Weybright, E. H., Briney, J. S., & Hawkins, J. D. | StudyEffect of the Communities That Care Prevention System on Adolescent Handgun Carrying | Study | English | |
SummarySecondary analysis of the Community Youth Development Study, the cluster-randomised trial of Communities That Care in 24 small towns across seven US states, asking whether the system reduces handgun carrying among rural adolescents (NCT01088542). A cohort of 4,407 pupils was enrolled in grade 5 (77% of those eligible) and surveyed annually through grade 12 between 2003 and 2011, with 92% retention. Across grades 6 to 12, 15.5% of young people in CTC communities and 20.7% in control communities reported carrying a handgun at least once. The odds of past-year carrying were significantly lower in CTC communities at any given grade (OR 0.73; 95% CI 0.65–0.82), most clearly in grades 7 to 9, and cumulatively through grade 12 (OR 0.76; 95% CI 0.70–0.84), reductions of 27% and 24% respectively. The finding matters beyond the US because CTC did not target weapons at all: the effect emerged from working on shared risk and protective factors. Read more →CitationRowhani-Rahbar, A., Oesterle, S., Gause, E. L., Kuklinski, M. R., Ellyson, A. M., Schleimer, J. P., Dalve, K., Weybright, E. H., Briney, J. S., & Hawkins, J. D. (2023). Effect of the Communities That Care Prevention System on Adolescent Handgun Carrying. JAMA Network Open, 6(4), e236699. DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.6699 | |||||
| 2023 | Siilbek, E., Streimann, K., & Vilms, T. | ReportLaste ja noorte riskikäitumise ning vaimse tervisega seotud riski- ja kaitsetegurid 2022. a Hooliva Kogukonna Noorteuuringu põhjal | Report | Estonian | |
SummaryEight-page overview published by Estonia's National Institute for Health Development (Tervise Arengu Instituut) presenting results of the 2022 pilot of the Estonian adaptation of the Communities That Care Youth Survey (Hooliva Kogukonna Noorteuuring), carried out under the EU project Frontline Politeia in two rural municipalities with 257 pupils aged 11 to 19. For each of twelve outcomes (mental health problems measured with the SDQ difficulties score, self-harm, cigarettes, e-cigarettes, alcohol, snus or waterpipe, cannabis, other illicit drugs, police contact, violence, theft and riding with a drunk driver) a chart places the risk and protective factors that predicted the outcome on an odds-ratio scale from 1 to 5+; only statistically significant associations are shown. Early initiation of substance use and antisocial behaviour, parental attitudes favourable to substance use, friends' substance use and gang involvement stand out as risk factors, while relationships and recognition at school, in the family and in the community appear as protective factors. A closing page ranks the most important factors for three outcome groups. The authors caution that the sample was small and that the internal consistency of some Estonian scales was low. The document is a results summary, not an evaluation of CTC. Read more →CitationSiilbek, E., Streimann, K., & Vilms, T. (2023). Laste ja noorte riskikäitumise ning vaimse tervisega seotud riski- ja kaitsetegurid 2022. a Hooliva Kogukonna Noorteuuringu põhjal. Tervise Arengu Instituut. | |||||
| 2023 | Soellner, R., Schlüter, H., & Kollek, M. | ReportCommunities That Care: Jugendbefragung in Niedersachsen 2021/2022 | Report | German | |
SummaryReport (in German) on the fifth state-wide Communities That Care youth survey in Lower Saxony, conducted in 2021/2022 by the University of Hildesheim in cooperation with the Lower Saxony Crime Prevention Council; this is the first edition, later superseded by a revised second edition. CTC aims to prevent adolescent problem behaviour by creating conditions in which children and young people can grow up safely and healthily. The state-wide survey produces reference values for how often risk and protective factors for problem behaviour occur among pupils, and those reference values are printed in the report. A municipality running its own CTC youth survey compares its local figures with these benchmarks, identifies where its prevention needs lie and selects evidence-based programmes to match. For European readers the report shows the benchmarking step in practice: a local profile only becomes interpretable once it can be set against a comparable population, which is why CTC regions maintain recurring state-level surveys. Read more →CitationSoellner, R., Schlüter, H., & Kollek, M. (2023). Communities That Care: Jugendbefragung in Niedersachsen 2021/2022. Universitätsverlag Hildesheim. DOI: 10.18442/208 | |||||
| 2023 | Soellner, R., Schlüter, H., & Kollek, M. | ReportCommunities That Care: Jugendbefragung in Niedersachsen 2021/2022 (2., überarb. Aufl.) | Report | German | |
SummaryReport in German (2nd revised edition, Universitätsverlag Hildesheim, 2023, 119 pages) on the fifth state-wide CTC youth survey in Lower Saxony, fielded between November 2021 and January 2022 by the University of Hildesheim in cooperation with the Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen. Communities That Care aims to prevent adolescent problem behaviour by creating conditions in which children and young people grow up safely and healthily, and the state-wide survey provides the reference values for the prevalence of risk and protective factors that CTC municipalities compare with their own local surveys to determine prevention needs and select evidence-based programmes. The sample covered grades 6 to 11 of general schools and, for the first time, the first year of vocational schools; 417 classes at 353 schools were drawn, 1,948 pupils took part and 1,746 questionnaires were retained after cleaning and weighted by grade and school type. The gross response rate of 21.8% was well below the 38.1% and 39.3% of 2015 and 2017, a pandemic-era limitation the authors flag, and the report includes items on how COVID-19 shaped pupils’ everyday lives during the survey period. Read more →CitationSoellner, R., Schlüter, H., & Kollek, M. (2023). Communities That Care: Jugendbefragung in Niedersachsen 2021/2022 (2., überarb. Aufl.). Universitätsverlag Hildesheim. DOI: 10.18442/234 | |||||
| 2023 | Statens beredning för medicinsk och social utvärdering (SBU) | ReviewPsykosociala insatser för att förebygga och minska gängkriminalitet bland barn och unga vuxna | Review | Swedish | |
SummarySystematic review by the Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services (SBU), registered in PROSPERO (CRD42022360672), on psychosocial interventions to prevent and reduce gang crime among children and young adults. Following SBU's method handbook and PRISMA, the project group searched for randomised and non-randomised controlled studies and interrupted time series, assessed risk of bias and graded certainty with GRADE; 42 studies entered the analyses, five of them on universal prevention. Communities That Care appears in the chapter on universal school-based interventions alongside G.R.E.A.T. and Keepin' it REAL, represented by the US cluster-randomised Community Youth Development Study of 4,407 pupils followed from grade 6 to 12, in which 24 per cent fewer pupils in CTC communities reported carrying a handgun. The synthesis without meta-analysis concludes that school-based skills training and prevention systems may reduce gang membership including weapon carrying, with low certainty of evidence, while evidence on attitudes and violent crime is insufficient. Other conclusions concern focused deterrence, probation-based interventions and drug markets. The report notes that CTC is used in two Swedish municipalities. Its relevance for the CTC literature lies in an official Swedish evidence grading, not in new CTC data. Read more →CitationStatens beredning för medicinsk och social utvärdering (SBU) (2023). Psykosociala insatser för att förebygga och minska gängkriminalitet bland barn och unga vuxna. Statens beredning för medicinsk och social utvärdering (SBU), Stockholm; SBU Utvärderar 369. Source: https://www.sbu.se/369 | |||||
| 2023 | Ünlü, S., Röding, D., Birgel, V., & Walter, U. | Conference paperImplementation des kommunalen Präventionssystems Communities That Care unter Pandemiebedingungen: Eine Analyse von Gelingensbedingungen | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference report (in German) from the CTC-EFF study on how Communities That Care was implemented in German municipalities during the pandemic. CTC normally takes 24 to 30 months across five phases. In summer 2022, 17 municipalities implementing CTC took part; 12 CTC coordinators reported on implementation progress and 22 members of eight area teams rated ten success conditions, among them community readiness, team diversity, prevention knowledge, cohesion, efficiency, team influence, perceived CTC effectiveness, conflicts, turnover and implementation barriers. Of the 17 municipalities, five were in Phase 1, three in Phase 2, five in Phase 3 and two each in Phases 4 and 5. Mean implementation was 78% in Phase 1 (range 32–100) and 70% across all completed phases. Four area teams still had too little prevention knowledge, three too little diversity and two too little influence; the other conditions were at least acceptable. The authors conclude that the pandemic slowed implementation and delayed the formation of some area teams, but that the levels reached are acceptable. Read more →CitationÜnlü, S., Röding, D., Birgel, V., & Walter, U. (2023). Implementation des kommunalen Präventionssystems Communities That Care unter Pandemiebedingungen: Eine Analyse von Gelingensbedingungen. Das Gesundheitswesen, 85(08/09), 785–785. | |||||
| 2023 | Walter, U., Groeger-Roth, F., & Röding, D. | StudyEvidenzbasierte Prävention für die psychische Gesundheit von Kindern und Jugendlichen: Der Ansatz „Communities That Care „(CTC) für Deutschland | Study | German | |
SummaryOverview article in German in the Bundesgesundheitsblatt (2023, vol. 66, no. 7, pp. 774–783; open access) presenting Communities That Care as an answer to three persistent challenges of community health promotion in Germany: cross-sector collaboration, evidence-based practice and sustainable implementation. CTC is described as a systemic multi-level strategy aimed at preventing alcohol and drug misuse, violence, delinquency, school drop-out and depressive symptoms in adolescents. Developed in the United States, where it proved effective and cost-effective, it has been transferred to Germany, where a replication study is testing whether the cost-effectiveness holds. The paper walks through the five-phase process model, the cross-sector coalition whose members receive several years of coaching and training, and the validated instruments that support the process, the CTC youth survey and the evidence register Grüne Liste Prävention. Evidence-based measures are chosen from local data and needs and implemented with attention to context, so as to reduce risk factors, strengthen protective factors and improve young people’s health. As a systemic intervention CTC integrates existing local structures through new decision-making and development bodies, pooling resources and creating transparency. A concise reference text on the German model. Read more →CitationWalter, U., Groeger-Roth, F., & Röding, D. (2023). Evidenzbasierte Prävention für die psychische Gesundheit von Kindern und Jugendlichen: Der Ansatz „Communities That Care „(CTC) für Deutschland. Bundesgesundheitsblatt - Gesundheitsforschung - Gesundheitsschutz, 66(7), 774–783. DOI: 10.1007/s00103-023-03725-0 | |||||
| 2023 | Žarak, M. | ThesisSpolne i dobne razlike u procjeni rizičnih i zaštitnih čimbenika u okruženju zajednice kod učenika viših razreda osnovne škole na području grada Jastrebarskog | Thesis | Croatian | |
SummaryMaster's thesis drawn from the Croatian arm of the EU project Frontline Politeia (research lead for Croatia Martina Ferić), whose January 2023 survey in Jastrebarsko and Samobor used the Croatian CTC questionnaire for children and young people (cited as Mihić, Novak and Bašić, 2011). The thesis examines the community domain only, for pupils in grades 5 to 8 of the primary school Ljubo Babić in Jastrebarsko (239 respondents), and asks whether the assessment of community risk and protective factors differs by sex and age. Approval came from the faculty's ethics committee and the Ministry of Science and Education. Community risk factors were rated as relatively highly present. No statistically significant sex differences were found. Age differences appeared for community rewards for prosocial involvement, community disorganisation, laws and norms favourable to drug use and perceived availability of drugs, with medium to large effect sizes. The author suggests the results can inform age-specific prevention. It is a small descriptive needs-assessment analysis of one school, without outcome data. Read more →CitationŽarak, M. (2023). Spolne i dobne razlike u procjeni rizičnih i zaštitnih čimbenika u okruženju zajednice kod učenika viših razreda osnovne škole na području grada Jastrebarskog [Master's thesis (diplomski rad), University of Zagreb, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences; mentor Martina Ferić, co-mentor Matea Belošević; defended 27 June 2023]. Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet. Source: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:158:691886 | |||||
| 2022 | Birgel, V., Röding, D., Groeger-Roth, F., Decker, L., & Walter, U. | Conference paperSystemveränderung als Outcome kommunaler Gesundheitsförderung – Eine Validierungsstudie | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference report (in German) on validating German instruments for measuring system change in municipal health promotion. Effects on target groups take years to show, but effective community strategies change the local system within the first years; Germany lacked validated measures. The authors report construct and criterion validity for five system-change measures: adoption of science-based prevention, collaboration in prevention, cross-sector cooperation, support for prevention and financial support for prevention. Within the CTC-EFF study the Community Key Informant Interview was translated into German, adapted and cognitively pretested; in 2021, 209 key informants from 42 municipalities completed it. Confirmatory factor analyses tested construct validity and hierarchical linear models the share of variance between municipalities. Cronbach’s alpha reached, among others, 0.869 for prevention collaboration and 0.899 for cross-sector cooperation. On average 8.66% of the variance lay between municipalities, with 19.43% for adoption of science-based prevention. Adoption of science-based prevention correlated positively with cross-sector cooperation (r = 0.606, p = 0.004). The authors read this as first evidence that the German version yields valid measurements. Read more →CitationBirgel, V., Röding, D., Groeger-Roth, F., Decker, L., & Walter, U. (2022). Systemveränderung als Outcome kommunaler Gesundheitsförderung – Eine Validierungsstudie. Das Gesundheitswesen, 84(08/09), 748–748. | |||||
| 2022 | Bremer, K., Brender, R., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. | Conference paperGrüne Liste Prävention – Eine Datenbank evidenzbasierter Präventionsprogramme | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference report (in German) presenting the structure and uses of the Grüne Liste Prävention (GLP), the database of evidence-based prevention programmes for the psychosocial health of children and adolescents. The GLP is an initiative of the Lower Saxony Crime Prevention Council, online since 2011 and run with Hannover Medical School; it was built for programme selection in Communities That Care. Two trained raters assess each programme on its evaluations and assign one of three evidence grades: (1) theoretically well founded, (2) probable, (3) demonstrated; inclusion and rating criteria are published, and search functions by risk and protective factors allow targeted selection. As of March 2022 the database listed 98 evaluated programmes available nationwide. Practitioners, decision-makers and researchers at all levels use it beyond CTC; grade 1 serves as an entry point into evidence-based practice, and funders increasingly make programme funding conditional on registration. Its limits are the narrow topic range and missing evaluations. A new keyword system and an extension to nutrition, physical activity and structural prevention are planned. Read more →CitationBremer, K., Brender, R., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. (2022). Grüne Liste Prävention – Eine Datenbank evidenzbasierter Präventionsprogramme. Das Gesundheitswesen, 84(08/09), 864–864. | |||||
| 2022 | Brender, R., Bremer, K., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. | Conference paperDatenbank Grüne Liste Prävention – Was steckt drin? Systematische Charakterisierung der Programme in der Grünen Liste Prävention | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference report (in German) characterising every programme in the Grüne Liste Prävention, the database of evaluated prevention programmes for children, adolescents and families run since 2011 by the Lower Saxony Crime Prevention Council with Hannover Medical School. To improve searching, the team derived 16 main and 33 sub-categories with 217 attribute values; one person coded each programme and a second checked. As of March 2022 the database held 98 programmes: 30 at evidence grade 1, 36 at grade 2 and 30 at grade 3. Most address addiction (n = 44) and violence including bullying (n = 62); social and life-skills programmes are characteristic (n = 57), whereas nutrition (n = 3) and physical activity (n = 2) are barely represented. The programmes are mostly behavioural (n = 91) and target the settings family (n = 40), childcare (n = 23) and school (n = 60). The new keywords improve findability, and the database can grow towards nutrition, physical activity and structural prevention. Read more →CitationBrender, R., Bremer, K., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. (2022). Datenbank Grüne Liste Prävention – Was steckt drin? Systematische Charakterisierung der Programme in der Grünen Liste Prävention. Das Gesundheitswesen, 84(08/09), 749–749. | |||||
| 2022 | Röding, D., Birgel, V., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. | Conference paperEvaluation des wissenschaftsbasierten kommunalen Präventionssystems Communities That Care: Baseline-Äquivalenz der intermediären Outcomes | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference report (in German) with the first results of the BMBF-funded CTC-EFF study, which replicates for Germany the US Community Youth Development Study, the cluster-randomised trial showing that CTC improves risk and protective factors and health behaviour and that this effect is mediated by five intermediate system-change outcomes. CTC-EFF is a quasi-experimental longitudinal study with 21 municipalities introducing CTC and 21 comparison municipalities matched a priori one to one on demography, economy and crime. Data come from a 2021 survey of key informants (n = 192). Apart from the share with a higher-education entrance qualification (intervention 86%, comparison 96%), respondents did not differ on personal characteristics. On the intermediate outcomes they differed only in adoption of science-based prevention (p = 0.008), not in prevention collaboration, cross-sector cooperation, financial support or public backing. The authors conclude that matching largely produced baseline equivalence and that the small head start of the intervention communities is plausible, since they had already taken first implementation steps before the baseline survey. Read more →CitationRöding, D., Birgel, V., Groeger-Roth, F., & Walter, U. (2022). Evaluation des wissenschaftsbasierten kommunalen Präventionssystems Communities That Care: Baseline-Äquivalenz der intermediären Outcomes. Das Gesundheitswesen, 84(08/09), 756–757. | |||||
| 2022 | Siilbek, E., Streimann, K., Vilms, T., Voit, V., Ferić, M., Belošević, M., Serdar, K., Bafi, I., Törrönen, S., Glans, M., Månsson, B., Martínez Ortiz de Zárate, A., Izquierdo Montero, A., Abril Hervás, D., & Henriques, S. | ReportFRONTLINE POLITEIA: Community needs for prevention-related data collection and training | Report | English | |
SummaryReport from the EU-funded Frontline Politeia project, compiled by Estonia's National Institute for Health Development with partners in eight countries, on what local prevention practitioners collect and need in terms of data on youth problems and their risk and protective factors, and what training they want. Between May and June 2022 the national teams held focus groups, key-informant consultations or questionnaires in 17 pilot communities in Germany, Estonia, Croatia, Greece, Finland, Sweden, Spain and Portugal. Only the German and Swedish pilot sites already ran the Communities That Care Youth Survey and were satisfied with it; elsewhere data came from individual schools or national surveys that could not be broken down to community level and rarely covered risk and protective factors. Communities asked for data on substance use, mental health, self-harm and gambling, preferred an external partner for analysis, and wanted data collection tied to prevention planning. Country by country, the report records the decision to adapt or reuse the CTC Youth Survey, with Finland possibly using its national school survey instead. A second chapter summarises training needs feeding the project's EUPC-based curriculum. The report is a needs assessment, not an evaluation; an Estonian summary is included. Read more →CitationSiilbek, E., Streimann, K., Vilms, T., Voit, V., Ferić, M., Belošević, M., Serdar, K., Bafi, I., Törrönen, S., Glans, M., Månsson, B., Martínez Ortiz de Zárate, A., Izquierdo Montero, A., Abril Hervás, D., & Henriques, S. (2022). FRONTLINE POLITEIA: Community needs for prevention-related data collection and training. National Institute for Health Development (Tervise Arengu Instituut), Tallinn. Source: https://www.tai.ee/sites/default/files/2022-09/Data_collection_report_est_kokkuv%C3%B5ttega.pdf | |||||
| 2022 | Walter, U., Groeger-Roth, F., & Röding, D. | Conference paperCommunities That Care – Ein Ansatz zur Translation präventionswissenschaftlicher Grundlagen in die Praxis kommunaler Gesundheitsförderung für Kinder und Jugendliche | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference report (in German) introducing Communities That Care to a public-health audience as a way of translating prevention science into municipal health promotion. Quality-assurance procedures for prevention and health promotion exist in Germany, but none is used nationwide, and CTC had so far been taken up almost only by crime prevention. Based on a selective literature review, the authors describe CTC, developed in the USA in the 1990s, where community means a small town or district. Implementation runs in five phases: Phase 1 builds community readiness and team functioning, Phase 2 collects epidemiological data, Phase 3 prioritises risk and protective factors and gaps, Phase 4 selects evidence-based measures and an action plan, Phase 5 implements and evaluates it, and the cycle repeats every two years. Studies from the USA and Australia support effectiveness, with 96% of the effects mediated by communities adopting science-based prevention. CTC has proven itself as a quality-development approach, they conclude, and should extend to other age groups and fields such as nutrition and physical activity. Read more →CitationWalter, U., Groeger-Roth, F., & Röding, D. (2022). Communities That Care – Ein Ansatz zur Translation präventionswissenschaftlicher Grundlagen in die Praxis kommunaler Gesundheitsförderung für Kinder und Jugendliche. Das Gesundheitswesen, 84(08/09), 865–865. | |||||
| 2021 | Brown, E. C., Montero-Zamora, P., Cardozo-Macías, F., Reyes-Rodríguez, M. F., Briney, J. S., Mejía-Trujillo, J., & Pérez-Gómez, A. | StudyA Comparison of Cut Points for Measuring Risk Factors for Adolescent Substance Use and Antisocial Behaviors in the U.S. and Colombia | Study | English | |
SummaryMethodological study asking whether the US cut-points that define “high risk” on Communities That Care Youth Survey risk-factor scales can be used validly in other countries. Using large samples of adolescents from Colombia and the United States, the authors compared the proportion of young people classified as high risk on 18 risk factors under US-derived and Colombia-derived cut-points. The two sets produced significantly different proportions (p < 0.05) for 38.9% of the risk factors in Grade 6, 61.1% in Grade 8 and 66.6% in Grade 10. Where differences occurred, Colombian cut-points were preferable in almost every case, and the size of the discrepancy depended on the type of factor, with drug-specific factors behaving differently from non-drug-specific ones. The authors call for large national datasets and country-specific cut-points to avoid misclassifying youth. The finding bears directly on European CTC sites, which must decide whether to import US thresholds or norm their own. Read more →CitationBrown, E. C., Montero-Zamora, P., Cardozo-Macías, F., Reyes-Rodríguez, M. F., Briney, J. S., Mejía-Trujillo, J., & Pérez-Gómez, A. (2021). A Comparison of Cut Points for Measuring Risk Factors for Adolescent Substance Use and Antisocial Behaviors in the U.S. and Colombia. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(2), 470. | |||||
| 2021 | Corrêa, A. de O., Brown, E. C., Murta, S. G., & Briney, J. S. | StudyAdaptation of the Communities That Care Youth Survey for use in Brazil: A pilot study | Study | English | |
SummaryPilot study of the Brazilian adaptation of the Communities That Care Youth Survey (CTCYS), motivated by the need for valid risk-factor measures as Brazilian authorities import evidence-based prevention programmes. The adapted questionnaire retained 25 risk factors plus measures of substance use and antisocial behaviour; it was translated into Brazilian Portuguese, revised on the advice of local experts and completed by 926 pupils in one Brazilian community. Internal consistency was acceptable for every scale except Academic Failure and Rebelliousness, and confirmatory factor analyses showed good fit for most measurement models, usually after minor modifications. The authors present the results as a foundation for using the CTCYS in Brazil to assess community levels of adolescent risk and to evaluate prevention programmes. For European sites the paper is a useful template of what a careful, low-cost adaptation of the survey involves and which scales tend to need attention when the instrument crosses a language border. Read more →CitationCorrêa, A. de O., Brown, E. C., Murta, S. G., & Briney, J. S. (2021). Adaptation of the Communities That Care Youth Survey for use in Brazil: A pilot study. Health Promotion International, 37(2), Article daab109. | |||||
| 2021 | Farrington, D. P., Jonkman, H., & Groeger-Roth, F. | BookDelinquency and Substance Use in Europe: Understanding Risk and Protective Factors | Book | English | |
CitationFarrington, D. P., Jonkman, H., & Groeger-Roth, F. (Eds.). (2021). Delinquency and Substance Use in Europe: Understanding Risk and Protective Factors. Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-58442-9 | |||||
| 2021 | Farrington, D. P., Utting, D., & Axford, N. | Book chapterGreat Britain | Book chapter | English | |
SummaryChapter on Great Britain in the edited volume Delinquency and Substance Use in Europe, which grew out of the CTC-EU project's cross-national survey comparison. It reports results of the Communities That Care Youth Survey administered in 2001 to a school-based national representative sample of 14,445 pupils aged 11 to 16 in England, Scotland and Wales, the survey originally published by Beinart et al. (2002) for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. The chapter sets out the British history of CTC and the survey's measurement of risk and protective factors and problem behaviour. Results: 32 per cent of boys and 21 per cent of girls were classified as delinquents, and 16 per cent of each sex as drug users; both increased with age. The most important explanatory risk factors for delinquency and drug use were availability of drugs, parental attitudes condoning problem behaviour, low commitment to school, a family history of problem behaviour and poor parental supervision; the strongest protective factors were family opportunities and rewards for prosocial involvement and family attachment. The authors present these as targets for interventions. A secondary analysis of a two-decade-old survey; it evaluates no CTC process. Read more →CitationFarrington, D. P., Utting, D., & Axford, N. (2021). Great Britain. In D. P. Farrington, H. Jonkman, & F. Groeger-Roth (Eds.), Delinquency and Substance Use in Europe: Understanding Risk and Protective Factors (pp. 21–39). Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-58442-9_2 | |||||
| 2021 | Jonkman, H., & Hosman, C. M. H. | Book chapterThe Netherlands | Book chapter | English | |
SummaryChapter on the Netherlands in Delinquency and Substance Use in Europe, the volume arising from the CTC-EU project's survey comparison. It describes the background of the Communities That Care strategy in the Netherlands and reports results of the CTC Youth Survey administered in 2011, during the Dutch effect study, to 5,887 young people. The analysis covers violence and delinquency, other problem behaviours, 20 risk factors and 10 protective factors in the domains family, school, friends and community: prevalences of violent and delinquent acts and other problem behaviours, their associations with the risk and protective factors examined with logistic regression and odds ratios, the population attributable fraction as a measure of the share of exposure explained by each factor, and the cumulative effect of clustered risk and protective factors. The authors conclude that the chapter confirms what is known about problem behaviour and its predictors while shedding fresh light on it, and that it shows how violence and delinquency can be targeted by social policy and prevention. A descriptive and correlational analysis; it does not report on the effects of CTC. Read more →CitationJonkman, H., & Hosman, C. M. H. (2021). The Netherlands. In D. P. Farrington, H. Jonkman, & F. Groeger-Roth (Eds.), Delinquency and Substance Use in Europe: Understanding Risk and Protective Factors (pp. 41–57). Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-58442-9_3 | |||||
| 2021 | Kapardis, A., Spanoudis, G., Kapardis, C., & Konstantinou, M. | Book chapterCyprus | Book chapter | English | |
SummaryThe Cyprus chapter of the CTC-EU book documents the only Cypriot CTC programme: the Communities That Care initiative in Latsia, Nicosia district, prepared from 2005 and launched in 2006 by the University of Cyprus with the municipality, funded by UNDP-ACT/USAID and the municipality. The Greek-language CTC youth survey was administered in 2007 and 2010 to 871 pupils aged 12 to 15 in three gymnasia (Latsia, Aglantzia, Klirou); the chapter analyses risk and protective factors with structural equation models and finds family factors the strongest protection. The programme ran after-school activities and counselling in Latsia until about 2012 and had three programme evaluations, but no controlled outcome study; the chapter is a case description and a survey analysis, not effectiveness evidence. Read more →CitationKapardis, A., Spanoudis, G., Kapardis, C., & Konstantinou, M. (2021). Cyprus. In D. P. Farrington, H. Jonkman, & F. Groeger-Roth (Eds.), Delinquency and Substance Use in Europe: Understanding Risk and Protective Factors (pp. 97–113). Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-58442-9_6 | |||||
| 2021 | Kuklinski, M. R., Oesterle, S., Briney, J. S., & Hawkins, J. D. | StudyLong-term Impacts and Benefit–Cost Analysis of the Communities That Care Prevention System at Age 23, 12 Years After Baseline | Study | English | |
SummaryLongest follow-up of the CTC trial, in Prevention Science: the panel of 4,407 young people from 24 communities was surveyed at age 23, twelve years after baseline in grade 5. Primary outcomes were lifetime abstinence from substance use and antisocial behaviour; secondary outcomes were four-year college completion, major depression and generalised anxiety. CTC showed a statistically significant global effect on the primary outcomes and on primary and secondary outcomes combined. Point estimates put the absolute gain in lifetime abstinence at 3.5–6.1 percentage points (13–55% relative), though confidence intervals were wide; college completion was 1.9 points higher (20% relative) and mental health did not differ. The authors call these sustained effects small. Benefit–cost analysis nonetheless found CTC reliably cost-beneficial: net present value $7,152 per participant (95% credible interval $1,253–$15,268) from primary impacts and $17,919 ($306–$39,186) with secondary ones, still positive after discounting for the developer’s involvement in the trial. The central reference for the economic case for CTC. Read more →CitationKuklinski, M. R., Oesterle, S., Briney, J. S., & Hawkins, J. D. (2021). Long-term Impacts and Benefit–Cost Analysis of the Communities That Care Prevention System at Age 23, 12 Years After Baseline. Prevention Science, 22(4), 452–463. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-021-01218-7 | |||||
| 2021 | Liermann, C., Kruppik, S., Tetzlaff, F. | ArticleDie CTC-Bundestransferstelle – eine Kooperation von DFK und DPT | Article | German | |
SummaryArticle in German from forum kriminalprävention (3/2021) introducing the CTC-Bundestransferstelle, the national transfer office for Communities That Care set up jointly by the Stiftung Deutsches Forum für Kriminalprävention (DFK) and the Deutscher Präventionstag (DPT). It first restates what CTC offers a municipality: a prevention framework that guides local actors, on the basis of a systematic analysis of risk and protective factors and existing strengths, to realign their prevention strategy for the long term and add effective programmes where needs are found, with training, tools and coaching from outside while the municipality itself remains the acting party. The framework strengthens and creates structures and values municipal autonomy and sustainability; implementing it means respecting local particularities and enabling multipliers on the ground to run CTC independently and permanently. The transfer office, financed as a four-year DFK project by the Federal Ministry of Justice and working closely with the Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen, therefore trains state-level multipliers who can coach municipalities in their own federal state. Training began in 2020 with a pilot in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Hesse, followed in 2021 by Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, so that CTC training becomes available nationwide. Read more →CitationLiermann, C., Kruppik, S., Tetzlaff, F. (2021). Die CTC-Bundestransferstelle – eine Kooperation von DFK und DPT. | |||||
| 2021 | Röding, D., Soellner, R., Reder, M., Birgel, V., Kleiner, C., Stolz, M., Groeger-Roth, F., Krauth, C., & Walter, U. | Study protocolStudy protocol: a non-randomised community trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the Communities That Care prevention system in Germany | Study protocol | English | |
SummaryProtocol for CTC-EFF, the first controlled study of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of Communities That Care in Germany, published in BMC Public Health. Twenty-one communities in CTC phases 1–3 and 21 individually matched comparison communities were recruited for a non-randomised trial. Long-term outcomes are measured through a cohort of Grade 5 pupils surveyed biennially on antisocial behaviour, substance use, well-being and risk and protective factors, plus biennial cross-sectional surveys in Grades 6, 8, 10 and 11. Short-term system-change outcomes come from a cohort of ten key informants per community (adoption of science-based prevention, collaboration, community support, norms), a biennial inventory of all ongoing prevention programmes including costs and implementation, and annual surveys of CTC board members on team functioning and coalition capacity. Analysis uses mixed models to estimate the average treatment effect and mediation analyses to test the logic model. The trial is registered as DRKS00022819 and is the study on which European evidence for CTC will most directly rest. Read more →CitationRöding, D., Soellner, R., Reder, M., Birgel, V., Kleiner, C., Stolz, M., Groeger-Roth, F., Krauth, C., & Walter, U. (2021). Study protocol: a non-randomised community trial to evaluate the effectiveness of the Communities That Care prevention system in Germany. BMC Public Health, 21(1), Article 1927. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-021-11935-x | |||||
| 2021 | Röding, D., Walter, U., Soellner, R., Krauth, C., Runge, R., Kula, A., & Groeger-Roth, F. | Conference paperEvaluating the Effectiveness of Communities That Care in Germany: Rationale and Study Design of CTC-EFF | Conference paper | English | |
SummaryConference abstract in Das Gesundheitswesen presenting the rationale and design of CTC-EFF, the German effectiveness study of Communities That Care funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The authors frame CTC as a system that helps communities assess local prevention gaps from epidemiological data and then select, implement and monitor evidence-based interventions. CTC was transferred to Germany in 2008; CTC-EFF aims to replicate the original US effectiveness trial. The abstract presents the five-phase model, the logic model and a quasi-experimental design in which each intervention community, receiving training and technical assistance, is paired with a socio-demographically similar control community. Community-level outputs such as capacity building and adoption of a science-based prevention framework are measured biannually, coalition functioning and CTC milestones annually in intervention sites, and an annual pupil panel survey tracks health behaviour. The optimal sample is 4,733 pupils in 24 communities; five intervention communities had been recruited at the time of writing. Read more →CitationRöding, D., Walter, U., Soellner, R., Krauth, C., Runge, R., Kula, A., & Groeger-Roth, F. (2021). Evaluating the Effectiveness of Communities That Care in Germany: Rationale and Study Design of CTC-EFF. Das Gesundheitswesen. | |||||
| 2021 | Schneider, D. R., Thurow, C. F., Brown, E. C., & Murta, S. G. | Book chapterCommunities That Care (CTC): Community Prevention Interventions | Book chapter | English | |
SummaryChapter in the Springer volume “Drugs and Human Behavior” introducing Communities That Care to a Brazilian and wider Portuguese-speaking readership. The authors describe CTC as a community-based system that combines the assessment of risk and protective factors for drug use, violence and interpersonal aggression with a survey of community knowledge, goals and values, producing a community profile from which collectively agreed actions and evidence-based programmes are chosen. They place CTC among the most widely used prevention systems in the world, implemented and tested in more than 500 US communities and adapted in Australia, Canada, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Latin American countries including Colombia, Chile and Mexico. The chapter then discusses the prospects for adapting and implementing CTC in Brazil, anticipating the Comunidades que Cuidam pilot that the same group later launched. It is a narrative overview without new data, useful as an orientation to the Latin American branch of the CTC family. Read more →CitationSchneider, D. R., Thurow, C. F., Brown, E. C., & Murta, S. G. (2021). Communities That Care (CTC): Community Prevention Interventions. In Drugs and human behavior: Biopsychosocial aspects of psychotropic substances use (pp. 371–380). Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-62855-0_26 | |||||
| 2021 | Thurow, C. F., Nunes, C., & Schneider, D. R. | ReviewPsychometrics and cultural adaptations of the Communities That Care Youth Survey: A systematic review. | Review | English | |
SummarySystematic review, following PRISMA, of the psychometric validations and cross-cultural adaptations of the Communities That Care Youth Survey (CTCYS), undertaken to prepare its Brazilian validation. Searches in PubMed, SpringerLink, Scopus and Web of Science yielded 20 eligible articles. Overall, construct-validity indices were adequate, and the risk and protective factor measures were equivalent across ethnic groups, genders and at-risk populations; reliability was good for most scales, averaging about 0.78. Adaptations from six countries produced partly satisfactory results, but generally weaker than the original US instrument or its adjustments to other US ethnic groups and subpopulations. The authors conclude that the survey can be a reliable and valid measure of risk and protection across cultures, while noting a gap in how cross-cultural adaptation processes are conducted and documented. For European CTC sites the review is the reference point for judging how much confidence a translated youth survey deserves. Read more →CitationThurow, C. F., Nunes, C., & Schneider, D. R. (2021). Psychometrics and cultural adaptations of the Communities That Care Youth Survey: A systematic review. Journal of Community Psychology, 49(7), 2892–2904. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.22529 | |||||
| 2020 | Downey, H., & Threlkeld, G. | StudyHow can the governance of communities that care interventions be enhanced by understandings of community development? | Study | English | |
SummaryQualitative case study from a formal evaluation of Communities That Care in a small rural Australian community, examined through a collaborative-governance lens. CTC relies on designated governance groups, the key leaders and the community board, as the main instruments for building local capacity to improve young people's lives. The authors interviewed members of these structures about how CTC operated and what value it had at the intersection of youth and rural disadvantage. Their findings suggest that CTC's potential for sustainable community change grows when governance is endogenous: when it recognises and develops the leadership potential of residents rather than relying on external or professional actors. Published in the Community Development Journal, the paper brings community-development theory to bear on a prevention system now used internationally, and offers practitioners and organisations considering CTC a set of insights on how coalition governance can be designed to hold up over time. Read more →CitationDowney, H., & Threlkeld, G. (2020). How can the governance of communities that care interventions be enhanced by understandings of community development? Community Development Journal, 56(3), 487–505. DOI: 10.1093/cdj/bsaa012 | |||||
| 2020 | Fistrić, J.-L. | ThesisSpremnost zajednice za preventivno djelovanje: primjer projekta »Prevencija u zajednici« | Thesis | Croatian | |
SummaryMaster's thesis that follows up the „Prevencija u zajednici“ project, the 2017–2018 initiative in which Udruga roditelja Korak po korak and the Zagreb faculty introduced the first CTC phases in three towns around Zagreb. The author re-assessed the readiness of the town of Jastrebarsko for prevention six months after the project ended and compared it with the initial assessment made at the project's start. The study rests on the Community Readiness Model with its six dimensions and nine stages; data came from a focus group with the members of the town's prevention council, analysed qualitatively, the readiness stage per dimension and overall being the only quantitative indicator. Jastrebarsko was placed at stage 4 (preplanning): citizens recognise part of the behavioural problems of children and young people, most prevention programmes rest on needs-assessment results and many activities run, but comprehensive planning, implementation and evaluation are lacking. Cross-sectoral networking of professionals was the main resource, stigma attached to taking part in prevention programmes the main risk. Compared with the first assessment, four dimensions improved, one was unchanged, and the newly added community-climate dimension lowered the overall score. The thesis proposes activities to raise readiness and a new prevention priority. Read more →CitationFistrić, J.-L. (2020). Spremnost zajednice za preventivno djelovanje: primjer projekta »Prevencija u zajednici« [Master's thesis (diplomski rad), University of Zagreb, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences; mentor Martina Ferić; defended 15 September 2020]. Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet. Source: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:158:330220 | |||||
| 2020 | Kapardis, A., Spanoudis, G., Kapardi, M.-K., & Konstantinou, M. | ArticleΠροβλέποντας μεταβλητές που συσχετίζονται με ή αντιστρατεύονται την αντικοινωνική συμπεριφορά στην Κύπρο: Μια εμπειρική εγκληματολογική προσέγγιση με εφήβους 12-15 ετών | Article | Greek | |
SummaryCongress communication printed in the annual issue of the journal Εγκληματολογία that collects the papers of the Hellenic Society of Criminology's Second Panhellenic Congress on crime prevention. It condenses the Cypriot Communities That Care school survey already reported in the authors' 2016 Festschrift chapter, with Greek and English abstracts. The paper reviews antisocial behaviour in Cyprus, the legal framework and earlier self-report surveys, then presents the CTC survey of 871 pupils aged 12 to 15 in three Nicosia-district gymnasia (Latsia, Aglantzia, Klirou), collected between 2007 and 2012 with a 112-item questionnaire and analysed with structural equation models against eleven delinquency indicators. Risk and protective factors at the level of the pupil, the family, the school and the neighbourhood were related to alcohol and drug use and offending; some protective factors ameliorated the effect of risk factors, and risk factors related far more strongly to antisocial activity than protective factors did. The authors read the findings as consistent with surveys in the Netherlands, the United States and Australia and as an argument for addressing risk and protective factors simultaneously. As with the 2016 chapter, it is a cross-sectional analysis and reports no evaluation of the Latsia programme. Read more →CitationKapardis, A., Spanoudis, G., Kapardi, M.-K., & Konstantinou, M. (2020). Προβλέποντας μεταβλητές που συσχετίζονται με ή αντιστρατεύονται την αντικοινωνική συμπεριφορά στην Κύπρο: Μια εμπειρική εγκληματολογική προσέγγιση με εφήβους 12-15 ετών. Εγκληματολογία, 2020 (Έτος 10ο), 39–45. Source: https://www.hscriminology.gr/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/EGKLHMA_2020.pdf | |||||
| 2020 | Reilly, R., Gendera, S., Treloar, C., Roe, Y., Conigrave, K., Azzopardi, P., & Ward, J. | StudyIdentifying risk and protective factors, including culture and identity, for methamphetamine use in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities: Relevance of the 'communities that care' model | Study | English | |
SummaryQualitative study testing whether the Communities That Care risk-and-protective-factor framework fits the determinants of methamphetamine use as described by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander stakeholders in Australia. Focus groups and individual interviews were held in Aboriginal communities nationwide with 147 key stakeholders (80% Aboriginal; 44% female; aged 16–69, median 40); data were analysed thematically with the CTC domains as a deductive coding frame, leaving room for additional themes. Relevant factors emerged in all four CTC domains, community, family, school and peer/individual, but these did not capture what participants considered most important, which the authors grouped into an additional domain of culture and identity. They conclude that CTC's framework does not adequately reflect the specific drivers of use in this context and that different, community-informed models are needed. A rare critical test of the framework's cultural boundaries, relevant wherever CTC is applied with Indigenous or minority communities. Read more →CitationReilly, R., Gendera, S., Treloar, C., Roe, Y., Conigrave, K., Azzopardi, P., & Ward, J. (2020). Identifying risk and protective factors, including culture and identity, for methamphetamine use in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities: Relevance of the 'communities that care' model. Social Science & Medicine, 266, 113451. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113451 | |||||
| 2019 | Chilenski, S. M., Frank, J., Summers, N., & Lew, D. | StudyPublic Health Benefits 16 Years After a Statewide Policy Change: Communities That Care in Pennsylvania | Study | English | |
SummaryEvaluation in Prevention Science of what CTC achieves when spread by policy rather than by researchers: Pennsylvania has funded CTC coalitions since the 1990s, and the system has been installed in over 500 communities worldwide outside trial conditions. Using biennial anonymous surveys of students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12 from 2001 to 2011, the authors analysed 470,798 observations from 388 school districts in a repeated cross-sectional design with propensity-score weighting at district level. Outcomes were lifetime and past-30-day use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other drugs, delinquency and current depressive symptoms. Districts served by CTC coalitions showed significantly lower substance use, delinquency and depression; the effect was small to moderate depending on the outcome and became stronger once the use of evidence-based programmes was taken into account, pointing to variation in implementation quality. The first large-scale evidence that CTC effects appear outside a research context, with an effect size practitioners should quote as modest. Read more →CitationChilenski, S. M., Frank, J., Summers, N., & Lew, D. (2019). Public Health Benefits 16 Years After a Statewide Policy Change: Communities That Care in Pennsylvania. Prevention Science, 20(6), 947–958. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-019-01028-y | |||||
| 2019 | Fagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., Farrington, D. P., & Catalano, R. F. | BookCommunities that care: Building community engagement and capacity to prevent youth behavior problems | Book | English | |
SummaryBook by the developers and leading evaluators of Communities That Care, setting out the conditions and actions required for effective community-based prevention. Its chapters cover how communities build readiness for prevention among local stakeholders, form and sustain diverse and well-functioning coalitions, conduct local needs and resource assessments, agree on priorities collectively, select evidence-based interventions that fit prioritised needs, resources and context, and implement them with fidelity and sustain them over time. CTC is described in detail as the worked example: a coalition-based system shown to promote healthy youth development and reduce behaviour problems community-wide by raising support for evidence-based interventions, encouraging positive interaction between residents and young people, using local data to set priorities, matching interventions to those priorities and ensuring they are coordinated, delivered faithfully, widely disseminated and evaluated. The book also recounts CTC's development through community-based participatory research and the rigorous trial that tested it, making it the standard reference for anyone introducing the system in Europe. Read more →CitationFagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., Farrington, D. P., & Catalano, R. F. (2019). Communities that care: Building community engagement and capacity to prevent youth behavior problems. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190299217.001.0001 | |||||
| 2019 | Groeger-Roth, F. | ArticleCommunities That Care: integrierte Gewaltprävention in der Kommune | Article | German | |
SummaryGerman-language overview in Public Health Forum presenting Communities That Care as a strategy for integrated violence prevention at municipal level. The author, of the Lower Saxony Crime Prevention Council, describes it as a cross-setting approach: instead of treating violence, substance use and mental health as separate portfolios, a municipality uses one shared analysis of risk and protective factors to develop or refine an integrated strategy for violence prevention and health promotion. Two practical consequences are stressed. Prevention offers are concentrated on the risk and protective factors that matter most for local children and adolescents, and evaluated programmes are anchored permanently in regular institutions such as schools, childcare and youth services instead of running as time-limited projects. The piece contains no new data; its value for European readers lies in showing how CTC bridges the public-health and community-safety agendas that usually operate apart. Read more →CitationGroeger-Roth, F. (2019). Communities That Care: integrierte Gewaltprävention in der Kommune. Public Health Forum, 27(1), 37–39. | |||||
| 2019 | Salazar, A. M., Haggerty, K. P., Briney, J. S., Vann, T., Vinson, J., Lansing, M., Catalano, R. F., Pecora, P. J., & Haan, B. D. | StudyAssessing an Adapted Approach to Communities That Care for Child Maltreatment Prevention | Study | English | |
SummaryEvaluation of Keeping Families Together (KFT), an adaptation of Communities That Care that applies the same coalition-based mobilisation model to preventing child maltreatment community-wide in families with children aged 0 to 10. Data from the two Oregon communities implementing KFT were compared, about 3.5 years into implementation, with the 12 communities that delivered standard CTC in the site-randomised Community Youth Development Study. The comparison covered implementation quality, board functioning, community transformation (adoption of a science-based approach to prevention) and perceived sustainability. On board functioning, adoption of a science-based approach and sustainability, the adapted KFT sites were equal or superior to the standard CTC sites at the same point in time. The authors present KFT as a promising extension of CTC into child-protection prevention, and the study shows that the system's process can be re-aimed at an earlier age group and a different outcome without losing coalition quality. Read more →CitationSalazar, A. M., Haggerty, K. P., Briney, J. S., Vann, T., Vinson, J., Lansing, M., Catalano, R. F., Pecora, P. J., & Haan, B. D. (2019). Assessing an Adapted Approach to Communities That Care for Child Maltreatment Prevention. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 10(3), 349–369. DOI: 10.1086/704210 | |||||
| 2019 | Toumbourou, J. W., Rowland, B., Williams, J., Smith, R., & Patton, G. | StudyCommunity intervention to prevent adolescent health behavior problems: Evaluation of communities that care in Australia | Study | English | |
SummaryPopulation-level evaluation of Communities That Care in Australia, where the process was introduced from 2001 to address high rates of adolescent alcohol use. Trends were examined in self-report surveys of 41,328 adolescents (mean age 13.5; 51.7% female) across 109 municipal localities between 1999 and 2015. Multilevel models compared the five localities of the first four CTC coalitions to complete the process with the remaining 104 localities on lifetime alcohol, tobacco and cannabis use and past-year antisocial behaviour. Relative to the national trend, adolescents in CTC localities reported significantly steeper annual reductions in alcohol use (AOR 0.94; 95% CI 0.93–0.95), tobacco (AOR 0.97; 0.96–0.99), cannabis (AOR 0.96; 0.93–0.98) and antisocial behaviour. The effects are small per year but accumulate over a long window, and the authors read them as evidence that supporting community coalitions to adopt evidence-based interventions is a feasible route to improving the health of large youth populations. The Australian benefit–cost analysis builds on this paper. Read more →CitationToumbourou, J. W., Rowland, B., Williams, J., Smith, R., & Patton, G. (2019). Community intervention to prevent adolescent health behavior problems: Evaluation of communities that care in Australia. Health Psychology, 38(6), 536–544. DOI: 10.1037/hea0000735 | |||||
| 2018 | Brady, S., Parker, C. J., Jeffries, E. F., Simpson, T., Brooke-Weiss, B. L., & Haggerty, K. | StudyImplementing the Communities That Care Prevention System: Challenges, Solutions, and Opportunities in an Urban Setting | Study | English | |
SummaryProcess evaluation of Communities That Care in an ethnically diverse urban community in the US Midwest. CTC had been refined and tested for over 25 years, mostly in small towns, before systematic urban evaluation began. To check whether the coalition's priorities matched the lived experience of Black families, the team ran in-depth surveys with 25 Black boys aged 8 to 14 and their caregivers (data 2014–2017, analysed 2017–2018). About 30% of the boys reported experiencing or perpetrating bullying at school, which supported the coalition's decision to fund social-skills and bullying-prevention programming. Other data argued for widening the action plan to family transitions and mobility: roughly a third of caregivers received welfare assistance and a third of families had moved in the previous year. The authors conclude that where residents have experienced historical and current inequities, an effective prevention plan may need to address structural as well as social determinants, a caution for European cities adapting CTC to disadvantaged neighbourhoods. Read more →CitationBrady, S., Parker, C. J., Jeffries, E. F., Simpson, T., Brooke-Weiss, B. L., & Haggerty, K. (2018). Implementing the Communities That Care Prevention System: Challenges, Solutions, and Opportunities in an Urban Setting. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 55(5), S70–S81. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2018.05.019 | |||||
| 2018 | Fagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Farrington, D. P. | Book chapterThe Future of CTC and Community-Based Prevention | Book chapter | English | |
SummaryClosing chapter of the 2018 Oxford University Press book Communities That Care: Building Community Engagement and Capacity to Prevent Youth Behavior Problems, written by the system’s developers and its principal evaluators. The authors note that community-based prevention is widely expected to reduce youth behavioural health problems, yet few such systems have been evaluated well enough to show it. They review the impact of CTC, then identify the components they consider responsible for the changes in community norms and processes the trial documented and for the system’s effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. A section on challenges addresses what communities in the United States and abroad may encounter when implementing CTC or similar interventions, with proposed solutions. The chapter ends with recent developments: an online training system that replaces much of the face-to-face delivery, and international replications. For European readers the international and training sections are the most immediately useful; the book as a whole is the current standard reference on the model. Read more →CitationFagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Farrington, D. P. (2018). The Future of CTC and Community-Based Prevention. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190299217.003.0010 | |||||
| 2018 | Fagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Farrington, D. P. | Book chapterCommunity-Based Prevention of Youth Behavioral Health Problems | Book chapter | English | |
SummaryOpening chapter of the 2018 Oxford University Press book Communities That Care: Building Community Engagement and Capacity to Prevent Youth Behavior Problems. It sets the frame in public-health terms: substance use, delinquency, violence, school dropout and mental-health problems in childhood and adolescence carry social and financial costs that prevention can reduce. Prevention scientists across disciplines have developed and tested interventions that lower risk factors and raise protective factors, and a growing number have been shown to prevent the onset or reduce the frequency of several problems at once. These evidence-based interventions are, however, rarely used by community organisations. The chapter asks how community prevention systems – CTC in particular – can build local capacity to implement them, describes CTC’s core components and the evidence for its effectiveness, and compares it with other community-based prevention systems. The best single introduction for a European decision-maker who wants the logic of the model before the detail of its five phases. Read more →CitationFagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Farrington, D. P. (2018). Community-Based Prevention of Youth Behavioral Health Problems. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190299217.003.0001 | |||||
| 2018 | Fagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Farrington, D. P. | Book chapterFindings From the Community Youth Development Study | Book chapter | English | |
SummaryChapter 8 of Communities That Care: Building Community Engagement and Capacity to Prevent Youth Behavior Problems, describing the randomised controlled trial of CTC and showing that a community-based prevention system can be evaluated with this rigorous design. The Community Youth Development Study involved 24 communities in seven US states. The chapter explains how communities and state-level partners were recruited into the trial and which instruments were used to collect data from community key leaders, service providers, coalition leaders and young people in CTC and control communities. It then summarises the findings: the intended changes in community-level processes, in the risk and protective factors reported by young people and in their behavioural and health problems, together with estimates of CTC's cost–benefit ratio. A concise, authoritative digest of the trial for readers who want the evidence base in one place before turning to the individual outcome papers. Read more →CitationFagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Farrington, D. P. (2018). Findings From the Community Youth Development Study. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780190299217.003.0008 | |||||
| 2018 | Groeger-Roth, F. | ArticleKommunale Prävention effektiv planen und umsetzen - Communities That Care (CTC) als Gesamtstrategie für die entwicklungsorientierte Prävention | Article | German | |
SummaryTwo-page article in German from forum kriminalprävention (3/2018) that presents Communities That Care as an overall strategy for developmental prevention at municipal level. Starting from the observation that many local prevention activities run side by side without anyone knowing what they achieve, the author describes how CTC gives municipalities the instruments and methods to target their prevention work more precisely and concentrate scarce resources on effective programmes. The strategy, developed in the United States and transferred to Germany by the Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen in a 2009–2012 model trial, has been used in various municipalities since 2013 and is implemented in five consecutive phases: clarifying readiness and framework conditions, setting up organisational structures, compiling a data-based community profile from the CTC youth survey, developing an action plan around the most important risk and protective factors with programmes from the Grüne Liste Prävention, and anchoring the plan in regular structures. The article closes with the new nationwide transfer office founded with the DFK and DPT in September 2018 and an Auridis-funded project on linking CTC to statutory youth welfare planning in Braunschweig and the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald. Read more →CitationGroeger-Roth, F. (2018). Kommunale Prävention effektiv planen und umsetzen - Communities That Care (CTC) als Gesamtstrategie für die entwicklungsorientierte Prävention. | |||||
| 2018 | Haggerty, K. P., & McCowan, K. J. | StudyUsing the Social Development Strategy to Unleash the Power of Prevention | Study | English | |
SummaryConceptual paper on the Social Development Strategy (SDS), the theoretical framework behind Communities That Care that explains how young people develop healthy behaviour and how problem behaviour can be prevented. The authors start from the disproportionate poverty rates among racial minority populations that drive disparities in education and in physical and behavioural health, and argue that reducing such disparities requires addressing poverty and inequality rather than problematising individual behaviour. The SDS accounts for systemic inequities through two constructs: position in the social structure (race, socioeconomic status, age, gender) and external constraints such as neighbourhood safety and informal social control. It organises healthy development around the opportunities, skills and recognition that let young people bond to family, school and community. The paper reviews interventions grounded in SDS principles and shows how they can be read as tools against health disparities, background for practitioners who want to understand the model on which CTC's risk and protection logic rests. Read more →CitationHaggerty, K. P., & McCowan, K. J. (2018). Using the Social Development Strategy to Unleash the Power of Prevention. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 9(4), 741–763. DOI: 10.1086/700274 | |||||
| 2018 | Hentschel, J. | ArticlePassgenaue Prävention für eine ganze Stadt oder Überforderung? Communities That Care (CTC) in Augsburg | Article | German | |
SummaryPractice report in German from forum kriminalprävention (3/2018) on Augsburg, one of the first large German cities to implement Communities That Care city-wide rather than in a single neighbourhood, and on what that scale demands of a city administration. The author, project lead for CTC in Augsburg, describes two fields of action from the first two CTC phases. The first is cross-departmental cooperation: CTC sits with the city’s Office for Municipal Prevention, a staff unit of the department for public order, health and sport, and is steered technically by a cross-departmental CTC working group drawn from youth welfare planning, education planning, youth services and crime prevention. The second is spatial planning: to obtain small-area results from the CTC student survey, Augsburg used its 24 established social monitoring districts rather than its 42 city districts; around 3,000 pupils took part, 19 districts reached at least 50 respondents, four were merged and one excluded. The interim verdict is that neither challenge overwhelmed the administration, and that a well-chosen planning grid and embedding in existing structures are the conditions for tailored city-wide prevention. Read more →CitationHentschel, J. (2018). Passgenaue Prävention für eine ganze Stadt oder Überforderung? Communities That Care (CTC) in Augsburg. | |||||
| 2018 | Montero Zamora, P., Reyes Rodríguez, M. F., Cardozo Macías, F., Brown, E. C., Pérez Gómez, A., Mejía Trujillo, J., Toro Bermúdez, J., & Paredes Aguilar, M. | StudyUso de sustancias en adolescentes y su asociación con factores de riesgo y protección. Un análisis exploratorio de la encuesta escolar a gran escala de Comunidades Que se Cuidan, Colombia | Study | Spanish | |
SummaryLarge cross-sectional validation study from Colombia testing whether the risk and protective factors measured by the Comunidades Que se Cuidan youth survey, the Colombian adaptation of the Communities That Care Youth Survey, actually relate to substance use there. Data came from 50,946 adolescents aged 10–19 in 23 communities surveyed between 2012 and 2016. Logistic regressions related each of 14 risk and protective factors to lifetime, past-year and past-30-day use of alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis and other illegal drugs, adjusting for age, sex and their interactions with each factor. All associations were statistically significant (p < .001); about 3% of the effects were very small, 52% small, 43% medium and 7% large. Age, sex and their interactions with the factors were significant for most factors. The authors conclude that the factors are valid targets for planning and evaluating data-driven community prevention in Colombia. The design is cross-sectional, so it establishes association rather than prediction. Read more →CitationMontero Zamora, P., Reyes Rodríguez, M. F., Cardozo Macías, F., Brown, E. C., Pérez Gómez, A., Mejía Trujillo, J., Toro Bermúdez, J., & Paredes Aguilar, M. (2018). Uso de sustancias en adolescentes y su asociación con factores de riesgo y protección. Un análisis exploratorio de la encuesta escolar a gran escala de Comunidades Que se Cuidan, Colombia. Adicciones, 32(2), 105–115. | |||||
| 2018 | Oesterle, S., Kuklinski, M. R., Hawkins, J. D., Skinner, M. L., Guttmannova, K., & Rhew, I. C. | StudyLong-term effects of the Communities That Care trial on substance use, antisocial behavior, and violence through age 21 years | Study | English | |
SummaryLong-term follow-up of the Community Youth Development Study, the community-randomised trial of Communities That Care in seven US states (NCT01088542). Nine waves of prospective data (2004–2014) from the panel of 4,407 participants, grade 5 to age 21, were analysed with multilevel models for sustained abstinence, lifetime incidence and past-year prevalence of substance use, antisocial behaviour and violence. Through age 21, young people from CTC communities were 49% more likely to have sustained abstinence from gateway drugs and 18% more likely to have abstained from antisocial behaviour, and their lifetime incidence of violence was 11% lower. Among men, CTC also raised the likelihood of sustained abstinence from tobacco by 30% and from marijuana by 24% and lowered lifetime inhalant use by 18%. No effects were found on past-year prevalence of any behaviour. The authors conclude that CTC in early adolescence reduced the lifetime incidence of health-risking behaviour into young adulthood, the trial's furthest outcome horizon to date. Read more →CitationOesterle, S., Kuklinski, M. R., Hawkins, J. D., Skinner, M. L., Guttmannova, K., & Rhew, I. C. (2018). Long-term effects of the Communities That Care trial on substance use, antisocial behavior, and violence through age 21 years. American Journal of Public Health, 108(5), 659–665. | |||||
| 2018 | Parker, C. J., Winston, W., Simpson, T., & Brady, S. S. | StudyCommunity Readiness to Adopt the Communities That Care Prevention System in an Urban Setting | Study | English | |
SummaryQualitative readiness assessment in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine from a five-year project in a US city that set out to build a coalition for the well-being of Black boys and young men and their families – connectedness to family, school and community, academic investment and social-emotional health, alongside prevention of risk behaviour – following the CTC phases. In the first year (2013/14) the team held semi-structured interviews with 14 community members: parents, school administrators and teachers, community leaders and volunteers. Respondents defined their community, named its strengths and existing resources, imagined what a coalition should do, recommended prevention targets and identified barriers to participation and cohesion. They expressed eagerness to adopt CTC and saw stronger links between home, school and community as the central task. A small single-site study, but one of the few published accounts of CTC readiness work in a disadvantaged urban setting. Read more →CitationParker, C. J., Winston, W., Simpson, T., & Brady, S. S. (2018). Community Readiness to Adopt the Communities That Care Prevention System in an Urban Setting. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 55(5), S59–S69. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2018.05.022 | |||||
| 2018 | Schwendemann, H. E., Frisch, J. U., Reder, M., Mößle, T., Soellner, R., & Bitzer, E. M. | StudyThe Communities That Care (CTC) Family Attachment Scale: Measurement Invariance Across Family Structures | Study | English | |
SummaryMeasurement study on the family attachment scale of the German Communities That Care Youth Survey. Family protective factors are central to prevention, yet evidence on measuring them in families other than the two-parent household is thin, although valid measurement is a precondition for evaluating targeted interventions. The authors examined the factor structure of the CTC Family Attachment Scale and its measurement invariance across family structures in 2,459 adolescents in grades 6 to 11 in Lower Saxony. Confirmatory factor analysis supported a two-factor solution, attachment to mother and attachment to father, with good fit (CFI 0.996; RMSEA 0.050; SRMR 0.019) and strong measurement invariance between adolescents from two-parent and single-parent families. The scale therefore appears suitable for assessing family attachment reliably in both family types, which matters for CTC communities because the survey's protective-factor profile has to be comparable across the range of household forms found in a municipality. Read more →CitationSchwendemann, H. E., Frisch, J. U., Reder, M., Mößle, T., Soellner, R., & Bitzer, E. M. (2018). The Communities That Care (CTC) Family Attachment Scale: Measurement Invariance Across Family Structures. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 27(5), 1440–1448. DOI: 10.1007/s10826-017-1009-9 | |||||
| 2018 | Soellner, R., Reder, M., & Frisch, J. U. | ReportCommunities That Care. Schülerbefragung in Niedersachsen 2017 | Report | German | |
SummaryReport in German from the Universitätsverlag Hildesheim (2018) documenting the third state-wide CTC student survey in Lower Saxony, conducted in May and June 2017 by the University of Hildesheim in cooperation with the Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen at the Ministry of Justice. Communities That Care aims to prevent adolescent problem behaviour by establishing positive conditions in municipalities that let children and young people grow up safely and healthily, and the state-wide survey supplies the reference values against which a municipality can read its own local survey. A stratified random sample of 308 classes at 268 schools in grades 6 to 11 was drawn with a target of 7,000 pupils; 2,752 took part and 2,284 questionnaires remained after data cleaning, weighted by grade and school type. The report presents prevalences of problem behaviours and of the CTC risk and protective factors for the whole state, so that CTC coalitions can identify the problem areas of their community and choose matching prevention programmes. Read more →CitationSoellner, R., Reder, M., & Frisch, J. U. (2018). Communities That Care. Schülerbefragung in Niedersachsen 2017. Universitätsverlag Hildesheim. DOI: 10.18442/802 | |||||
| 2017 | Dillon, L. | ArticleCommunities That Care: a review | Article | English | |
SummaryShort bulletin article in Drugnet Ireland, the Health Research Board's drugs newsletter, reviewing the 2017 EMCDDA Paper "Communities That Care (CTC): a comprehensive prevention approach for communities". It places CTC in the context of the Irish national substance misuse strategy, which had endorsed community mobilisation, and describes CTC as a prevention operating system that helps communities assess young people's needs, coordinate stakeholders and select evidence-based programmes. The article summarises the EMCDDA review: 18 studies, 12 of them from the one US randomised trial, plus an Australian trial, a before-and-after study, two quasi-experimental studies and a report on international organisations; no meta-analysis was possible. The strongest evidence of reduced delinquency and substance use came from the US trial, while the two trials together did not settle the question of effectiveness. Four transferability issues for Europe are listed: a different concept of community, less rural and more heterogeneous sites, fewer evidence-based programmes and longer lead-in times. It closes with the EMCDDA's conclusion that CTC's effectiveness still needs to be assessed in Europe, ideally through a randomised trial. A digest rather than an original study; no Irish site existed in 2017. Read more →CitationDillon, L. (2017). Communities That Care: a review. Drugnet Ireland, (62), 21. Source: https://www.drugsandalcohol.ie/27745/ | |||||
| 2017 | European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction | ReviewCommunities That Care (CTC): a comprehensive prevention approach for communities | Review | English | |
SummaryEMCDDA Papers publication reviewing the evidence on Communities That Care as a drug-prevention approach, written by Laura Amato, Zuzana Mitrova and Marina Davoli (Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group). Following Cochrane methods, the authors searched the Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group register, CENTRAL, MEDLINE and EMBASE to September 2015 for randomised, controlled prospective and quasi-experimental evaluations of CTC coalitions with young people aged 12 to 25, screening 1,181 records and including 18 reports. These comprise the US Community Youth Development Study (one cluster RCT reported in twelve papers), an underpowered Australian community-action RCT, the English before-and-after evaluation by Crow and colleagues, two quasi-experimental Pennsylvania studies by Feinberg and colleagues, and an EMCDDA report on European implementation. Outcomes were too heterogeneous for meta-analysis, so results are described narratively: the US trial showed lower risk and lower initiation of alcohol, tobacco, delinquency and violence through grades 10 and 12, but no effect on current prevalence in grade 12; the Australian trial gave little evidence of effect. The paper concludes there is some evidence of effectiveness outside the EU, that cultural adaptation matters, and that a European multi-site randomised trial would be needed. Read more →CitationEuropean Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (2017). Communities That Care (CTC): a comprehensive prevention approach for communities. Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg (EMCDDA Papers). DOI: 10.2810/972747 | |||||
| 2017 | Haggerty, K. P. | Book chapterCommunities That Care (Wiley Encyclopedia of Juvenile Delinquency) | Book chapter | English | |
SummaryEncyclopaedia entry on Communities That Care in the Wiley Encyclopedia of Juvenile Delinquency and Justice, written by one of the system's developers. It presents CTC as a prevention system that gives communities the tools to address adolescent health and behaviour problems on a simple premise: identify the risk factors that are elevated and the protective factors that are depressed among local youth, then implement preventive interventions shown in rigorous trials to change those specific factors, and the prevalence of problem behaviours, delinquency among them, should fall. The entry describes how CTC engages community stakeholders in a shared vision and provides tools for assessment, prioritisation and goal setting, and it cites the evidence base as of 2017: the randomised controlled trial in 24 US communities and the quasi-experimental study in Pennsylvania. A short, citable definition of the system for reports and funding applications. Read more →CitationHaggerty, K. P. (2017). Communities That Care (Wiley Encyclopedia of Juvenile Delinquency). Wiley. DOI: 10.1002/9781118524275.ejdj0119 | |||||
| 2016 | Axford, N., Sonthalia, S., Wrigley, Z., Webb, L., Mokhtar, N., Brook, L., Wilkinson, T., Hunt, A., Timmons, L., Raja, A., Rawsthorn, M., Goodwin, A., Ohlson, C., Price, H., Whybra, L., Jamison, K., & Morpeth, L. | ReportWhat works in Europe? Developing a European Communities that Care database of effective prevention programmes | Report | English | |
SummaryThe programme review of the EU-funded CTC European Network (2013–2015). The Dartington Social Research Unit screened prevention programmes that had been evaluated in Europe against the Blueprints standards for evidence-based programmes and compiled the ones that met them into a European database for CTC communities, with the risk and protective factors each programme addresses. Partners in Austria, Croatia, Cyprus, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden supplied candidate programmes and studies. The review became the basis of the CTC entries in the EUDA Xchange prevention registry; it is a systematic screening of programme evidence, not an evaluation of CTC itself. Read more →CitationAxford, N., Sonthalia, S., Wrigley, Z., Webb, L., Mokhtar, N., Brook, L., Wilkinson, T., Hunt, A., Timmons, L., Raja, A., Rawsthorn, M., Goodwin, A., Ohlson, C., Price, H., Whybra, L., Jamison, K., & Morpeth, L. (2016). What works in Europe? Developing a European Communities that Care database of effective prevention programmes. Dartington Social Research Unit, for the CTC European Network. Source: https://communities-that-care.eu/downloads/ctc-european-network-what-works-in-europe-2016.pdf | |||||
| 2016 | Glavinić, M. | ThesisProcjena rizičnih i zaštitnih čimbenika u kontekstu otočke sredine: primjer otoka Visa | Thesis | Croatian | |
SummaryMaster's thesis that applies the adapted Croatian version of the Communities That Care Youth Survey to an island setting. After reviewing risk and protective factors in the individual, family, school and community domains, the CTC survey and the specifics of Croatian islands, the author reports a self-report survey of 110 children and young people on the island of Vis: 35 primary-school pupils (51.4 per cent boys) and 75 secondary-school pupils (49.3 per cent boys), drawing on a 2015 assessment report for the island. School-related risk factors were grade repetition, low perceived interest of lessons, a lack of leisure activities and parents uninformed about their children's successes at school; protective factors were academic achievement, few absences, attachment to teachers and teachers who notice prosocial behaviour. The strongest community risk factor was the high availability of substances, alcohol above all, together with a low perceived harmfulness of drinking in the community. Prosocial orientation, self-esteem and the weight given to parents' opinions appeared as protective, lower self-confidence and the weight given to peers' opinions as risks. The thesis is a small descriptive needs assessment intended as a basis for planning prevention on Vis; it contains no evaluation. Read more →CitationGlavinić, M. (2016). Procjena rizičnih i zaštitnih čimbenika u kontekstu otočke sredine: primjer otoka Visa [Master's thesis (diplomski rad, Socijalna pedagogija), University of Zagreb, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences; mentors Valentina Kranželić and Martina Ferić; defended 21 June 2016]. Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet. Source: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:158:893507 | |||||
| 2016 | Groeger-Roth, F. | Book chapterDie „Grüne Liste Prävention“: Eine Empfehlungsliste evaluierter Programme als Beitrag zur Evidenzbasierung in der Prävention | Book chapter | German | |
SummaryBook chapter (in German) in an edited volume on the effects of social work, presenting the Grüne Liste Prävention, the recommendation list of evaluated prevention programmes maintained by the Lower Saxony Crime Prevention Council. The author starts from the growing demand for evidence in prevention and the questions behind it: which programmes have which effects, for whom and under which conditions. Registers of tested programmes emerged mainly in the English-speaking world; the Grüne Liste adapts the idea for German-speaking practice. The chapter explains the register’s aims, its inclusion criteria, the rating criteria that sort programmes by the strength of their effectiveness evidence, the search functions and programme profiles, and its limits and planned development. Its central caution is that a good programme works only when it is implemented well; a poorly delivered programme can lose its effect entirely. For CTC communities the register is the tool used in the action-planning phase to match programmes to prioritised risk and protective factors. Read more →CitationGroeger-Roth, F. (2016). Die „Grüne Liste Prävention“: Eine Empfehlungsliste evaluierter Programme als Beitrag zur Evidenzbasierung in der Prävention. In Wirkungen Sozialer Arbeit (pp. 221–235). Verlag Barbara Budrich. | |||||
| 2016 | Groeger-Roth, F., van den Hazel, B., & de Vries, R. | ReportCommunities That Care in Europe 1998–2015. The implementation of a community based prevention strategy in Europe: Overview & experiences. Technical report on the CTC Implementation Guide | Report | English | |
SummaryThe technical report of the EU-funded CTC European Network (2013–2015) is the one public document that lists every known European CTC site up to 2015 with its start year and status: the United Kingdom (more than sixty sites 1998–2008, operations ceased 2009), the Netherlands (32 sites, most stopped by the mid-2010s), Germany, Croatia (Istria 2003–2012 and later cities), Cyprus (Latsia), Austria (a single youth-survey pilot in Sierning) and Sweden. It describes the adaptations of the CTC youth survey, the readiness and implementation experience of the partners and the lessons the network drew for a European implementation guide. It is an inventory and a practice report, not an evaluation; several country entries are marked "unknown" or "still running?" as of 2015. Read more →CitationGroeger-Roth, F., van den Hazel, B., & de Vries, R. (2016). Communities That Care in Europe 1998–2015. The implementation of a community based prevention strategy in Europe: Overview & experiences. Technical report on the CTC Implementation Guide. CTC European Network, with the financial support of the Prevention of and Fight against Crime Programme, European Commission. Source: https://communities-that-care.eu/downloads/ctc-european-network-implementation-guide-2016.pdf | |||||
| 2016 | Kapardis, A., Spanoudis, G., Kapardi, K., & Konstantinou, M. | Book chapterΗ μοντελοποίηση της διαδραστικότητας γενεσιουργών παραγόντων νεανικής αντικοινωνικής συμπεριφοράς στην Κύπρο: μια εμπειρική μελέτη 871 μαθητών Γυμνασίου | Book chapter | Greek | |
SummaryGreek-language chapter in the Festschrift for Nestor Courakis, presenting the school survey of the Cypriot Communities That Care programme. After outlining the risk and protective factor paradigm, the CTC approach and the Cypriot context, the authors describe the Latsia programme (after-school activities, a psychologist, a coordinator) and its survey: between 2007 and 2012, with consent of the Ministry of Education, 871 pupils aged 12 to 15 in three Nicosia-district gymnasia (Latsia, Aglantzia, Klirou) completed a 112-item questionnaire. The cross-sectional data were analysed with structural equation modelling, offending being measured by eleven indicators such as arrest, weapon carrying, drug selling, theft and assault. Risk and protective factors at individual, family, school and neighbourhood level were associated with alcohol and drug use and offending. In the model, family was the strongest protective component, school and neighbourhood moderate; among risk components, peers and school loaded highest, attitudes and neighbourhood lower; risk and protection correlated at −.51, and risk factors related far more strongly to antisocial activity (.98) than protective factors (.22). The authors conclude that prevention must reduce risk and strengthen protection at once, with the family first. The chapter analyses survey data; it does not evaluate the programme's effects. Read more →CitationKapardis, A., Spanoudis, G., Kapardi, K., & Konstantinou, M. (2016). Η μοντελοποίηση της διαδραστικότητας γενεσιουργών παραγόντων νεανικής αντικοινωνικής συμπεριφοράς στην Κύπρο: μια εμπειρική μελέτη 871 μαθητών Γυμνασίου. In M. Gasparinatou (Ed.), Έγκλημα και Ποινική Καταστολή σε Εποχή Κρίσης: Τιμητικός Τόμος για τον Καθηγητή Νέστορα Κουράκη (Τόμος Α΄) (pp. 1883–1898). Εκδόσεις Αντ. Ν. Σάκκουλα, Athens. Source: http://crime-in-crisis.com/η-μοντελοποίηση-της-διαδραστικότητα/ | |||||
| 2016 | Khalid, S., & Kausar, R. | InstrumentCommunities That Care Youth Survey – Urdu Version | Instrument | English | |
CitationKhalid, S., & Kausar, R. (2016). Communities That Care Youth Survey – Urdu Version. American Psychological Association (APA). DOI: 10.1037/t61795-000 | |||||
| 2016 | Pérez-Gómez, A., Mejía-Trujillo, J., Brown, E. C., & Eisenberg, N. | StudyAdaptation and Implementation of a Science-Based Prevention System in Colombia: Challenges and Achievements | Study | English | |
SummaryBrief report on the first two years of Comunidades Que se Cuidan (CQC), the Colombian adaptation of Communities That Care implemented by the Colombian government together with the Nuevos Rumbos Corporation. The authors describe the implementation process in eight communities and identify the main challenges and achievements. Preliminary results of the pilot indicate that a prevention system centred on measuring local risk and protective factors could be established in Latin American communities even though few rigorously tested prevention programmes were available for coalitions to choose from. Mobilising coalitions around science-based prevention and their own survey data, the authors argue, can itself stimulate the development and evaluation of prevention programmes in the region. The report is descriptive and offers no outcome data. For European adopters it is an instructive case of transferring CTC to a setting with thin programme infrastructure, a situation many countries new to prevention science share. Read more →CitationPérez-Gómez, A., Mejía-Trujillo, J., Brown, E. C., & Eisenberg, N. (2016). Adaptation and Implementation of a Science-Based Prevention System in Colombia: Challenges and Achievements. Journal of Community Psychology, 44(4), 538–545. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.21781 | |||||
| 2016 | Rhew, I. C., Monahan, K. C., Oesterle, S., & Hawkins, J. D. | StudyThe Communities That Care Brief Depression Scale: Psychometric Properties and Criterion Validity | Study | English | |
SummaryValidation study in the Journal of Community Psychology of the four-item Communities That Care Brief Depression Scale (CTC-BDS), designed for youth surveys that must also cover substance use, delinquency and risk factors and therefore have little room for a full depression measure. Data come from 3,939 adolescents in the Community Youth Development Study, the CTC trial in 24 US towns. The nine-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) served as the criterion for major depressive disorder. At a cut-point of 6, sensitivity and specificity of the CTC-BDS both exceeded .8, and the area under the ROC curve was .91. The authors conclude that the scale is short enough to fit into a community survey and accurate enough to monitor levels of youth depression over time. Relevant for European sites that want to add a mental-health indicator to their CTC youth survey without lengthening it. Read more →CitationRhew, I. C., Monahan, K. C., Oesterle, S., & Hawkins, J. D. (2016). The Communities That Care Brief Depression Scale: Psychometric Properties and Criterion Validity. Journal of Community Psychology, 44(3), 391–398. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.21766 | |||||
| 2016 | Salazar, A. M., Haggerty, K. P., de Haan, B., Catalano, R. F., Vann, T., Vinson, J., & Lansing, M. | StudyUsing Communities That Care for Community Child Maltreatment Prevention | Study | English | |
SummaryConceptual and pilot paper describing how Communities That Care was adapted in the United States to prevent child abuse and neglect and to promote well-being among children aged 0–10, as a route to preventing mental, emotional and behavioural disorders. After an overview of the standard CTC framework, the authors set out the adaptations required both to the intervention itself and to the evaluation approach. Preliminary findings from the “Keeping Families Together” pilot indicate that implementation was manageable for the participating sites and that community board functioning and adoption of a science-based approach to prevention looked promising. Implications and next steps are outlined. No child-level outcomes are reported. The paper matters for Europe because it shows the CTC process being reused for a different age group and a different problem, an example of the system’s adaptability that early-childhood and child-protection services may find relevant. Read more →CitationSalazar, A. M., Haggerty, K. P., de Haan, B., Catalano, R. F., Vann, T., Vinson, J., & Lansing, M. (2016). Using Communities That Care for Community Child Maltreatment Prevention. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 86(2), 144–155. DOI: 10.1037/ort0000078 | |||||
| 2016 | Soellner, R., Frisch, J. U., & Reder, M. | ReportCommunities That Care: Schülerbefragung in Niedersachsen 2015 | Report | German | |
SummaryReport in German from the Universitätsverlag Hildesheim (2016) on the 2015 state-wide CTC student survey in Lower Saxony, part of the Communities That Care prevention strategy and carried out in cooperation with the Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen at the Ministry of Justice. The University of Hildesheim’s Institute of Psychology prepared the data collection, analysed the data and wrote the report, while the participating schools administered the web-based questionnaire themselves. Pupils in grades 6 to 11 of all public and private mainstream schools formed the target population; a stratified systematic random sample with a target of 7,000 pupils was drawn, 115 of the 254 schools contacted took part with 125 classes, 2,670 pupils responded and 2,459 questionnaires were retained after cleaning and weighted to the state’s distribution of grades and school types. The resulting state-wide reference values for problem behaviours and for risk and protective factors are the benchmark against which Lower Saxony’s CTC municipalities compare their own local surveys when they compile their community profile. Read more →CitationSoellner, R., Frisch, J. U., & Reder, M. (2016). Communities That Care: Schülerbefragung in Niedersachsen 2015. Universitätsverlag Hildesheim. DOI: 10.18442/548 | |||||
| 2015 | Bašić, J. | ArticleCommunity Mobilization and Readiness: Planning Flaws which Challenge Effective Implementation of ‘Communities that Care’ (CTC) Prevention System | Article | English | |
SummaryShort reflective article by the leader of the Istrian CTC project, published in a Substance Use & Misuse special section. It reviews the experience of implementing a community approach to drug use and youth delinquency prevention based on the Communities That Care system in one Croatian county with 12 communities between 2002 and 2013 and singles out planning issues that are often neglected in the planning, implementation and process and outcome assessment of community substance-use interventions: mobilising an adequately representative group of people; involving the relevant individual and organisational stakeholders and knowing whether they are willing to take part; stakeholders' knowledge and perceptions of the drug and delinquency problems and of the target populations; community members who block change, and the need for enablers and bridges; community readiness to change; and a realistic assessment of the resources available to start and sustain change. All of these are described as potentially related to intervention success. The article closes with perspectives from prevention scientists and practitioners and lessons from Croatian community-readiness research and practice. It is an experience-based overview without new empirical data. Read more →CitationBašić, J. (2015). Community Mobilization and Readiness: Planning Flaws which Challenge Effective Implementation of ‘Communities that Care’ (CTC) Prevention System. Substance Use & Misuse, 50(8–9), 1083–1088. DOI: 10.3109/10826084.2015.1007655 | |||||
| 2015 | Fagan, A. A., & Hawkins, J. D. | Book chapterEnacting Preventive Interventions at the Community Level: The Communities That Care Prevention System | Book chapter | English | |
SummaryChapter in the American Psychological Association’s Handbook of Adolescent Drug Use Prevention reviewing what community-level interventions can do to reduce alcohol and drug use among children, adolescents and young adults, and what makes them hard to implement. Fagan and Hawkins concentrate on coalition-based strategies, in which residents and local professionals plan, deliver and oversee prevention so that services are coordinated, locally owned and delivered at scale. CTC is described in detail as the worked example: the training and technical assistance that help a coalition assess local needs from data, select tested programmes and monitor implementation quality. The chapter presents the results of the community-randomised evaluation of CTC in 24 communities in seven states and closes with recommendations for research on the mechanisms behind community-wide change in substance use and on the cost-effectiveness of the approach. A compact, citable summary of the CTC evidence as of 2015, written for practitioners rather than trialists. Read more →CitationFagan, A. A., & Hawkins, J. D. (2015). Enacting Preventive Interventions at the Community Level: The Communities That Care Prevention System. In Handbook of adolescent drug use prevention: Research, intervention strategies, and practice (pp. 343–360). American Psychological Association. DOI: 10.1037/14550-020 | |||||
| 2015 | Gloppen, K. M., Brown, E. C., Wagenaar, B. H., Hawkins, J. D., Rhew, I. C., & Oesterle, S. | StudySustaining Adoption of Science-Based Prevention through Communities That Care | Study | English | |
SummarySustainability analysis in the Journal of Community Psychology using key-leader interviews from the CTC trial in 24 communities, conducted at five waves between 2001 and 2011. The question is whether leaders in CTC communities still endorsed science-based prevention three years after study funding, training and technical assistance ended in 2008, and whether taking part in CTC training made a difference. Leaders in CTC communities reported significantly higher stages of adoption of a science-based approach than leaders in control communities at the 2011 follow-up, although the level of use in CTC communities had declined from its peak during the funded period. Leaders who had attended CTC training reported significantly higher use of science-based prevention than leaders in the same communities who had not. The authors suggest that continued training could help communities hold on to what they adopted. For European funders the practical message is that adoption outlasts external support, but training has to keep going. Read more →CitationGloppen, K. M., Brown, E. C., Wagenaar, B. H., Hawkins, J. D., Rhew, I. C., & Oesterle, S. (2015). Sustaining Adoption of Science-Based Prevention through Communities That Care. Journal of Community Psychology, 44(1), 78–89. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.21743 | |||||
| 2015 | Groeger-Roth, F. | ArticleDie „Grüne Liste Prävention“ | Article | German | |
SummaryShort German-language article in the youth-welfare journal unsere jugend introducing the Grüne Liste Prävention to practitioners in child and youth services. Its starting point is the steadily growing interest in an evidence base for prevention, understood as scientific support for the effects a programme claims. The questions the author considers decisive for the field’s development are which programmes and measures produce which effects, for whom and under which circumstances. Because practitioners need usable answers, recommendation lists of tested programmes have appeared, mostly in the English-speaking world; the Grüne Liste, run by the Lower Saxony Crime Prevention Council, is the German counterpart. The article outlines how it works: programmes are described in a uniform format and graded by the quality of their effectiveness evidence, so that a municipality or agency can pick a programme that fits an identified need. It is a practitioner introduction rather than a research paper and complements the more detailed book chapter the same author published a year later. Read more →CitationGroeger-Roth, F. (2015). Die „Grüne Liste Prävention“. unsere jugend, 67(2). | |||||
| 2015 | Jonkman, H., Aussems, C., Steketee, M., Boutellier, H., & Cuijpers, P. | StudyPrevention of Problem Behaviours among Adolescents: The Impact of the Communities that Care Strategy in the Netherlands (2008–2011) | Study | English | |
SummaryThe study asks whether the Communities That Care prevention system in the Netherlands changed the targeted risk and protective factors and, in turn, problem behaviour among 12- to 18-year-olds. Method: quasi-experimental design with ten communities (five CTC, five comparison), followed longitudinally over the implementation period 2008 to 2011; groups were balanced with propensity scores and effects estimated with multilevel models. Results: no effect of CTC could be detected on the broad range of behaviours examined, nor on the initiation of drinking or smoking. The authors attribute the divergence from the earlier experimental US findings to threats to internal validity and to the design limits of this community study. Conclusion: effectiveness trials at community level should identify, monitor, address and report such validity threats early. For the European evidence base this is the most important null finding on CTC. Read more →CitationJonkman, H., Aussems, C., Steketee, M., Boutellier, H., & Cuijpers, P. (2015). Prevention of Problem Behaviours among Adolescents: The Impact of the Communities that Care Strategy in the Netherlands (2008–2011). International Journal of Developmental Science, 9(1), 37–52. DOI: 10.3233/dev-13121 | |||||
| 2015 | Kim, B. K. E., Oesterle, S., Hawkins, J. D., & Shapiro, V. B. | StudyAssessing Sustained Effects of Communities That Care on Youth Protective Factors | Study | English | |
SummaryFollow-up analysis in the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research of the CTC trial (24 communities, seven states), asking whether the gains in protective factors seen during implementation survived the withdrawal of support. The panel of 4,407 young people was surveyed annually from grade 5 to grade 10; grade 10 fell one year after study funding for CTC implementation ended. Global test statistics assessed CTC effects across 15 social-development-model protective factors in five domains (community, school, family, peer, individual). The global effect across all domains was no longer significant in grade 10. Domain-specific sustained effects remained for boys in the individual domain, for girls in the peer domain, and in the individual domain for youth with low-to-medium baseline risk. The authors conclude that the broad effects on protection observed in middle school may need deliberate reinforcement during the high-school years. Companion to Kim et al. (2014): the effects were real but faded. Read more →CitationKim, B. K. E., Oesterle, S., Hawkins, J. D., & Shapiro, V. B. (2015). Assessing Sustained Effects of Communities That Care on Youth Protective Factors. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 6(4), 565–589. DOI: 10.1086/684163 | |||||
| 2015 | Kuklinski, M. R., Fagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., Briney, J. S., & Catalano, R. F. | StudyBenefit-cost analysis of a randomized evaluation of Communities That Care: Monetizing intervention effects on the initiation of delinquency and substance use through grade 12 | Study | English | |
SummaryBenefit–cost analysis of Communities That Care based on the 4,407-strong longitudinal cohort of the Community Youth Development Study, the randomised trial in 24 towns in seven US states. Significant intervention effects on sustained abstinence from delinquency, alcohol use and tobacco use through grade 12 were monetised and set against the investment in CTC. In discounted 2011 dollars, CTC produced an estimated USD 4,477 in benefits per young person against implementation costs of USD 556 per young person over five years, giving a net present benefit of USD 3,920 and a benefit–cost ratio of USD 8.22 per dollar invested, with an internal rate of return of 21%; the investment was expected to be recouped within nine years. Sensitivity analyses that halved the effects still yielded positive results. The authors conclude that CTC is a cost-beneficial community-based approach to preventing the onset of delinquency, alcohol and tobacco use, the figure most often quoted when CTC is proposed to European funders. Read more →CitationKuklinski, M. R., Fagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., Briney, J. S., & Catalano, R. F. (2015). Benefit-cost analysis of a randomized evaluation of Communities That Care: Monetizing intervention effects on the initiation of delinquency and substance use through grade 12. Journal of Experimental Criminology, 11(2), 165–192. DOI: 10.1007/s11292-014-9226-3 | |||||
| 2015 | Kuttler, H., Schwendemann, H., & Bitzer, E. M. | StudyFamilial risk and protective factors in alcohol intoxicated adolescents: psychometric evaluation of the family domain of the Communities That Care Youth Survey (CTC) and a new short version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) | Study | English | |
SummaryGerman psychometric study testing whether the family scales of the Communities That Care Youth Survey work in a clinical setting: adolescents admitted to hospital with acute alcohol intoxication, a target group for brief family-based counselling. Seven CTC family scales (four risk factors – family conflict, poor family management, parental attitudes favourable to drug use and to antisocial behaviour – and three protective factors – family attachment, opportunities and rewards for prosocial involvement) and a new six-item scale drawn from the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ-6) were administered to 342 patients aged 13–17. Three of the seven CTC scales performed poorly on descriptive item analysis; a five-factor confirmatory model fitted the remaining scales best (CTC-F5). Both CTC-F5 and CTQ-6 showed acceptable fit (TLI and CFI > 0.97, RMSEA < 0.05) and acceptable to good internal consistency (α > 0.7), robust to alternative estimation methods. The study extends CTC measures from population surveys to a vulnerable clinical group in Germany. Read more →CitationKuttler, H., Schwendemann, H., & Bitzer, E. M. (2015). Familial risk and protective factors in alcohol intoxicated adolescents: psychometric evaluation of the family domain of the Communities That Care Youth Survey (CTC) and a new short version of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). BMC Pediatrics, 15(1), Article 191. DOI: 10.1186/s12887-015-0471-z | |||||
| 2015 | Mejía-Trujillo, J., Pérez-Gómez, A., & Reyes-Rodríguez, M. F. | StudyImplementación y adaptación en Colombia del sistema preventivo Communities That Care | Study | Spanish | |
SummarySpanish-language account in the journal Adicciones of how the Corporación Nuevos Rumbos adapted Communities That Care for Colombia as Comunidades Que se Cuidan (CQC) and implemented it in eight communities over more than two years. The authors situate CTC in its public-health and social-development roots and explain the core aim: to enable communities to make decisions from local data on substance-use prevalence and on risk and protective factors, measured with the original youth survey validated in Colombia, and then to select tested interventions that fit their needs. The paper describes the implementation process, the departures from the US model, the construction of Colombian cut-points for the risk-factor scales, and the main difficulties encountered and how they were resolved. It contains no effectiveness data. It is the foundational description of the Latin American CTC branch and a practical reference for any European team facing questions of translation, norming and cultural fit. Read more →CitationMejía-Trujillo, J., Pérez-Gómez, A., & Reyes-Rodríguez, M. F. (2015). Implementación y adaptación en Colombia del sistema preventivo Communities That Care. Adicciones, 27(4), 253–264. | |||||
| 2015 | Oesterle, S., Hawkins, J. D., Kuklinski, M. R., Fagan, A. A., Fleming, C., Rhew, I. C., Brown, E. C., Abbott, R. D., & Catalano, R. F. | StudyEffects of Communities That Care on Males’ and Females’ Drug Use and Delinquency 9 Years After Baseline in a Community-Randomized Trial | Study | English | |
SummaryNine-year follow-up of the CTC trial in the American Journal of Community Psychology, examining sustained effects by gender at age 19. Of the living panel, 91% (n = 3,986) responded; outcomes were lifetime and current substance use and delinquency (primary) and substance use disorders, major depression, suicidality, educational attainment and sexual risk behaviour (secondary). CTC had a significant overall effect across lifetime measures of the primary outcomes for males but not for females or the full sample. In the full sample, lifetime abstinence from delinquency was still significantly higher in CTC communities (adjusted risk ratio 1.16), and males in CTC communities continued to show greater lifetime abstinence from smoking (ARR 1.22). There was no sustained effect on current use or delinquency and no improvement in any secondary outcome for either gender. The authors advise communities to extend prevention planning into the high-school years if effects are to hold for both sexes – a result European coalitions should quote in full. Read more →CitationOesterle, S., Hawkins, J. D., Kuklinski, M. R., Fagan, A. A., Fleming, C., Rhew, I. C., Brown, E. C., Abbott, R. D., & Catalano, R. F. (2015). Effects of Communities That Care on Males’ and Females’ Drug Use and Delinquency 9 Years After Baseline in a Community-Randomized Trial. American Journal of Community Psychology, 56(3-4), 217–228. DOI: 10.1007/s10464-015-9749-4 | |||||
| 2015 | Razali, M. M., & Kliewer, W. | StudyValidation of the Communities That Care Measure Adapted for Use in Malaysia | Study | English | |
SummaryValidation study of a Malaysian adaptation of the Communities That Care youth assessment. A total of 338 adolescents (58.3% male) completed the adapted instrument; 87% were secondary-school pupils and the remainder were residents of a juvenile centre for young people with substance-abuse or delinquency problems. The risk and protective factor scales showed adequate to good internal consistency. Construct validity was supported because risk and protective factors differed between adolescents in the riskier and the less risky setting, and discriminant validity because risk and protective factors were inversely related. In logistic regressions predicting membership of the riskier group, peer drug use and community disorganisation were unique predictors among the risk factors and religious practices among the protective factors. The sample is small and the comparison groups are institutionally defined, but the study adds Malaysia to the list of settings where the CTC measurement framework holds, which supports its use by school counsellors and local planners there. Read more →CitationRazali, M. M., & Kliewer, W. (2015). Validation of the Communities That Care Measure Adapted for Use in Malaysia. International Perspectives in Psychology, 4(4), 267–280. DOI: 10.1037/ipp0000039 | |||||
| 2015 | Rhew, I. C., Hawkins, J. D., Murray, D. M., Fagan, A. A., Oesterle, S., Abbott, R. D., & Catalano, R. F. | StudyEvaluation of Community-Level Effects of Communities That Care on Adolescent Drug Use and Delinquency Using a Repeated Cross-Sectional Design | Study | English | |
SummaryMethodological check in Prevention Science: the CTC trial had shown effects on problem behaviour in a panel followed from grade 5 to 12, and this paper asks whether the same effects appear when the 24 towns are compared through repeated cross-sectional surveys of sixth-, eighth- and tenth-graders at four waves. ANCOVA models estimated CTC-versus-control differences in community prevalence for each grade, adjusting for baseline. No significant reductions in prevalence were found at any grade. In a ‘pseudo-cohort’ of sixth-graders at baseline and tenth-graders four years later, CTC communities showed a significantly slower rise in lifetime smokeless tobacco use but not in other outcomes; exploratory analyses found slower increases in lifetime problem behaviours only in CTC communities with high programme saturation. The authors attribute the divergence from the panel results to reduced power: cohort effects and migration of unexposed youth in and exposed youth out. A caution for European sites planning to show change through repeated school surveys. Read more →CitationRhew, I. C., Hawkins, J. D., Murray, D. M., Fagan, A. A., Oesterle, S., Abbott, R. D., & Catalano, R. F. (2015). Evaluation of Community-Level Effects of Communities That Care on Adolescent Drug Use and Delinquency Using a Repeated Cross-Sectional Design. Prevention Science, 17(2), 177–187. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-015-0613-4 | |||||
| 2015 | Shapiro, V. B., Hawkins, J. D., & Oesterle, S. | StudyBuilding Local Infrastructure for Community Adoption of Science-Based Prevention: The Role of Coalition Functioning | Study | English | |
SummaryAnalysis in Prevention Science of whether how well a CTC coalition works as a team affects how far its community adopts science-based prevention. Data come from the Community Youth Development Study, the community-randomised trial of CTC, comparing 12 intervention communities with 12 matched controls. The authors test two links: a direct one from four dimensions of coalition functioning to community-wide adoption of a science-based approach, as reported by key leaders, and one from functioning to the coalition capacities – building new member skills and establishing external linkages with existing organisations – that are thought to enable adoption. They find no evidence of a direct relationship between coalition functioning and community-wide adoption, but do find that better-functioning coalitions developed more of those capacities. The interpretation is that internal functioning matters indirectly: it produces the skills and linkages through which a coalition changes its community. For European coalition coordinators, a reason to treat good meetings as a means rather than a goal. Read more →CitationShapiro, V. B., Hawkins, J. D., & Oesterle, S. (2015). Building Local Infrastructure for Community Adoption of Science-Based Prevention: The Role of Coalition Functioning. Prevention Science, 16(8), 1136–1146. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-015-0562-y | |||||
| 2014 | Baheiraei, A., Soltani, F., Ebadi, A., Cheraghi, M. A., Foroushani, A. R., & Catalano, R. F. | StudyPsychometric properties of the Iranian version of ‘Communities That Care Youth Survey’ | Study | English | |
SummaryPsychometric evaluation of a Persian version of the Communities That Care Youth Survey, prepared by forward and back translation for use in Iran. A total of 753 Iranian adolescents aged 15–18 completed the questionnaire. Reliability was assessed with Cronbach’s alpha and construct validity with confirmatory factor analysis. After two items were removed from the individual/peer and community domains, the 29 subscales showed acceptable internal consistency, with alphas ranging from 0.66 to 0.89, and the factor structure supported the construct validity of the risk and protective factor measures. The authors conclude that the Persian CTC-YS is suitable for research on adolescent health in Iran. The paper reports no relations between the scales and behavioural outcomes, so criterion validity remains to be shown. It is nevertheless one of the few tests of the survey outside Western and Latin American settings and adds to the evidence that its risk-and-protection framework travels across cultures. Read more →CitationBaheiraei, A., Soltani, F., Ebadi, A., Cheraghi, M. A., Foroushani, A. R., & Catalano, R. F. (2014). Psychometric properties of the Iranian version of ‘Communities That Care Youth Survey’. Health Promotion International, dau062. | |||||
| 2014 | Corrigan, M. J. | StudyThe Development of the ADSI: Construct Validity for the Communities That Care Youth Survey | Study | English | |
SummaryConstruct-validity study using a convenience sample of 26,781 Communities That Care Youth Surveys collected in New York State. The author ran a principal-component factor analysis to establish how many factors underlie the items and which items load on each, and compared the result with the 34 factors predicted by the Social Development Model, the theoretical basis of the survey. Thirty-two factors emerged, and the items grouped within them corresponded well enough to the model’s constructs for the author to conclude that the analysis supports the construct validity of both the Social Development Model and the survey as its operationalisation. The analysis is exploratory rather than confirmatory and comes from a single US state, so it is corroborating rather than decisive evidence, but it adds a large-sample check on the survey’s factor structure that European users may wish to replicate on their own data. Read more →CitationCorrigan, M. J. (2014). The Development of the ADSI: Construct Validity for the Communities That Care Youth Survey. Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, 23(6), 347–358. DOI: 10.1080/1067828x.2014.928139 | |||||
| 2014 | Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Kuklinski, M. R. | Book chapterCommunities That Care | Book chapter | English | |
CitationHawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Kuklinski, M. R. (2014). Communities That Care. In Encyclopedia of criminology and criminal justice (pp. 393–408). Springer. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_581 | |||||
| 2014 | Hawkins, J. D., Oesterle, S., Brown, E. C., Abbott, R. D., & Catalano, R. F. | StudyYouth Problem Behaviors 8 Years After Implementing the Communities That Care Prevention System | Study | English | |
SummaryPrimary outcome paper in JAMA Pediatrics from the Community Youth Development Study, the community-randomised trial of CTC: 24 small towns in seven US states were matched within state and randomised in 2003, and a panel of 4,407 fifth-graders was followed to grade 12 with 92.5% retention at the last wave. Intervention coalitions implemented tested programmes for 10- to 14-year-olds, their families and schools. By spring of grade 12 – eight years after CTC began and three years after study resources ended – students in CTC towns were more likely to have abstained throughout from any drug use (adjusted risk ratio 1.32; 95% CI 1.06–1.63), alcohol (1.31; 1.09–1.58), cigarettes (1.13; 1.01–1.27) and delinquency (1.18; 1.03–1.36), and less likely ever to have committed violence (0.86; 0.76–0.98). There were no significant differences in targeted risk, in past-month or past-year substance use, or in current delinquency or violence. CTC kept preventing initiation but did not lower current prevalence at the end of school. Read more →CitationHawkins, J. D., Oesterle, S., Brown, E. C., Abbott, R. D., & Catalano, R. F. (2014). Youth Problem Behaviors 8 Years After Implementing the Communities That Care Prevention System. JAMA Pediatrics, 168(2), 122. DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2013.4009 | |||||
| 2014 | Kim, B. K. E., Gloppen, K. M., Rhew, I. C., Oesterle, S., & Hawkins, J. D. | StudyEffects of the Communities That Care Prevention System on Youth Reports of Protective Factors | Study | English | |
SummaryAnalysis in Prevention Science testing whether CTC raises the overall level of protection in a community. In the community-randomised trial in 24 communities across seven states, a panel of 4,407 young people was followed from grade 5 to grade 8. Hierarchical linear models compared mean levels of 15 protective factors derived from the social development model in grade 8, adjusted for covariates and grade 5 baseline levels. Across all factors, protection was significantly higher in CTC than in control communities. By domain, effects were significant in the community, school and peer/individual domains but not in the family domain; opportunities for prosocial involvement in the community, recognition for prosocial involvement at school, interaction with prosocial peers and social skills contributed most. The authors read this as consistent with CTC’s theory of change, in which strengthening protection is one mechanism for preventing behaviour problems. Read together with Kim et al. (2015) on whether these effects lasted. Read more →CitationKim, B. K. E., Gloppen, K. M., Rhew, I. C., Oesterle, S., & Hawkins, J. D. (2014). Effects of the Communities That Care Prevention System on Youth Reports of Protective Factors. Prevention Science, 16(5), 652–662. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-014-0524-9 | |||||
| 2014 | Krenmayr, D. | ThesisDie Anwendung des „Communities That Care (CTC)“ – Jugendsurveys auf die Ebene oberösterreichischer Landgemeinden und Kleinstädte (am Beispiel der Marktgemeinde Sierning) | Thesis | German | |
SummaryMaster's thesis documenting the first and, to date, only Austrian application of an adapted Communities That Care Youth Survey. In 2013 the Institut Suchtprävention (pro mente Oberösterreich), then the Austrian partner of the EU-funded CTC European Network, ran the survey in the Upper Austrian market town of Sierning as part of a municipal addiction-prevention project begun in 2009. The German questionnaire of the Lower Saxony SPIN project was adopted almost verbatim, with a few items adjusted, some scales dropped and local questions added, and delivered online as a household survey: all 541 residents aged 13 to 17 were invited by letter, 143 completed it and 119 valid cases were analysed. The thesis presents prevalences, community ratings and risk and protective factor profiles by domain. Alcohol and tobacco use lay above the Austrian average while illicit drug use was negligible; family risk factors were largely absent and community protective factors moderate. Of 26 scales, 17 reached Cronbach's alpha above 0.60 and 12 above 0.70. Transferability to rural Austrian municipalities is judged good in principle, provided evidence-based programmes, training and funding exist; the author also records scepticism within his institute that CTC was too American. No CTC process followed the survey. Read more →CitationKrenmayr, D. (2014). Die Anwendung des „Communities That Care (CTC)“ – Jugendsurveys auf die Ebene oberösterreichischer Landgemeinden und Kleinstädte (am Beispiel der Marktgemeinde Sierning) [Master thesis, Masterstudienlehrgang Sucht- und Gewaltprävention in pädagogischen Handlungsfeldern (Jahrgang 2011–2014), Pädagogische Hochschule Oberösterreich, Linz]. Fonds Gesundes Österreich (hosting); Pädagogische Hochschule Oberösterreich, Linz (programme). Source: https://fgoe.org/sites/fgoe.org/files/project-attachments/Krenmayr_Masterthesis.pdf | |||||
| 2014 | Monahan, K. C., Oesterle, S., Rhew, I., & Hawkins, J. D. | StudyThe Relation Between Risk and Protective Factors for Problem Behaviors and Depressive Symptoms, Antisocial Behavior, and Alcohol Use in Adolescence | Study | English | |
SummarySecondary analysis in the Journal of Community Psychology asking whether the CTC risk and protective factors, which were selected to predict externalising problems, also relate to depression. The sample is 2,002 students from the CTC trial surveyed in grades 8 and 10 (52% male, 58% white). The authors model cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between factors in the community, school, family, peer and individual domains and three outcomes: depressive symptoms, antisocial behaviour and alcohol use. The factors that predict antisocial behaviour and alcohol use are also associated with depressive symptoms, both at the same time point and two years later. Because internalising and externalising problems rise together through adolescence and appear to share antecedents, the authors suggest that prevention targeting the externalising risk profile may have crossover effects on depression. For European CTC coalitions, which are often asked whether the model addresses mental health, this is the empirical basis for saying that it partly does. Read more →CitationMonahan, K. C., Oesterle, S., Rhew, I., & Hawkins, J. D. (2014). The Relation Between Risk and Protective Factors for Problem Behaviors and Depressive Symptoms, Antisocial Behavior, and Alcohol Use in Adolescence. Journal of Community Psychology, 42(5), 621–638. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.21642 | |||||
| 2014 | Nikčević-Milković, A., & Rupčić, A. | StudyProcjena rizičnih i zaštitnih čimbenika u svrhu planiranja prevencije problema u ponašanju djece i mladih | Study | Croatian | |
SummaryNeeds-assessment study from the town of Gospić (Lika), where a project modelled on Communities That Care (development, implementation and evaluation of a community prevention model) was being run. Risk and protective factors in four domains (community, family, school, peers and individual) were measured with the adapted Croatian CTC questionnaire for children and young people (Mihić, Novak and Bašić, 2010) among 281 pupils aged 15 to 18 in the town's two secondary schools. The most pronounced community risk factors were attitudes and laws and norms favourable to drug use, attitudes favourable to antisocial behaviour, community disorganisation, poor academic achievement, rebelliousness and drug availability; in the family, parental attitudes favourable to drug use and antisocial behaviour, family conflict and poor discipline; among peers and at school, low school commitment and friends who use drugs. The strongest protective factors were opportunities and rewards for prosocial involvement in the community and at school, religiosity, belief in the moral order, prosocial peers and family attachment. Alcohol, tobacco and painkillers were the substances most used. Guidelines for targeted prevention investment were derived from the profile. It is a descriptive cross-sectional survey without comparison group or outcome data. Read more →CitationNikčević-Milković, A., & Rupčić, A. (2014). Procjena rizičnih i zaštitnih čimbenika u svrhu planiranja prevencije problema u ponašanju djece i mladih. Ljetopis socijalnog rada, 21(1), 105–122. DOI: 10.3935/ljsr.v21i1.9 | |||||
| 2014 | Oesterle, S., Hawkins, J. D., Fagan, A. A., Abbott, R. D., & Catalano, R. F. | StudyVariation in the sustained effects of the Communities That Care prevention system on adolescent smoking, delinquency, and violence | Study | English | |
SummaryModerator analysis from the Community Youth Development Study, the community-randomised trial of Communities That Care that followed 4,407 pupils from grade 5. Earlier papers had shown sustained effects on cigarette use, delinquency and violence in grade 10; this study asks whether those effects differ between subgroups. Interaction analyses found no evidence that CTC's effect varied between young people with high versus low levels of the community-targeted risk factors at baseline, or between those who had and had not already used substances or engaged in delinquency or violence at baseline. CTC reduced problem behaviour among both girls and boys, although the effect on delinquency was marginally larger for boys (p = 0.08). The paper supports the reading of CTC as a universal intervention: the community-wide gains were neither confined to higher-risk youth nor achieved at their expense, which matters for European sites asking whether a universal coalition approach reaches the young people who need it most. Read more →CitationOesterle, S., Hawkins, J. D., Fagan, A. A., Abbott, R. D., & Catalano, R. F. (2014). Variation in the sustained effects of the Communities That Care prevention system on adolescent smoking, delinquency, and violence. Prevention Science, 15(2), 138–145. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-013-0365-y | |||||
| 2014 | Shapiro, V. B., Oesterle, S., & Hawkins, J. D. | StudyRelating Coalition Capacity to the Adoption of Science-Based Prevention in Communities: Evidence from a Randomized Trial of Communities That Care | Study | English | |
SummaryMeasurement and moderation study in the American Journal of Community Psychology on which coalition capacities help CTC change a community. Using member surveys from the 12 CTC coalitions in the community-randomised trial, the authors describe the measurement properties of five capacities – members’ substantive knowledge of prevention, acquisition of new skills, attitudes toward CTC, organisational linkages and influence on organisations – and test whether they moderated the community-wide adoption of a science-based approach to prevention as reported by key leaders. All five could be measured reliably from member reports. Meta-regression across the 12 matched pairs of CTC and control communities found that CTC had a larger effect on adoption where the coalition scored higher on new skill acquisition among members and on organisational linkages; the other three capacities did not moderate the effect. For European coordinators, two things worth investing in early: members’ skills and working ties to the organisations that will deliver programmes. Read more →CitationShapiro, V. B., Oesterle, S., & Hawkins, J. D. (2014). Relating Coalition Capacity to the Adoption of Science-Based Prevention in Communities: Evidence from a Randomized Trial of Communities That Care. American Journal of Community Psychology, 55(1-2), 1–12. DOI: 10.1007/s10464-014-9684-9 | |||||
| 2014 | Van Horn, M. L., Fagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., & Oesterle, S. | StudyEffects of the Communities That Care System on Cross-Sectional Profiles of Adolescent Substance Use and Delinquency | Study | English | |
SummaryCross-sectional outcome analysis in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine of CTC effects on behaviour profiles rather than single measures. In the 24-community randomised trial, anonymous surveys of 14,099 eighth- and tenth-graders in 2004 and 2010 were used to derive four latent profiles of substance use and delinquency in grade 8 and five in grade 10, and to test whether the distribution of profiles differed between CTC and control communities in 2010. There was no intervention effect on the probability of being an experimenter with substances or of combining substance use with delinquency in either grade. Tenth-graders in CTC communities were, however, significantly less likely to be alcohol users (OR = 0.69; CI 0.48–1.00). The authors argue that a community-wide reduction in adolescent alcohol use matters because alcohol is the most used substance and early initiation predicts adult alcohol disorders, while stating plainly that the absence of effects on experimenters qualifies the result. Read more →CitationVan Horn, M. L., Fagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., & Oesterle, S. (2014). Effects of the Communities That Care System on Cross-Sectional Profiles of Adolescent Substance Use and Delinquency. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 47(2), 188–197. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2014.04.004 | |||||
| 2013 | Brown, E. C., Hawkins, J. D., Rhew, I. C., Shapiro, V. B., Abbott, R. D., Oesterle, S., Arthur, M. W., Briney, J. S., & Catalano, R. F. | StudyPrevention System Mediation of Communities That Care Effects on Youth Outcomes | Study | English | |
SummaryMediation analysis in Prevention Science asking through which community-level mechanism CTC produced the effects on eighth-grade problem behaviour reported by Hawkins et al. (2009). Candidate mediators, taken from CTC’s theory of change and measured through key-leader interviews in the 24 trial communities, were the community’s adoption of a science-based approach to prevention, collaboration on prevention, support for prevention and norms against adolescent drug use. Higher adoption of a science-based approach and stronger support for prevention in 2004 predicted significantly lower youth problem behaviour in 2007, and stronger norms against drug use predicted lower drug use. The effect of CTC on problem behaviour at the end of grade 8 was fully mediated by community adoption of a science-based approach; no other mediated path was significant. The authors take this as support for the theory that getting a community to adopt a scientific approach to prevention – the process CTC installs – is the primary route to better youth outcomes. Read more →CitationBrown, E. C., Hawkins, J. D., Rhew, I. C., Shapiro, V. B., Abbott, R. D., Oesterle, S., Arthur, M. W., Briney, J. S., & Catalano, R. F. (2013). Prevention System Mediation of Communities That Care Effects on Youth Outcomes. Prevention Science, 15(5), 623–632. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-013-0413-7 | |||||
| 2013 | Haggerty, K. P., & Shapiro, V. B. | ReviewScience-Based Prevention through Communities That Care: A Model of Social Work Practice for Public Health | Review | English | |
SummaryPractice-oriented article in Social Work in Public Health addressed to social workers, whose professional association had called for prevention to become central to alcohol and drug services. Haggerty and Shapiro set out a public-health orientation to substance-abuse prevention, review the science behind the risk and protective factor approach, describe CTC as a community practice model that puts that evidence to use, and show how the model reflects four principles of social work practice. The article adds no new data; its value is as a bridge between the prevention-science literature and a profession that in many European countries runs the municipal services a CTC coalition depends on. A good text to hand to social-work partners who ask what their role in the model is. Read more →CitationHaggerty, K. P., & Shapiro, V. B. (2013). Science-Based Prevention through Communities That Care: A Model of Social Work Practice for Public Health. Social Work in Public Health, 28(3-4), 349–365. DOI: 10.1080/19371918.2013.774812 | |||||
| 2013 | Novak, M. | ThesisAn empirical study on implementation quality in prevention programs | Thesis | English | |
SummaryDoctoral thesis, written in English, on implementation quality in the community-based mental-health promotion and prevention programmes of Istria County, the region that hosted the Croatian Communities That Care project. The Croatian summary places the work within the cooperation between Istria County and the Zagreb faculty under the CTC project and its sub-project „Preffi – osiguranje kvalitete u Istarskoj županiji“, which introduced the Dutch Preffi 2.0 quality instrument and a newly designed Training for Prevention. After a pre-study constructing implementation scales, two studies follow. The implementation-quality study covered 24 programmes with data from 24 managers, 55 implementers, 434 participants at mid-intervention and 744 at post-test; implementation factors were consistently rated lower than indicators of implementation quality, managers rated them lower than implementers, and quality was judged satisfactory to high by implementers and participants. The training study found that managers and implementers reported no improvement after the Training for Prevention, while participants in the experimental condition reported higher quality of delivery and responsiveness than controls. The author calls the training promising but in need of further research. The thesis evaluates programme implementation, not CTC outcomes. Read more →CitationNovak, M. (2013). An empirical study on implementation quality in prevention programs [Doctoral thesis, University of Zagreb, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences; mentors Clemens Hosman and Celene Domitrovich; defended 11 March 2013]. Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet. Source: https://urn.nsk.hr/urn:nbn:hr:158:306689 | |||||
| 2013 | Novak, M., Mihić, J., & Bašić, J. | ArticleUčinkovita prevencija u zajednici: smjernice za rad vijeća za prevenciju | Article | Croatian | |
SummaryProfessional paper that turns the 2010 evaluation of the prevention councils of Čakovec and Split into guidelines for prevention councils in Croatia. The councils were studied within the UNDP and Ministry of the Interior project on building a crime-prevention system and a coordination unit, in which the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences acted as evaluation team and applied theoretical models of community prevention, including the Croatian six-step adaptation of Communities That Care. The paper proposes an organisational model for councils covering the founding process, the involvement of members, a model of council activities and cooperation with other bodies in the local community, and adds recommendations on improving council functioning, financing and visibility. The authors conclude that combining scientific knowledge on community prevention with a participatory research approach and cooperation among key people at different levels is a promising way to invest in the quality and effectiveness of preventive work, and that prevention councils can become carriers of science-based prevention. It is a guidance document derived from two case studies; no outcome data are reported. Read more →CitationNovak, M., Mihić, J., & Bašić, J. (2013). Učinkovita prevencija u zajednici: smjernice za rad vijeća za prevenciju. Policija i sigurnost, 22(1), 26–41. Source: https://hrcak.srce.hr/105616 | |||||
| 2013 | Rhew, I. C., Brown, E. C., Hawkins, J. D., & Briney, J. S. | StudySustained Effects of the Communities That Care System on Prevention Service System Transformation | Study | English | |
SummarySustainability paper in the American Journal of Public Health testing whether CTC’s effects on the community prevention system persisted 1.5 years after study funding stopped. In the trial, 24 US towns were randomised to CTC or control; 928 key community leaders were interviewed at one to four waves between 2001 and 2009, while training and technical assistance in the CTC towns ran from 2003 to 2008. In 2009, leaders in CTC communities reported higher adoption of a science-based approach to prevention and wanted a larger share of funding directed to prevention than leaders in control communities. CTC communities also showed a steeper increase over time in community norms against adolescent drug use and in adoption of the science-based approach. The authors conclude that CTC produced an enduring transformation of the prevention-system constructs its theory of change identifies, which might in turn produce long-term reductions in youth problem behaviour. Evidence for European funders that system change outlives the grant period. Read more →CitationRhew, I. C., Brown, E. C., Hawkins, J. D., & Briney, J. S. (2013). Sustained Effects of the Communities That Care System on Prevention Service System Transformation. American Journal of Public Health, 103(3), 529–535. | |||||
| 2013 | Schubert, H., Veil, K., Spieckermann, H., & Abels, S. | ReportEvaluation des Modellproprogramms „Communities That Care“ in Niedersachsen: Theoretische Grundlagen und empirische Befunde zur sozialräumlichen Prävention in Netzwerken | Report | German | |
SummaryFinal evaluation report in German (Verlag Sozial•Raum•Management, Cologne, 2013) on the model programme that brought Communities That Care to Germany: the Lower Saxony project SPIN (Sozialräumliche Prävention in Netzwerken), implemented from 2008 in three sites, Hannover-Mühlenberg, Göttingen-Weststadt and the district of Emsland. Commissioned by the Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen and written by the Sozial•Raum•Management research group at Cologne University of Applied Sciences, the book lays out the theoretical foundations of CTC, reviews process evaluations from the United States, the Netherlands, England and Scotland, documents the implementation in Lower Saxony and evaluates all five CTC phases along the dimensions context, input, process and product. Since effects on delinquency could not yet be expected within the project period, the evaluation focuses on structures. Its central finding is high acceptance of and identification with CTC in the model areas, because the systematic procedure offers clear instructions and practical aids; CTC fits German youth welfare structures well, but needs a coordinator with roughly 20 hours a week, training adapted to German conditions and the Grüne Liste Prävention as an indispensable programme pool. Read more →CitationSchubert, H., Veil, K., Spieckermann, H., & Abels, S. (2013). Evaluation des Modellproprogramms „Communities That Care“ in Niedersachsen: Theoretische Grundlagen und empirische Befunde zur sozialräumlichen Prävention in Netzwerken. | |||||
| 2013 | Shapiro, V. B., Hawkins, J. D., Oesterle, S., Monahan, K. C., Brown, E. C., & Arthur, M. W. | StudyVariation in the Effect of Communities That Care on Community Adoption of a Scientific Approach to Prevention | Study | English | |
SummaryPaper in the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research examining not whether CTC works but how evenly. In the community-randomised trial, 24 communities were matched in pairs and assigned at random to CTC or control, and CTC significantly increased community-wide adoption of a science-based approach to prevention, as reported by key leaders. Applying a meta-analytic technique to the 12 matched pairs, the authors show that the size of this effect varied significantly from pair to pair, even though CTC itself was implemented with uniformly high fidelity in every intervention community. Fidelity, in other words, did not guarantee equal impact. The authors present the variation as a starting point for identifying which aspects of coalition structure, functioning or capacity explain it and could be strengthened to make the effect more reliable – the line of work pursued in the group’s subsequent coalition-capacity papers. Useful for European evaluators expecting heterogeneity across sites. Read more →CitationShapiro, V. B., Hawkins, J. D., Oesterle, S., Monahan, K. C., Brown, E. C., & Arthur, M. W. (2013). Variation in the Effect of Communities That Care on Community Adoption of a Scientific Approach to Prevention. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 4(3), 154–164. | |||||
| 2013 | Shapiro, V. B., Oesterle, S., Abbott, R. D., Arthur, M. W., & Hawkins, J. D. | StudyMeasuring Dimensions of Coalition Functioning for Effective and Participatory Community Practice | Study | English | |
SummaryMeasurement paper in Social Work Research on how to assess whether a community coalition is working well. Community practice has a long history in social work but few validated measures, and this study uses the community-randomised CTC trial to develop one. Coalition members in the 12 CTC communities rated their coalition’s functioning across the implementation phases. Factor analysis supported a four-dimensional model – goal-directedness, efficiency, opportunities for participation and cohesion – and the dimensions were invariant over time, so that change can be tracked. As one test of validity, members’ ratings were correlated with those of external observers. The instrument is the one used in the group’s later analyses of coalition functioning and capacity, and it is short enough for European CTC coalitions to use as a self-check during the phases of the process. Read more →CitationShapiro, V. B., Oesterle, S., Abbott, R. D., Arthur, M. W., & Hawkins, J. D. (2013). Measuring Dimensions of Coalition Functioning for Effective and Participatory Community Practice. Social Work Research, 37(4), 349–359. DOI: 10.1093/swr/svt028 | |||||
| 2013 | Soellner, R., Benit, N., & Kiefer, C. | ReportCommunities that care – Analyse des eingesetzten Erhebungsinstrumentes | Report | German | – |
SummaryMethodological report (in German) by the University of Hildesheim on the questionnaire used in the German Communities That Care youth survey. The authors examine the scales measuring risk and protective factors for comprehensibility, response behaviour and psychometric quality and derive adjustments that were carried into the subsequent state-wide surveys in Lower Saxony. The report is the basis for the statement that the questionnaire is checked and revised continuously rather than fixed once. It is an in-house institute report without a DOI and is not indexed in bibliographic databases, so it should be cited as grey literature; the later, externally peer-reviewed examination of the instrument is Reder et al. (2024), listed separately in this bibliography. For European practitioners its relevance is as a record that the German adaptation of the CTC Youth Survey was tested empirically before being scaled up, not merely translated. Read more →CitationSoellner, R., Benit, N., & Kiefer, C. (2013). Communities that care – Analyse des eingesetzten Erhebungsinstrumentes. | |||||
| 2013 | Steketee, M., Oesterle, S., Jonkman, H., Hawkins, J. D., Haggerty, K. P., & Aussems, C. | StudyTransforming prevention systems in the United States and the Netherlands using Communities That Care | Study | English | |
SummaryComparative paper written in memory of Josine Junger-Tas, who introduced Communities That Care to the Netherlands as a promising response to rising youth violence and delinquency. Drawing on the randomised Community Youth Development Study in the United States and a quasi-experimental study in the Netherlands, the authors compare the implementation of CTC in 12 US communities with that in five Dutch neighbourhoods. In both countries CTC communities reached higher stages of a science-based approach to prevention than their control communities, confirming that the system's core process transfers across contexts. Full implementation in the Netherlands, however, was hampered by the scarcity of prevention programmes that had been tested and shown effective in the Dutch context, so coalitions had fewer proven options to choose from. The paper is an early and candid account of the main structural obstacle to CTC in Europe: a coalition can only be as evidence-based as the programme menu available to it. Read more →CitationSteketee, M., Oesterle, S., Jonkman, H., Hawkins, J. D., Haggerty, K. P., & Aussems, C. (2013). Transforming prevention systems in the United States and the Netherlands using Communities That Care. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 19(2), 99–116. DOI: 10.1007/s10610-012-9194-y | |||||
| 2012 | Briney, J. S., Brown, E. C., Hawkins, J. D., & Arthur, M. W. | StudyPredictive Validity of Established Cut Points for Risk and Protective Factor Scales from the Communities That Care Youth Survey | Study | English | |
SummaryValidation study in the Journal of Primary Prevention of the cut-points that turn CTC Youth Survey scales into the ‘high risk’ and ‘low protection’ flags coalitions use when prioritising. An earlier cross-sectional study had set these thresholds; here the authors use longitudinal data to test whether a young person classified above a risk cut-point or below a protection cut-point is more likely to report substance use and delinquent behaviour one year later. The findings support the predictive validity of the cut-points for the risk and protective factor scales and hence their use in guiding prevention decisions. The paper opens with a reminder of why this matters: an earlier generation of community coalitions had shown little effect, and the newer generation that works – CTC among them – differs in basing its decisions on local risk and protection data and on evidence-based programmes. Relevant for European adaptations, where cut-points calibrated on US samples may need re-examination. Read more →CitationBriney, J. S., Brown, E. C., Hawkins, J. D., & Arthur, M. W. (2012). Predictive Validity of Established Cut Points for Risk and Protective Factor Scales from the Communities That Care Youth Survey. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 33(5-6), 249–258. DOI: 10.1007/s10935-012-0280-1 | |||||
| 2012 | Gloppen, K. M., Arthur, M. W., Hawkins, J. D., & Shapiro, V. B. | StudySustainability of the Communities That Care Prevention System by Coalitions Participating in the Community Youth Development Study | Study | English | |
SummarySustainability study from the Community Youth Development Study, the community-randomised trial of Communities That Care, examining how coalitions fared roughly 20 months after study-provided funding and support ended. Coalition leaders were interviewed in 2007 and 2009, and the coalitions' continuing activities were rated against benchmarks for CTC phases 2 to 5. Eleven of the 12 CTC coalitions still existed 20 months after funding ended; they continued to score significantly higher on the benchmarks than coalitions in control communities, and two thirds still had paid staff. The authors conclude that the coalitions maintained relatively high implementation fidelity on their own, while a downward trend in some benchmarks suggests that continued high-quality training and technical assistance would help sustain a science-based approach to prevention. For European funders the study provides a rare empirical answer to the question of what happens to a CTC coalition once the start-up grant runs out. Read more →CitationGloppen, K. M., Arthur, M. W., Hawkins, J. D., & Shapiro, V. B. (2012). Sustainability of the Communities That Care Prevention System by Coalitions Participating in the Community Youth Development Study. Journal of Adolescent Health, 51(3), 259–264. DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2011.12.018 | |||||
| 2012 | Groeger-Roth, F. | Article„Communities That Care – CTC in der Praxis. Ergebnisse und Erfahrungen aus dem Modellversuch SPIN in Niedersachsen" | Article | German | |
SummaryArticle in German from forum kriminalprävention (3/2012) reporting first-hand on the practical implementation of Communities That Care in Germany. CTC is presented as a method that helps municipalities plan their prevention of adolescent problem behaviour with an eye to outcomes and scarce resources; developed in the United States and previously introduced in the Netherlands, it was tested in Germany for the first time by the Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen in the model project SPIN (Sozialräumliche Prävention in Netzwerken, 2009–2012) at three sites: the Mühlenberg district of Hannover, the Weststadt district of Göttingen and four joint municipalities in the district of Emsland. Writing as project lead, the author walks through the phases of the implementation model, from clarifying the readiness of local key actors and forming a steering group and an area team, through the student survey and the prioritisation of two to three risk factors and one to two protective factors, to the action plan built from the Grüne Liste Prävention. The target of 18 months for phases 1 to 4 proved demanding, fitting CTC into existing German structures worked well, and from 2013 Lower Saxony planned to support further municipalities. Read more →CitationGroeger-Roth, F. (2012). „Communities That Care – CTC in der Praxis. Ergebnisse und Erfahrungen aus dem Modellversuch SPIN in Niedersachsen". | |||||
| 2012 | Groeger-Roth, F., Schubert, H. | Conference paper„Das kommt aus Amerika, das geht hier nicht… Erfahrungen mit CTC in Niedersachsen" | Conference paper | German | |
SummaryConference contribution from the 17th Deutscher Präventionstag (Munich, April 2012), published in German in the congress volume Sicher leben in Stadt und Land (Forum Verlag Godesberg 2013, pp. 329–344). The title quotes the standard objection to imported prevention concepts, and the two authors, the project lead at the Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen and the head of the accompanying evaluation at Cologne University of Applied Sciences, use it to discuss whether Communities That Care can be transferred to German conditions. They outline the CTC approach and the US randomised trial behind it, describe the model project SPIN (Sozialräumliche Prävention in Netzwerken, December 2008 to December 2012) in which CTC was tested at three sites in Lower Saxony, and present the design of the evaluation (context, input, process, product) together with interim findings on phases 1 to 3: CTC proved compatible with German youth welfare administration and its governance culture, met with high acceptance among practitioners, depended on a coordinator with a defined time budget, and relied on the Grüne Liste Prävention as its programme pool. Perspectives for transferring the approach beyond Lower Saxony close the contribution. Read more →CitationGroeger-Roth, F., Schubert, H. (2012). „Das kommt aus Amerika, das geht hier nicht… Erfahrungen mit CTC in Niedersachsen". Source: https://www.praeventionstag.de/nano.cms/vortraege/id/2022 | |||||
| 2012 | Jonkman, H. B. | ThesisSome Years of Communities That Care: Learning from a social experiment | Thesis | English | |
SummaryDoctoral thesis defended at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam on 19 December 2012 (supervisors Pim Cuijpers and Hans Boutellier), assembling a decade of the author's work on Communities that Care in the Netherlands as a social experiment. Part I (practice) reprints the account of CTC's Dutch origins (Jonkman, Junger-Tas and Van Dijk 2005), a chapter on prevention and effective programmes, and the two-country implementation study of 22 communities in the United States and the Netherlands using milestones-and-benchmarks and board interviews. Part II (research) contains socio-epidemiological studies: antisocial behaviour among 5,657 young people in 55 Rotterdam neighbourhoods, a multilevel analysis of violence and delinquency among 7,842 adolescents in the Netherlands Antilles, and a comparison of community variation in binge drinking between Australia and the Netherlands. Part III (impact) presents the 2008 to 2011 quasi-experimental effect study with propensity-score matching in a three-level panel model, which found no effect on problem behaviour, risk and protective factors or initiation of drinking and smoking, and a discussion paper on international translational research. The discussion frames CTC as a rational steering approach for local youth policy while attributing the disappointing impact results to short duration, contamination, small samples and the scarcity of tested programmes. Read more →CitationJonkman, H. B. (2012). Some Years of Communities That Care: Learning from a social experiment [Doctoral thesis, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam]. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Source: https://www.verwey-jonker.nl/publicatie/some-years-of-communities-that-care/ | |||||
| 2012 | Kuklinski, M. R., Briney, J. S., Hawkins, J. D., & Catalano, R. F. | StudyCost-Benefit Analysis of Communities That Care Outcomes at Eighth Grade | Study | English | |
SummaryFirst cost–benefit analysis of Communities That Care, based on the grade 5 to 8 results of the randomised controlled trial in 24 communities across seven US states. Earlier analyses had shown that CTC prevented the initiation of cigarette smoking, alcohol use and delinquency by the end of grade 8; this paper projects the long-term monetary benefits of the smoking and delinquency effects and compares them with the cost of the intervention. Under conservative assumptions the net present benefit is USD 5,250 per young person, USD 812 from prevented smoking and USD 4,438 from prevented delinquency, and the benefit–cost ratio is USD 5.30 per dollar invested; under less conservative assumptions the ratio rises to USD 10.23. The authors conclude that CTC is a cost-beneficial preventive intervention and a good use of public money even under very cautious assumptions. Together with the 2015 grade 12 analysis it forms the economic case that European municipalities can cite for a coalition-based system. Read more →CitationKuklinski, M. R., Briney, J. S., Hawkins, J. D., & Catalano, R. F. (2012). Cost-Benefit Analysis of Communities That Care Outcomes at Eighth Grade. Prevention Science, 13(2), 150–161. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-011-0259-9 | |||||
| 2012 | Kuklinski, M. R., Hawkins, J. D., Plotnick, R. D., Abbott, R. D., & Reid, C. K. | StudyHow Has the Economic Downturn Affected Communities and Implementation of Science-Based Prevention in the Randomized Trial of Communities That Care? | Study | English | |
SummaryAnalysis in the American Journal of Community Psychology of what the recession that began in December 2007 did to the CTC trial and to prevention in its communities. Using archival economic indicators and key-leader reports, the authors gauge how hard each of the 24 communities was hit, whether the downturn threatened the internal validity of the randomised design, and whether stronger local impacts went with reduced implementation of science-based prevention. The downturn affected communities to different degrees but showed no systematic difference between CTC and control conditions, so the trial’s comparison stood. The Community Economic Problems scale proved reliable and correlated with objective indicators. Two years into the recession, CTC coalitions were still implementing science-based prevention to a significantly greater degree than control coalitions, but their implementation levels fell somewhat as unemployment, free-school-meal eligibility and reported economic problems rose; control coalitions, whose implementation was low throughout, showed no such relationship. Directly relevant to European coalitions working through municipal austerity. Read more →CitationKuklinski, M. R., Hawkins, J. D., Plotnick, R. D., Abbott, R. D., & Reid, C. K. (2012). How Has the Economic Downturn Affected Communities and Implementation of Science-Based Prevention in the Randomized Trial of Communities That Care? American Journal of Community Psychology, 51(3-4), 370–384. DOI: 10.1007/s10464-012-9557-z | |||||
| 2012 | López Larrosa, S., & Rodríguez-Arias Palomo, J. L. | StudyRisk and protective factors for drug use and antisocial behavior in Spanish adolescents and young people | Study | English | |
SummaryOne of the earliest European applications of the Communities That Care Youth Survey, conducted with 2,440 adolescents and young people from several localities on the north-western coast of Spain. The survey measured drug use and antisocial behaviour together with risk and protective factors in the family, school, community and individual/peer domains. The authors asked what role age and sex play in predicting each outcome and which factors predict both. Age predicted drug use but not antisocial behaviour. Four risk factors predicted both outcomes – school failure, gang involvement, attitudes favourable to antisocial behaviour and early initiation of antisocial behaviour – as did two protective factors, social skills and belief in the moral order. The results confirm shared predictors and the reciprocal influence of drug use and antisocial behaviour. The design is cross-sectional and the sample regional, but the study shows the survey’s risk-and-protection logic holding in a Spanish population. Read more →CitationLópez Larrosa, S., & Rodríguez-Arias Palomo, J. L. (2012). Risk and protective factors for drug use and antisocial behavior in Spanish adolescents and young people. International Journal of Psychological Research, 5(1), 25–33. | |||||
| 2012 | Monahan, K. C., Hawkins, J. D., & Abbott, R. D. | StudyThe Application of Meta-analysis within a Matched-pair Randomized Control Trial: An Illustration Testing the Effects of Communities That Care on Delinquent Behavior | Study | English | |
SummaryMethodological article in Prevention Science proposing meta-analysis as a complement to conventional design-based analysis in matched-pair randomised trials, using CTC as the worked example. In the 24-community trial, the authors estimate the effect of CTC on eighth-grade delinquent behaviour separately within each matched pair, pool the pair-level effect sizes into an overall estimate and test for heterogeneity across pairs. The pooled result confirms that CTC reduced delinquent behaviour, and the heterogeneity test shows that the effect varied significantly across communities. The point of the approach is that it makes the variation visible and opens the way to identifying which features of communities or coalitions go with larger or smaller effects – something a single trial-wide estimate hides. For anyone planning a paired-community evaluation of CTC in Europe, this is the analytic template the Seattle group used to study why the same system worked better in some places than in others. Read more →CitationMonahan, K. C., Hawkins, J. D., & Abbott, R. D. (2012). The Application of Meta-analysis within a Matched-pair Randomized Control Trial: An Illustration Testing the Effects of Communities That Care on Delinquent Behavior. Prevention Science, 14(1), 1–12. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-012-0298-x | |||||
| 2012 | Oesterle, S., Hawkins, J. D., Steketee, M., Jonkman, H., Brown, E. C., Moll, M., & Haggerty, K. P. | StudyA Cross-National Comparison of Risk and Protective Factors for Adolescent Drug Use and Delinquency in the United States and the Netherlands | Study | English | |
SummaryCross-national comparison of the associations between risk and protective factors and adolescent drug use and delinquency in the Netherlands and the United States, using the Communities That Care Youth Survey administered in schools in both countries to pupils aged 12 to 17; the Dutch data come from the neighbourhoods of the 2008 to 2011 CTC effect study and the US data from the Community Youth Development Study. Results: levels of exposure to risk and protective factors were generally similar in both countries, and the factors shown to be associated with drug use and delinquency among US adolescents were significantly related to the same outcomes among Dutch youth. The main exception concerned alcohol: Dutch pupils perceived their parents' attitudes as more favourable towards alcohol use, and these attitudes predicted regular drinking more strongly in the Netherlands than in the United States. Conclusion: the risk and protective factors measured by the survey are relevant targets for prevention in both countries, which supports the transfer of the CTC assessment logic to a European setting. A correlational comparison of two non-random samples; it does not evaluate CTC's effects. Read more →CitationOesterle, S., Hawkins, J. D., Steketee, M., Jonkman, H., Brown, E. C., Moll, M., & Haggerty, K. P. (2012). A Cross-National Comparison of Risk and Protective Factors for Adolescent Drug Use and Delinquency in the United States and the Netherlands. Journal of Drug Issues, 42(4), 337–357. | |||||
| 2012 | Steketee, M., Jonkman, H., Mak, J., Aussems, C., Huygen, A., & Roeleveld, W. | ReportCommunities that Care in Nederlandse steden: Resultaten van een vierjarig experimenteel onderzoek | Report | Dutch | |
SummaryFinal report of the four-year effect study of Communities that Care in the Netherlands funded by ZonMw (project 120610017), the Dutch-language source behind Steketee et al. (2013) and Jonkman et al. (2015). Method: five experimental and five matched control neighbourhoods in Capelle aan den IJssel, Gouda, Middelburg, Spijkenisse and Zwijndrecht, followed from January 2008 to December 2011 with school surveys before and after, a youth panel, milestones-and-benchmarks ratings of programme integrity, key-informant questionnaires and programme registration; planned as a randomised trial, it became quasi-experimental because not all cities accepted random assignment. Results: phases one to four were implemented as intended everywhere; cooperation became more efficient and more evidence-oriented in the CTC neighbourhoods, whose key informants invested more time in prevention and reported healthier adult norms on alcohol and cannabis; more programmes ran in CTC areas, yet control areas caught up and in two cities received the same offer, and programme reach was barely registered. Neither the pre-post comparison nor the longitudinal panel showed any effect on risk or protective factors or on substance use, delinquency, sexual problem behaviour or depression. Conclusion: CtC works as a strategic steering instrument, but the design could only have detected large or medium effects. Read more →CitationSteketee, M., Jonkman, H., Mak, J., Aussems, C., Huygen, A., & Roeleveld, W. (2012). Communities that Care in Nederlandse steden: Resultaten van een vierjarig experimenteel onderzoek. Verwey-Jonker Instituut. Source: https://www.verwey-jonker.nl/publicatie/communities-that-care-in-nederlandse-steden/ | |||||
| 2011 | Abels, S., Schubert, H., Spieckermann, H., & Veil, K. | ReportSozialräumliche Prävention in Netzwerken (SPIN): Implementierung des Programms „Communities That Care (CTC)“ in Niedersachsen. Abschlussbericht der Evaluation für die Phasen 1 bis 3 | Report | German | |
SummaryFinal evaluation report on phases 1 to 3 of the Lower Saxony model project SPIN (Sozialräumliche Prävention in Netzwerken), which introduced Communities That Care to Germany from 2008 to 2011; commissioned by the Crime Prevention Council of Lower Saxony and produced by the Sozial-Raum-Management research unit of Cologne University of Applied Sciences (working paper 39, 270 pages). Background chapters review the theoretical basis of CTC, its instruments and international process evaluations, including the Dutch history and the contracts with the Netherlands Youth Institute, Verwey-Jonker and DSP-groep for training and the survey. Method: process evaluation with a context-input-process-product model at the state level and in the three model sites Göttingen-Weststadt, Hannover-Mühlenberg and four Emsland municipalities, plus a survey of schools about the pupil survey. Results: coalitions were built onto existing bodies without duplicating structures, the pupil survey was completed despite school-level hurdles, area profiles and prioritisation were achieved, and the Grüne Liste programme register proved essential; weaknesses were Dutch-dominated training, patchy transfer of training knowledge, thin time budgets for coordinators and the still short list of rated programmes. Conclusion: CTC fits German municipal governance structures, but the findings are provisional because action plans had not yet been implemented. Read more →CitationAbels, S., Schubert, H., Spieckermann, H., & Veil, K. (2011). Sozialräumliche Prävention in Netzwerken (SPIN): Implementierung des Programms „Communities That Care (CTC)“ in Niedersachsen. Abschlussbericht der Evaluation für die Phasen 1 bis 3. Fachhochschule Köln, Forschungsschwerpunkt Sozial • Raum • Management (SRM-Arbeitspapier 39). Source: https://www.ctc-info.de/communities-that-care/Media/SPIN_Abschlussbericht-2011_final.pdf | |||||
| 2011 | Bašić, J., Mihić, J., Novak, M., & Grozić-Živolić, S. | ReportIzvještaj evaluacijskog tima za Vijeće za prevenciju Grada Splita: procjena spremnosti, potreba i resursa | Report | Croatian | |
SummaryReport of the Zagreb faculty's evaluation team to the City of Split's prevention council within a joint UNDP and Ministry of the Interior project (2008–2011) that sought a working model for prevention councils across Croatia; Split (the second-largest city) and Čakovec were the pilot councils. The team applied the first four of the six steps of the Croatian adaptation of Communities That Care (readiness and mobilisation, needs, resources, priorities) between June and November 2010. Readiness was rated with the Tri-Ethnic Center's Community Readiness Model in telephone interviews with 12 of the 18 council members, supplemented by focus groups (14 council members, 26 district presidents, 8 citizens), four key-leader interviews, the CTC pupil questionnaire (922 pupils: 299 primary, 623 secondary), a community survey (191 citizens), a problem checklist (116) and a coalition questionnaire (8). Overall readiness scored 3.21, stage 3 of nine (vague awareness), with dimensions between 2.75 (community climate) and 3.92 (existing prevention efforts). Priorities were early drinking, availability and use of other substances, situational prevention and support for volunteering and prosocial engagement. The team recommends investing in the council's capacity first and choosing at most two priority areas. It is a needs and readiness assessment, not an outcome evaluation. Read more →CitationBašić, J., Mihić, J., Novak, M., & Grozić-Živolić, S. (2011). Izvještaj evaluacijskog tima za Vijeće za prevenciju Grada Splita: procjena spremnosti, potreba i resursa. Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet, Odsjek za poremećaje u ponašanju, for the UNDP–Ministry of the Interior project „Unaprjeđenje rada na izgradnji sustava prevencije kriminaliteta i podrška osnivanju koordinacijske jedinice za prevenciju kriminaliteta“ (2008–2011); hosted by Grad Split. | |||||
| 2011 | Brown, E. C., Hawkins, J. D., Arthur, M. W., Briney, J. S., & Fagan, A. A. | StudyPrevention service system transformation using Communities That Care | Study | English | |
SummaryAnalysis in the Journal of Community Psychology of how the local prevention system changed 4.5 years into the community-randomised CTC trial, based on surveys of key community leaders. The significantly higher adoption of a science-based approach to prevention seen in CTC communities in 2004 was maintained in 2007, and leaders in CTC communities were willing to commit significantly more funding to prevention than their counterparts in control communities. The difference in community collaboration observed in 2004, however, had not lasted by 2007. Two subgroup findings are reported: in communities with high poverty rates, leaders in CTC towns reported stronger norms against drug use, and in communities with large minority student populations they reported greater use of the social development strategy, each relative to control communities with similar characteristics. Together with the 2013 follow-up by Rhew et al., this paper shows which system-level changes CTC holds onto and which it does not. Read more →CitationBrown, E. C., Hawkins, J. D., Arthur, M. W., Briney, J. S., & Fagan, A. A. (2011). Prevention service system transformation using Communities That Care. Journal of Community Psychology, 39(2), 183–201. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.20426 | |||||
| 2011 | Fagan, A. A., Arthur, M. W., Hanson, K., Briney, J. S., & Hawkins, J. D. | StudyEffects of Communities That Care on the Adoption and Implementation Fidelity of Evidence-Based Prevention Programs in Communities: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial | Study | English | |
SummaryFirst implementation-outcome paper from the Community Youth Development Study, in Prevention Science, reporting whether CTC changed what prevention programmes communities actually run. Data come from the Community Resource Documentation, a multi-tiered sampling procedure with telephone and web surveys of directors of community agencies and coalitions, school principals, service providers and teachers in the 24 trial communities. Four years after CTC was introduced, the 12 intervention communities were using more tested, effective prevention programmes than the 12 controls, and significantly more children and families were taking part in them. On implementation quality there were few significant differences: respondents in both conditions reported high fidelity across the services they delivered. The paper thus documents the mechanism CTC is meant to trigger – more evidence-based programming reaching more families – while showing that the control communities were not implementing badly, only less. A key reference for the ‘does CTC change practice?’ question that European commissioners ask. Read more →CitationFagan, A. A., Arthur, M. W., Hanson, K., Briney, J. S., & Hawkins, J. D. (2011). Effects of Communities That Care on the Adoption and Implementation Fidelity of Evidence-Based Prevention Programs in Communities: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial. Prevention Science, 12(3), 223–234. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-011-0226-5 | |||||
| 2011 | Fagan, A. A., Hanson, K., Briney, J. S., & Hawkins, J. D. | StudySustaining the Utilization and High Quality Implementation of Tested and Effective Prevention Programs Using the Communities That Care Prevention System | Study | English | |
SummaryImplementation paper in the American Journal of Community Psychology on whether CTC communities keep delivering tested programmes, with fidelity, after outside support ends. Data were collected from directors of community agencies and coalitions, school principals, service providers and teachers in the 24 communities of the randomised CTC evaluation, at two points: during the active project phase, when the 12 intervention communities received training, technical assistance and programme funding, and two years after those resources stopped. At both points the CTC communities showed significantly greater use and sustainment of tested, effective prevention programmes than the 12 control communities, and reached significantly more children and parents. Implementation quality was high in both conditions; the only significant difference was that CTC sites were more likely to monitor implementation quality during the sustainability phase. The message for European funders is twofold: adoption of evidence-based programmes persisted beyond the grant, and fidelity was not what distinguished CTC sites – monitoring was. Read more →CitationFagan, A. A., Hanson, K., Briney, J. S., & Hawkins, J. D. (2011). Sustaining the Utilization and High Quality Implementation of Tested and Effective Prevention Programs Using the Communities That Care Prevention System. American Journal of Community Psychology, 49(3-4), 365–377. DOI: 10.1007/s10464-011-9463-9 | |||||
| 2011 | Groeger-Roth, F., Hasenpusch, B. | ArticleDie „Grüne Liste Prävention. Effektive und erfolgversprechende Präventionsprogramme im Blick" | Article | German | |
SummaryArticle in German from forum kriminalprävention (4/2011, pp. 52–58) introducing the Grüne Liste Prävention, the recommendation list of tested prevention programmes that the Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen built as part of the CTC model project. Interest in evidence-based prevention has grown steadily, and the Anglo-American “what works” tradition has produced lists of tested programmes; in Germany the demand for such information is growing too, but the authors warn against mistaking a list for a recipe book, since implementing a good programme is rarely simple. The database covers the domains family, school, children and adolescents, and neighbourhood, describes each programme in a uniform format and rates it on the strength of its effectiveness evidence in three levels, from theoretically well-founded through effectiveness probable to effectiveness demonstrated, following the Dutch developmental model of Veerman and van Yperen. Of about 150 candidate programmes screened, 34 were listed at the time of writing and 55 were under review, twelve of them meeting the highest level. The list exists to spread tested programmes and, within CTC, to let municipalities match programmes to their prioritised risk and protective factors. Read more →CitationGroeger-Roth, F., Hasenpusch, B. (2011). Die „Grüne Liste Prävention. Effektive und erfolgversprechende Präventionsprogramme im Blick". | |||||
| 2011 | Hawkins, J. D., Oesterle, S., Brown, E. C., Monahan, K. C., Abbott, R. D., Arthur, M. W., & Catalano, R. F. | StudySustained decreases in risk exposure and youth problem behaviors after installation of the Communities That Care prevention system in a randomized trial | Study | English | |
SummaryFollow-up outcome paper from the Community Youth Development Study testing whether Communities That Care reduces community-wide risk and problem behaviour six years after installation and one year after study-provided resources ended. In 2003, 24 small towns in seven US states were matched in pairs within state and randomised to CTC or control; a cohort of 4,407 fifth-graders was surveyed annually through grade 10 (2004–2009). Coalitions in CTC towns received training and technical assistance, used epidemiological data to identify elevated risk and depressed protective factors and implemented programmes from a menu of tested, effective interventions. Targeted risk factors rose less steeply between grades 5 and 10 in CTC than in control communities and were significantly lower in grade 10; the incidence of delinquency, alcohol use and cigarette use, and the prevalence of current smoking and past-year delinquent and violent behaviour, were also significantly lower. The authors conclude that CTC can produce enduring community-wide reductions beyond the years of supported implementation. Read more →CitationHawkins, J. D., Oesterle, S., Brown, E. C., Monahan, K. C., Abbott, R. D., Arthur, M. W., & Catalano, R. F. (2011). Sustained decreases in risk exposure and youth problem behaviors after installation of the Communities That Care prevention system in a randomized trial. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 166(2), 141. DOI: 10.1001/archpediatrics.2011.183 | |||||
| 2011 | Maguire, E. R., Wells, W., & Katz, C. M. | StudyMeasuring Community Risk and Protective Factors for Adolescent Problem Behaviors: Evidence from a Developing Nation | Study | English | |
SummaryMeasurement study testing whether the community-domain scales of the Communities That Care Youth Survey hold up outside the industrialised world. Using a sample of more than 2,500 adolescents in Trinidad and Tobago, the authors examined the construct and concurrent validity of five community risk factors and two community protective factors. The original US measurement models showed weak construct validity in this sample; revised model specifications developed in the study fitted the data better. However, the concurrent validity of both the original and the revised measures – their relation to problem behaviour – was weak, a result the authors flag clearly. They conclude that risk and protective factor measures should not be transplanted from developed to developing nations without local validation. For European CTC sites the paper is a reminder that survey scales need to be checked in each new cultural context rather than assumed to work, even when translated carefully. Read more →CitationMaguire, E. R., Wells, W., & Katz, C. M. (2011). Measuring Community Risk and Protective Factors for Adolescent Problem Behaviors: Evidence from a Developing Nation. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 48(4), 594–620. | |||||
| 2011 | Olson, J. | StudyImplementing and Evaluating the Communities That Care Prevention System in Rural Pennsylvania | Study | English | |
SummaryUtilisation-focused evaluation of Communities That Care in a single rural county in Pennsylvania that had been running the system for more than a decade. CTC is a prevention-planning system that helps local stakeholders plan, implement and evaluate evidence-based strategies against common youth behaviour problems; previous evaluations had reported promising results, but mostly as broad effects pooled across many implementation sites. The author asks whether such results can be replicated at the level of one long-standing site and finds a range of positive effects on the adolescent outcomes examined. Published in the practitioner-oriented Journal of Youth Development, the study is less rigorous than the multisite trials but illustrates what a county can learn from its own routine data after ten years of CTC, a model for the local monitoring that European sites are expected to build into phase 5. Read more →CitationOlson, J. (2011). Implementing and Evaluating the Communities That Care Prevention System in Rural Pennsylvania. Journal of Youth Development, 6(4), 68–78. DOI: 10.5195/JYD.2011.166 | |||||
| 2010 | Arthur, M. W., Hawkins, J. D., Brown, E. C., Briney, J. S., Oesterle, S., & Abbott, R. D. | InstrumentCommunities That Care System Implementation Measure | Instrument | English | |
CitationArthur, M. W., Hawkins, J. D., Brown, E. C., Briney, J. S., Oesterle, S., & Abbott, R. D. (2010). Communities That Care System Implementation Measure. American Psychological Association (APA). DOI: 10.1037/t36666-000 | |||||
| 2010 | Arthur, M. W., Hawkins, J. D., Brown, E. C., Briney, J. S., Oesterle, S., & Abbott, R. D. | StudyImplementation of the Communities That Care prevention system by coalitions in the Community Youth Development Study | Study | English | |
SummaryImplementation paper from the Community Youth Development Study, the randomised community-level trial of Communities That Care. Its starting point is the gap between the growing list of tested, effective programmes and policies for preventing adolescent delinquency and drug use and their poor dissemination and quality of implementation in communities. The study compares the 12 prevention coalitions implementing CTC in the intervention communities with the prevention coalitions found in the 12 control communities. As hypothesised, the CTC coalitions implemented significantly more of CTC's core intervention elements and significantly more tested, effective prevention programmes than the control coalitions. The authors discuss what this means for achieving widespread dissemination of effective programmes, policies and practices. The paper is the clearest demonstration that CTC changes what coalitions actually do, which is the mechanism through which the trial's later youth outcomes are expected to arise. Read more →CitationArthur, M. W., Hawkins, J. D., Brown, E. C., Briney, J. S., Oesterle, S., & Abbott, R. D. (2010). Implementation of the Communities That Care prevention system by coalitions in the Community Youth Development Study. Journal of Community Psychology, 38(2), 245–258. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.20362 | |||||
| 2010 | Bašić, J., & Grozić-Živolić, S. (Eds.) | BookZajednice koje brinu: model prevencije poremećaja u ponašanju djece i mladih. Razvoj, implementacija i evaluacija prevencije u zajednici | Book | Croatian | |
SummaryClosing volume of the Istrian Communities That Care project, edited by the project leader and the county's prevention coordinator and written jointly by the Zagreb research team and Istrian practitioners (twelve contributing authors). The 316-page book, with key parts in Italian, sums up the two scientific-action projects run since 2002. According to the 2011 review by Mihić and Novak it has ten chapters: foreword; the community in prevention; the basic features of the scientific-action project in Istria; the community prevention model; development, implementation and evaluation of the selected priority programmes (parenting programmes, prevention of early drinking, cooperation of kindergartens, schools, families and community, counselling centres and the school programme PATHS); evaluation of the community prevention model; lessons learned; a summary of the model; references (pages 296–306); and appendices, with boxed practical recommendations throughout. It presents the evaluation model of the project and reflects critically on what was done, but it is a process and implementation account: no controlled outcome evaluation of CTC in Istria is reported. The book was not opened; this summary rests on the national library record and the published review. Read more →CitationBašić, J., & Grozić-Živolić, S. (Eds.) (2010). Zajednice koje brinu: model prevencije poremećaja u ponašanju djece i mladih. Razvoj, implementacija i evaluacija prevencije u zajednici. Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet; Istarska županija (Zagreb – Pula). Source: https://katalog.nsk.hr/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990008652060109367&vid=385BUKINET_ZANSK:VU1 | |||||
| 2010 | Groeger-Roth, F. | ArticleWie kann eine effektive Präventionsstrategie auf kommunaler Ebene befördert werden? Der Ansatz von „Communities That Care – CTC und ein Modellversuch in Niedersachsen" | Article | German | |
SummaryArticle in German from forum kriminalprävention (4/2010, pp. 4–10) that introduced Communities That Care to a German crime-prevention readership. Starting from the core elements of developmental prevention, knowledge of risk and protective factors, of the fields of action from the individual to the social environment, and of which measures work, the author presents CTC, developed by the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington, as a strategic approach that helps municipalities apply prevention research systematically: a representative youth survey yields a local profile of risk and protective factors, a coalition of local decision-makers and practitioners sets priorities, tested programmes fill the gaps, and repeated surveys monitor the results. He cites the US evidence available at the time, including the randomised trial in 24 communities in which eighth-graders in CTC communities reported 31% fewer delinquent acts and 37% less binge drinking after three years, and describes the model trial that the Landespräventionsrat Niedersachsen started in 2009 at three sites, where the first CTC student survey covered 60 schools. Evaluation results were not yet available; the article is the founding text of CTC in Germany. Read more →CitationGroeger-Roth, F. (2010). Wie kann eine effektive Präventionsstrategie auf kommunaler Ebene befördert werden? Der Ansatz von „Communities That Care – CTC und ein Modellversuch in Niedersachsen". | |||||
| 2010 | Mihić, J., Novak, M., & Bašić, J. | ArticleZajednice koje brinu: CTC upitnik za djecu i mlade u procjeni potreba za preventivnim intervencijama | Article | Croatian | |
SummaryThe Croatian adaptation paper of the CTC youth survey ("Communities That Care: the CTC questionnaire for children and young people in assessing needs for preventive interventions"). It describes the instrument as used in the Istrian county-wide CTC project since 2004, its risk and protective factor scales and its role in the needs assessment of a community process, and reports the psychometric properties of the Croatian version. It is the reference for the Croatian questionnaire that later large school surveys (Zagreb, Pula, Split, Osijek, Varaždin) and the DIGIPREV digitisation project build on; it contains no outcome evaluation of CTC. Read more →CitationMihić, J., Novak, M., & Bašić, J. (2010). Zajednice koje brinu: CTC upitnik za djecu i mlade u procjeni potreba za preventivnim intervencijama. Ljetopis socijalnog rada, 17(3), 391–412. Source: https://hrcak.srce.hr/64354 | |||||
| 2010 | Oesterle, S., Hawkins, J. D., Fagan, A. A., Abbott, R. D., & Catalano, R. F. | StudyTesting the Universality of the Effects of the Communities That Care Prevention System for Preventing Adolescent Drug Use and Delinquency | Study | English | |
SummarySecondary analysis of the Community Youth Development Study, the first randomised trial of Communities That Care in 12 matched pairs of US towns, asking whether the programme’s already documented effects on substance use and delinquency were truly universal. Using a panel of 4,407 pupils followed from Grade 5 to Grade 8, the authors tested interactions between the intervention and gender, early substance use, early delinquency and high baseline levels of community-targeted risk. CTC reduced substance use and the variety of delinquent behaviours about equally across these subgroups, with two exceptions: the Grade 8 effect on substance use was stronger for boys than for girls, and the Grade 8 effect on delinquency was stronger for pupils who had not been delinquent at baseline. For European coalitions the finding supports a universal, whole-community strategy rather than one aimed only at high-risk youth, while flagging that gains among already delinquent adolescents may be smaller. Read more →CitationOesterle, S., Hawkins, J. D., Fagan, A. A., Abbott, R. D., & Catalano, R. F. (2010). Testing the Universality of the Effects of the Communities That Care Prevention System for Preventing Adolescent Drug Use and Delinquency. Prevention Science, 11(4), 411–423. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-010-0178-1 | |||||
| 2009 | Brown, E. C., Graham, J. W., Hawkins, J. D., Arthur, M. W., Baldwin, M. M., Oesterle, S., Briney, J. S., Catalano, R. F., & Abbott, R. D. | StudyDesign and Analysis of the Community Youth Development Study Longitudinal Cohort Sample | Study | English | |
SummaryMethods paper describing the longitudinal cohort of the Community Youth Development Study, the community-randomised trial of Communities That Care in 24 US communities. CTC aims to reduce adolescent substance use and delinquency by selecting effective preventive interventions that fit a community's specific profile of risk and protection. The article sets out the rationale for the cohort design, the multilevel analytic approach and the baseline comparability of the sample: 4,407 pupils recruited in grades 5 and 6 in 2004 and 2005 and surveyed annually through grade 9. Mixed-model analyses of variance found no significant differences (p > 0.05) between pupils in CTC and control communities on baseline levels of the student outcomes. Published in Evaluation Review, the paper documents that the trial's randomisation produced equivalent groups, which is the foundation on which the later outcome papers rest and a reference for anyone designing a controlled CTC evaluation in Europe. Read more →CitationBrown, E. C., Graham, J. W., Hawkins, J. D., Arthur, M. W., Baldwin, M. M., Oesterle, S., Briney, J. S., Catalano, R. F., & Abbott, R. D. (2009). Design and Analysis of the Community Youth Development Study Longitudinal Cohort Sample. Evaluation Review, 33(4), 311–334. | |||||
| 2009 | Fagan, A. A., Brooke-Weiss, B., Cady, R., & Hawkins, J. D. | StudyIf at First You Don't Succeed ... Keep Trying: Strategies to Enhance Coalition/ School Partnerships to Implement School-Based Prevention Programming | Study | English | |
SummaryPractice-oriented paper from the Community Youth Development Study on how 12 Communities That Care coalitions in the United States worked with local schools to adopt school-based prevention programmes. Over the five-year project every community succeeded in placing evidence-based programmes in its schools, but rarely at the first attempt. The authors document the strategies that worked: building relationships with school staff, cultivating champions inside the school, designing win–win arrangements that met schools’ own needs, and starting with small pilots that were later expanded. Persistent communication about the extent of youth problem behaviour was needed to overcome concerns about surrendering teaching time and replacing familiar practices with unfamiliar programmes. The account is descriptive rather than evaluative, but it is one of the few systematic records of coalition–school negotiation and directly useful for European CTC boards, whose school partners raise the same objections. Read more →CitationFagan, A. A., Brooke-Weiss, B., Cady, R., & Hawkins, J. D. (2009). If at First You Don't Succeed ... Keep Trying: Strategies to Enhance Coalition/ School Partnerships to Implement School-Based Prevention Programming. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 42(3), 387–405. | |||||
| 2009 | Fagan, A. A., Hanson, K., Hawkins, J. D., & Arthur, M. W. | StudyTranslational Research in Action: Implementation of the Communities That Care Prevention System in 12 Communities | Study | English | |
SummaryImplementation study from the Community Youth Development Study describing how the 12 intervention communities put Communities That Care into practice over five years. The authors frame CTC as a model of translational research: a planned, structured, data-driven system that trains local coalitions to choose evidence-based programmes and replicate them faithfully. They report that the communities enacted on average 90% of the system’s core components and delivered a range of school, after-school and parent-training programmes with high fidelity. These results were stable over time: coalitions were launched, programmes were adopted and the quality of prevention services was maintained across the five-year period. The paper contains no outcome data on youth behaviour; its contribution is to show that a structured coalition process can move prevention science into routine local practice, which is the operational premise of every CTC site in Europe. Read more →CitationFagan, A. A., Hanson, K., Hawkins, J. D., & Arthur, M. W. (2009). Translational Research in Action: Implementation of the Communities That Care Prevention System in 12 Communities. Journal of Community Psychology, 37(7), 809–829. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.20332 | |||||
| 2009 | Feinberg, M., Jones, D., Greenberg, M., Osgood, D. W., & Bontempo, D. | StudyEffects of the Communities That Care Model in Pennsylvania on Change in Adolescent Risk and Problem Behaviors | Study | English | |
SummaryQuasi-experimental effectiveness study of Communities That Care in Pennsylvania, where the model was disseminated state-wide, published in Prevention Science as “Effects of the Communities That Care Model in Pennsylvania on Change in Adolescent Risk and Problem Behaviors”. The authors note that few comprehensive models for disseminating evidence-based programmes have shown positive youth outcomes at population level while maintaining fidelity and sustainability, and test whether CTC did. Using biannual anonymous in-school surveillance surveys and multilevel models, they examined change over time in risk and protective factors, grades, delinquency and substance use in CTC versus non-CTC communities. Young people in CTC communities showed less growth in delinquency than those elsewhere, but no difference in substance use. In grade cohorts exposed to evidence-based universal prevention programmes, risk factors rose more slowly and protective factors and academic performance declined more slowly than in comparison cohorts. The authors conclude that coalitions can affect adolescent risk and behaviour at population level when evidence-based programmes are used. Read more →CitationFeinberg, M., Jones, D., Greenberg, M., Osgood, D. W., & Bontempo, D. (2009). Effects of the Communities That Care Model in Pennsylvania on Change in Adolescent Risk and Problem Behaviors. Prevention Science, 11(2), 163–171. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-009-0161-x | |||||
| 2009 | Hawkins, J.D., Oesterle, S., Brown, E.C., Arthur, M.W., Abbott, R.D., Fagan, A.A., & Catalano, R.F. | StudyResults of a type 2 translational research trial to prevent adolescent drug use and delinquency: A test of Communities That Care | Study | English | |
SummaryFirst outcome paper of the Community Youth Development Study, the initial randomised trial of Communities That Care, testing whether the system reduces adolescent substance use and delinquency community-wide. In 2003, 24 small towns in seven US states were matched in pairs within state and randomly assigned to CTC or control; a cohort of 4,407 fifth-graders was surveyed annually through grade 8. Community coalitions received training and technical assistance, used epidemiological data to identify elevated risk and depressed protective factors, and implemented tested programmes for families, schools and 10- to 14-year-olds. The incidence of alcohol, cigarette and smokeless tobacco initiation and of delinquent behaviour was significantly lower in CTC than in control communities. By grade 8, past-month alcohol and smokeless tobacco use, binge drinking in the previous two weeks and the number of delinquent behaviours in the past year were also significantly lower. The authors conclude that CTC can significantly reduce health-risking behaviour community-wide, the result that established CTC's evidence base. Read more →CitationHawkins, J.D., Oesterle, S., Brown, E.C., Arthur, M.W., Abbott, R.D., Fagan, A.A., & Catalano, R.F. (2009). Results of a type 2 translational research trial to prevent adolescent drug use and delinquency: A test of Communities That Care. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 163(9), 789. DOI: 10.1001/archpediatrics.2009.141 | |||||
| 2009 | Huygen, A., Mak, J., & Steketee, M. | ReportCommunities that Care in de Praktijk: Beschrijving van de locaties Maassluis, Hoogvliet en Leiden-Stevenshof | Report | Dutch | |
SummaryCompanion volume to the 2009 evaluation Opgroeien in veilige wijken, describing the three Zuid-Holland CTC sites Maassluis, Rotterdam-Hoogvliet and Leiden-Stevenshof one by one. For each site the report covers the local context and the situation of young people, the reasons for adopting CTC, steering group, prevention team and working groups, administrative and political embedding, the objective structure (effect, process and policy objectives and how they were measured), the prevention plan with the programmes deployed and their timing, the organisations involved and the course of introduction and implementation, with appendices on proposed objectives per programme, survey results and young people's views of their neighbourhood. The notes build on start reports of June 2006, supplemented by interviews in April 2008 and finalised in April 2009; in Maassluis repeated changes of project leader made data on implementation hard to collect. A descriptive record of implementation intended to accompany the main evaluation; it contains no effect analysis of its own. Read more →CitationHuygen, A., Mak, J., & Steketee, M. (2009). Communities that Care in de Praktijk: Beschrijving van de locaties Maassluis, Hoogvliet en Leiden-Stevenshof. Verwey-Jonker Instituut. | |||||
| 2009 | Mak, J., Huygen, A., Steketee, M., & Jonkman, H. | ReportOpgroeien in veilige wijken: Evaluatie van Communities that Care in Maassluis, Hoogvliet en Leiden-Stevenshof | Report | Dutch | |
SummaryProcess and effect evaluation by the Verwey-Jonker Institute of Communities that Care in three second-wave Dutch sites that started in 2004 and 2005: the municipality of Maassluis, the Rotterdam sub-municipality Hoogvliet and the Leiden neighbourhood Stevenshof, commissioned by the Province of Zuid-Holland and Rotterdam's youth department for 2006 to 2009. Method: plan evaluation of the objective structure, process evaluation with a Dutch milestones-and-benchmarks instrument, an internet survey of prevention-team members, and an outcome evaluation based on two school surveys per site. Results: all three sites completed the CTC cycle, built broad prevention teams that later included residents' organisations and housing corporations, and added working groups to coordinate the plan; recurring difficulties were explaining CTC, forming steering groups, running the first survey and obtaining data; effective programmes from the CTC guide were rarely used and parents were hard to reach. Most problem behaviours and risk scores moved in the desired direction between the two surveys, but effects were small or moderate, some targeted risk factors rose, and comparability suffered because the follow-up survey was folded into the regional health service's youth monitor; the authors decline to attribute the changes to CTC. Recommendations concern working groups, programme availability, reach, data and continuity. Read more →CitationMak, J., Huygen, A., Steketee, M., & Jonkman, H. (2009). Opgroeien in veilige wijken: Evaluatie van Communities that Care in Maassluis, Hoogvliet en Leiden-Stevenshof. Verwey-Jonker Instituut. Source: https://www.verwey-jonker.nl/publicatie/opgroeien-in-veilige-wijken/ | |||||
| 2008 | Bašić, J., Ferić Šlehan, M., & Grozić-Živolić, S. | StudyZajednice koje brinu: samoprocjena Koalicije za prevenciju u Istarskoj županiji | Study | Croatian | |
SummaryOriginal scientific paper on the self-assessment of the county-level prevention coalition of the Istrian Communities That Care project. The coalition was formed at the start of the project for the twelve participating localities and grew from the twelve local coordinators and the county coordinator to include expert groups of up to seven members (epidemiological monitoring; programmes and evaluation), the leaders and members of the five priority-intervention groups and, at times, the five to seven members of the action council. Twenty-nine members rated the coalition with the Community Organizational Assessment Tool on decision-making, management and leadership development, non-financial resources, community support, planning and priorities, results and strategies, measuring success and accountability, and policy development; results are given as descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. Perceived strengths were the coalition's staffing, its training in community prevention and effective programmes and its priority and goal setting based on needs analysis. Perceived weaknesses were advocacy for prevention at county and local level and influence on social policy, networking and collaboration with similar groups, citizen involvement, continuous member training and sustainability through transferring knowledge to practitioners. The paper is an internal process evaluation by the coalition itself. Read more →CitationBašić, J., Ferić Šlehan, M., & Grozić-Živolić, S. (2008). Zajednice koje brinu: samoprocjena Koalicije za prevenciju u Istarskoj županiji. Kriminologija & socijalna integracija, 16(2), 109–123. Source: https://hrcak.srce.hr/99142 | |||||
| 2008 | Bašić, J., Novak, M., & Grozić-Živolić, S. | StudySpremnost i mobilizacija zajednice za prevenciju rizičnih ponašanja djece i mladih: perspektiva ključnih ljudi u Istarskoj županiji | Study | Croatian | |
SummaryOriginal scientific paper reporting the key-leader survey of the Istrian Communities That Care project, the readiness and mobilisation step of the Croatian model. In spring 2004, as part of the project's main study, 151 key people in the twelve participating localities completed a questionnaire covering four areas: awareness of prevention; knowledge of prevention and prevention programmes; the readiness of their own organisations for prevention; and their organisations' investment in prevention over the previous twelve months. Results are presented as absolute and relative frequencies, with sex differences tested by t-test. Awareness of the need for prevention was relatively high among most respondents, yet about 80 per cent were not interested in becoming actively involved in improving prevention programmes in their community; they perceived a weaker readiness of their organisations to allocate funds for programmes protecting and helping children and young people, weaker cooperation with other prevention organisations and fewer discussions of such programmes within their organisations, and reported no change over the previous year. Women among the key people showed greater awareness of the need for help, protection and prevention. The paper documents the baseline on which the project's year-long key-leader training was built; it is descriptive and reports no follow-up. Read more →CitationBašić, J., Novak, M., & Grozić-Živolić, S. (2008). Spremnost i mobilizacija zajednice za prevenciju rizičnih ponašanja djece i mladih: perspektiva ključnih ljudi u Istarskoj županiji. Kriminologija & socijalna integracija, 16(2), 97–108. Source: https://hrcak.srce.hr/99139 | |||||
| 2008 | Bašić, J., Novak, M., & Grozić-Živolić, S. | StudyPercepcija rizika i potreba zajednice: percepcija građana i ključnih ljudi u Istarskoj županiji | Study | Croatian | |
SummaryOriginal scientific paper from the needs-assessment step of the Istrian Communities That Care project. It analyses self-reports of 367 citizens in the twelve participating localities (parents of preschool, primary and secondary pupils, students, pensioners and key people) collected with a modified „Upitnik o vašoj zajednici“ derived from the Parent and Adolescent Survey (Texas A&M); results are given as means, standard deviations and analyses of variance. Respondents described life in their communities as relatively safe; perceived danger was tied to the availability of soft and hard drugs, and attitudes showed greater tolerance of some behaviours, notably drinking by young people and adults. Some risk behaviours were seen as present, such as groups of young people gathering, people drinking or using drugs and offences. Although respondents agreed that children should receive preventive education, neither citizens nor key people would attend such education themselves, which the authors read as an indirect indicator of readiness for action and of the community's mobilisation potential. Group differences appeared between students and citizens or pensioners in the perception of youth drinking and in reactions to cannabis use in the neighbourhood: young people saw more tolerance and weaker reactions than adults. The study is descriptive. Read more →CitationBašić, J., Novak, M., & Grozić-Živolić, S. (2008). Percepcija rizika i potreba zajednice: percepcija građana i ključnih ljudi u Istarskoj županiji. Kriminologija & socijalna integracija, 16(2), 85–96. Source: https://hrcak.srce.hr/99132 | |||||
| 2008 | Fagan A., Hanson K., Hawkins J.D., Arthur M.W. | StudyImplementing Effective Community-Based Prevention Programs in the Youth Development Study | Study | English | |
SummaryImplementation-fidelity study from the Community Youth Development Study addressing the mixed evidence on whether communities can replicate science-based substance use and delinquency prevention programmes as designed, in close adherence to their theoretical rationale and specifications. The authors examined the delivery of 16 tested, effective preventive interventions replicated between 2004 and 2006 by the 12 communities implementing Communities That Care. Across all programmes, the majority of the required materials, core components and lessons were delivered; implementers were prepared and enthusiastic and used a variety of teaching practices; and observers recorded high levels of participant engagement. The authors conclude that community coalitions can ensure high-quality replication of effective programmes when a comprehensive system is in place to monitor implementation proactively. Published in Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, the paper describes the fidelity standards that CTC coalitions are expected to meet in phase 5. Read more →CitationFagan A., Hanson K., Hawkins J.D., Arthur M.W. (2008). Implementing Effective Community-Based Prevention Programs in the Youth Development Study. Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice, 6(3), 256–278. | |||||
| 2008 | Fagan, A. A., Hanson, K., Hawkins, J. D., & Arthur, M. W. | StudyBridging Science to Practice: Achieving Prevention Program Implementation Fidelity in the Community Youth Development Study | Study | English | |
SummaryPaper describing the development, application and results of the implementation-monitoring component of Communities That Care used in the Community Youth Development Study to secure high-fidelity delivery of evidence-based prevention programmes. The system responds to research showing that community-based implementation typically involves adaptations to programme design, content or delivery; lack of fidelity to the standards set by programme designers is one marker of the gap between prevention science and practice and can reduce the participant effects seen in efficacy trials. By using the CTC model to select prevention activities and monitor their quality, the 12 CYDS communities replicated 13 programmes with high adherence to core components and in line with dosage requirements on the number, length and frequency of sessions. The authors read this as evidence that CTC's monitoring system can strengthen community prevention delivery systems and raise the likelihood of the intended participant changes, a practical account of how the fidelity results in the companion paper were achieved. Read more →CitationFagan, A. A., Hanson, K., Hawkins, J. D., & Arthur, M. W. (2008). Bridging Science to Practice: Achieving Prevention Program Implementation Fidelity in the Community Youth Development Study. American Journal of Community Psychology, 41(3-4), 235–249. DOI: 10.1007/s10464-008-9176-x | |||||
| 2008 | Fagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., & Catalano, R. F. | Book chapterUsing Community Epidemiologic Data to Improve Social Settings: The Communities That Care Prevention System | Book chapter | English | |
SummaryBook chapter in “Toward Positive Youth Development” (Oxford University Press) describing the Communities That Care model, illustrated with examples from the 12 communities implementing it in the Community Youth Development Study. The authors present CTC as a strategy for improving the social settings in which young people grow up: a broad-based local coalition is trained in six structured workshops over six to twelve months, collects epidemiological data including an anonymous school-wide youth survey, identifies the most elevated risk factors and most depressed protective factors, and then selects evidence-based policies and programmes that address those factors in schools, families, community organisations and the wider neighbourhood. Implementation is monitored and the survey repeated periodically to gauge progress. The chapter contains no new outcome data; it is a concise statement of the CTC logic by its developers and a useful primer for European practitioners new to the system. Read more →CitationFagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., & Catalano, R. F. (2008). Using Community Epidemiologic Data to Improve Social Settings: The Communities That Care Prevention System. In Toward positive youth development: Transforming schools and community programs (pp. 292–312). Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195327892.003.0016 | |||||
| 2008 | Feinberg, M. E., Bontempo, D. E., & Greenberg, M. T. | StudyPredictors and Level of Sustainability of Community Prevention Coalitions | Study | English | |
SummaryLongitudinal study of coalition survival among the Communities That Care sites funded by the state of Pennsylvania, one of the largest CTC systems anywhere. Board functioning and funding of 110 sites were tracked from 2003 to 2006 through reports from board members, staff and technical-assistance providers. Ninety per cent of coalitions continued beyond their initial three-year state grant, and 3–8% closed in each subsequent year; roughly two thirds were still operating four years after the original grant had ended, and many had attracted funding equal to or greater than that grant. Overall coalition functioning, whether rated by members or by technical-assistance staff, and explicit planning for sustainability both predicted survival and post-grant funding, and did so partly independently of each other. For European funders the study provides realistic attrition figures and evidence that sustainability can be actively planned rather than left to chance. Read more →CitationFeinberg, M. E., Bontempo, D. E., & Greenberg, M. T. (2008). Predictors and Level of Sustainability of Community Prevention Coalitions. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 34(6), 495–501. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2008.01.030 | |||||
| 2008 | Feinberg, M. E., Ridenour, T. A., & Greenberg, M. T. | StudyThe Longitudinal Effect of Technical Assistance Dosage on the Functioning of Communities That Care Prevention Boards in Pennsylvania | Study | English | |
SummaryQuantitative study of how much technical assistance (TA) matters for Communities That Care boards, using three years of data from board members and TA providers across the Pennsylvania CTC sites. The authors distinguish on-site from off-site TA and model its dosage against board functioning in the following year. Overall, path models showed little effect of TA dosage on subsequent functioning. On-site TA did appear to help younger boards and boards that were already functioning relatively well, suggesting that support is absorbed best where basic capacity exists. Board functioning and off-site TA were moderately to strongly stable over time, on-site TA dosage was not, and poorly functioning sites did not receive more TA the next year. The paper is among the first to quantify TA effects on prevention coalitions and cautions European CTC programmes against assuming that more coaching automatically produces better boards; targeting and timing appear to matter more than volume. Read more →CitationFeinberg, M. E., Ridenour, T. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2008). The Longitudinal Effect of Technical Assistance Dosage on the Functioning of Communities That Care Prevention Boards in Pennsylvania. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 29(2), 145–165. DOI: 10.1007/s10935-008-0130-3 | |||||
| 2008 | Ferić Šlehan, M., & Kranželić, V. | StudyProcjena rizičnih i zaštitnih čimbenika u zajednici: razlike između percepcije mladih i njihovih roditelja | Study | Croatian | |
SummaryOriginal scientific paper from the Istrian scientific-action project „Zajednice koje brinu kao model prevencije poremećaja u ponašanju“, run by the Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences with Istria County's department of health and social welfare. In the wider areas of Labin, Pazin, Poreč and Pula, 489 young people drawn from all secondary schools and 407 of their parents (896 respondents in all) completed the 24-item community questionnaire „Upitnik o vašoj zajednici“. First-order factor analysis extracted six factors, and discriminant analysis on these latent dimensions compared the two groups. Young people rated the availability of alcohol and drugs in the community higher than their parents did and judged the community more tolerant of youth risk behaviour; the factors contributing most to the discriminant function were availability of alcohol in the community, community tolerance of risk behaviour and availability of drugs. The authors suggest that such perception gaps can guide the planning of community interventions aimed at reducing risk factors. The paper is a cross-sectional comparison within the project's needs assessment and reports no intervention or outcome data. Read more →CitationFerić Šlehan, M., & Kranželić, V. (2008). Procjena rizičnih i zaštitnih čimbenika u zajednici: razlike između percepcije mladih i njihovih roditelja. Kriminologija & socijalna integracija, 16(1), 33–43. Source: https://hrcak.srce.hr/99108 | |||||
| 2008 | Hawkins, J. D., Brown, E. C., Oesterle, S., Arthur, M. W., Abbott, R. D., & Catalano, R. F. | StudyEarly Effects of Communities That Care on Targeted Risks and Initiation of Delinquent Behavior and Substance Use | Study | English | |
SummaryFirst outcome paper from the Community Youth Development Study, the group-randomised trial of Communities That Care in 12 matched pairs of US communities. A panel of 4,407 pupils was surveyed annually from Grade 5 to Grade 7, so that effects could be assessed 1.67 years after the CTC-selected programmes had begun. In Grade 7, mean levels of the risk factors the communities had chosen to target were significantly lower in CTC communities than in controls, and significantly fewer pupils had initiated delinquent behaviour between Grades 5 and 7. There was no significant effect on the initiation of substance use by spring of Grade 7. The authors read this pattern as consistent with the CTC theory of change, which expects effects on risk factors after two to five years and on behaviour after five or more; for European sites it sets realistic expectations about when effects should appear. Read more →CitationHawkins, J. D., Brown, E. C., Oesterle, S., Arthur, M. W., Abbott, R. D., & Catalano, R. F. (2008). Early Effects of Communities That Care on Targeted Risks and Initiation of Delinquent Behavior and Substance Use. Journal of Adolescent Health, 43(1), 15–22. DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2008.01.022 | |||||
| 2008 | Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., Arthur, M. W., Egan, E., Brown, E. C., Abbott, R. D., & Murray, D. M. | Study protocolTesting Communities That Care: The Rationale, Design and Behavioral Baseline Equivalence of the Community Youth Development Study | Study protocol | English | |
SummaryDesign and baseline paper of the Community Youth Development Study, the randomised controlled community trial of Communities That Care. It opens from the observation that prevention science has shown adolescent health and behaviour problems to be preventable with high-quality services, yet many communities continue to use strategies without evidence, which has made the dissemination and high-fidelity implementation of effective strategies a central research focus. CTC is presented as a prevention operating system that supplies manuals, tools, training and technical assistance so communities can plan and deliver science-based prevention against substance use, delinquency and related problems. The paper sets out the rationale, aims, intervention and design of the trial and tests the baseline comparability of the 12 intervention and 12 control communities, finding similar pre-intervention levels of adolescent drug use and antisocial behaviour. Strengths and limitations of the design are discussed. Effectively the trial protocol, and the reference for its later outcome papers. Read more →CitationHawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., Arthur, M. W., Egan, E., Brown, E. C., Abbott, R. D., & Murray, D. M. (2008). Testing Communities That Care: The Rationale, Design and Behavioral Baseline Equivalence of the Community Youth Development Study. Prevention Science, 9(3), 178–190. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-008-0092-y | |||||
| 2008 | Jonkman,H., Haggerty, K.P., Steketee, M., Fagan, A.A., Hanson, K., and J.D. Hawkins | StudyCommunities That Care, Core Elements and Context: Research of Implementation in Two Countries | Study | English | |
SummaryTwo-country implementation study reporting how far the Communities That Care prevention operating system was put in place in 22 communities: 12 in the United States, taking part in the Community Youth Development Study, and 10 in the Netherlands. The paper sets out the core elements of CTC, the phased process, the coalition, the youth survey and community profile and the action plan built on tested programmes, and presents the results of two implementation measures administered in both countries, then discusses the similarities and differences in how the process unfolded. Published in Social Development Issues and available through PubMed Central, it is one of the first systematic comparisons of CTC implementation inside and outside the US and an early source on the adjustments the Dutch sites made. For European practitioners it documents which elements travel unchanged and where local conditions, above all the supply of tested programmes, shape what a coalition can do. Read more →CitationJonkman,H., Haggerty, K.P., Steketee, M., Fagan, A.A., Hanson, K., and J.D. Hawkins (2008). Communities That Care, Core Elements and Context: Research of Implementation in Two Countries. Source: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2712284/ | |||||
| 2008 | Quinby, R. K., Hanson, K., Brooke-Weiss, B., Arthur, M. W., Hawkins, J. D., & Fagan, A. A. | StudyInstalling the Communities That Care Prevention System: Implementation Progress and Fidelity in a Randomized Controlled Trial | Study | English | |
SummaryFidelity report from the first 18 months of the Community Youth Development Study, the five-year group-randomised trial of Communities That Care in 12 US intervention communities. Installation followed the standard CTC protocol: six trainings delivered by certified trainers at each site, a locally recruited community coordinator, ongoing monitoring against the CTC milestones and benchmarks, and proactive technical assistance and coaching. Three groups of raters judged progress on each milestone of the first four CTC phases. Averaged across raters, between 89% and 100% of those milestones were rated “completely met” or “majority met”, indicating that the early phases had been implemented with high fidelity. The paper reports no youth outcomes; its value lies in documenting that the CTC process itself can be installed as designed, a precondition for interpreting the trial’s later effect estimates and a benchmark for European sites monitoring their own phase progress. Read more →CitationQuinby, R. K., Hanson, K., Brooke-Weiss, B., Arthur, M. W., Hawkins, J. D., & Fagan, A. A. (2008). Installing the Communities That Care Prevention System: Implementation Progress and Fidelity in a Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of Community Psychology, 36(3), 313–332. DOI: 10.1002/jcop.20194 | |||||
| 2008 | Vergeer, M., & de Vries, I. | ArticleCommunities that Care in Nederland | Article | Dutch | |
SummaryPractice article in TSG, the Dutch journal of health sciences, by two people central to the Dutch implementation (Mieke Vergeer of the Netherlands Youth Institute and Ido de Vries of Seinpost Adviesbureau), describing the development of Communities that Care in the Netherlands. It recounts how the Ministries of Justice and of Health, Welfare and Sport commissioned the Netherlands Institute for Care and Welfare to adapt the approach, how the four pilots started in neighbourhoods of Amsterdam, Arnhem, Rotterdam and Zwolle in 2000 and how CtC had by 2008 been taken up in about 20 local communities. The abstract summarises the evaluations to date as showing that CtC succeeds in mobilising local policymakers, youth workers and community services to direct effective preventive interventions at identified risk factors, with good use of local resources, and announces the multisite trial that started in 2008 to assess results. A short descriptive overview written by implementers rather than evaluators; it reports no outcome data, and its description of CtC as an effective approach rests on process evaluations. Only the abstract and the reference list were accessible; the full text is paywalled. Read more →CitationVergeer, M., & de Vries, I. (2008). Communities that Care in Nederland. TSG – Tijdschrift voor Gezondheidswetenschappen, 86(5), 227–230. DOI: 10.1007/BF03082085 | |||||
| 2007 | Arthur, M. W., Briney, J.S., Hawkins, J.D., Abbott, R.D., Brooke-Weiss, B.L. and R. F. Catalano | StudyMeasuring risk and protection in communities using the Communities That Care Youth Survey | Study | English | |
SummaryMethods paper on the Communities That Care Youth Survey, which measures risk and protective factors shown in earlier research to predict adolescent drug use, delinquency and violence. The authors describe the development and validation of cut points for the survey's risk and protective factor scales that distinguish young people at higher from those at lower risk of problem behaviour. With such cut points a surveyed population can be described by the proportion of young people at risk, or protected, on each predictor, which helps a community prioritise among factors. Alternative cut points are compared and the discriminant validity of the chosen values tested. The results show that cut points with sufficient sensitivity and selectivity can be set for every scale, so that risk and protective factors can be reported as prevalence rates. Published in Evaluation and Program Planning, it is the basis of the percentage-at-risk profiles that CTC communities use to select priorities in phase 3. Read more →CitationArthur, M. W., Briney, J.S., Hawkins, J.D., Abbott, R.D., Brooke-Weiss, B.L. and R. F. Catalano (2007). Measuring risk and protection in communities using the Communities That Care Youth Survey. Evaluation and Program Planning, 30(2), 197–211. DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2007.01.009 | |||||
| 2007 | Bašić, J., Ferić Šlehan, M., & Kranželić Tavra, V. | BookZajednice koje brinu: model prevencije poremećaja u ponašanju. Knj. 1: Epidemiološka studija – mjerenje rizičnih i zaštitnih čimbenika u Istarskoj županiji | Book | Croatian | |
SummaryFirst of the three volumes in which the scientific-action project „Zajednice koje brinu kao model prevencije poremećaja u ponašanju“ (Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, Zagreb, with Istria County, from 2002) documented the Croatian adaptation of Communities That Care. According to the national library record it is a 240-page epidemiological study measuring risk and protective factors in Istria County, with chapters partly in Italian, a bibliography on pages 204–208 and a print run of 1,000 copies. The companion journal articles of 2008 indicate what the study rests on: the spring 2004 measurement in the twelve participating localities, using the first Croatian translation of the CTC youth survey together with a key-leader survey (151 respondents) and a community survey of citizens and parents. The volume therefore represents the needs-assessment phase of the Istrian model, on which the later priority setting and programme selection were based. Its content could not be checked directly: the book is not online and this summary rests on the catalogue record, the 2008 articles and the 2011 review of the third volume. Read more →CitationBašić, J., Ferić Šlehan, M., & Kranželić Tavra, V. (2007). Zajednice koje brinu: model prevencije poremećaja u ponašanju. Knj. 1: Epidemiološka studija – mjerenje rizičnih i zaštitnih čimbenika u Istarskoj županiji. Istarska županija, Pula; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet, Centar za prevencijska istraživanja. Source: https://katalog.nsk.hr/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990006498680109367&vid=385BUKINET_ZANSK:VU1 | |||||
| 2007 | Bašić, J., Ferić Šlehan, M., & Kranželić Tavra, V. | BookZajednice koje brinu: model prevencije poremećaja u ponašanju. Knj. 2: Strategija promišljanja, resursi i programi prevencije u Istarskoj županiji | Book | Croatian | |
SummarySecond volume of the Istrian Communities That Care project series, published in the same year as the epidemiological study. The national library record describes a 239-page book on strategic considerations, resources and prevention programmes in Istria County, with chapters partly in Italian and a print run of 600 copies. Within the Croatian six-step adaptation of CTC (readiness and mobilisation, needs, resources, priorities, implementation, evaluation) it corresponds to the resource-assessment and priority-setting phase: an inventory of existing prevention programmes and services in the twelve participating localities, and the strategic reasoning that linked the 2004 survey results to the priorities and programme choices later described in the 2010 volume. The book is a project document for local practitioners and county decision-makers rather than a research article; it contains no effectiveness data. Its content could not be checked directly, as the volume is not online; the summary rests on the catalogue record, the citation in Serdar, Ferić and Belošević (2024) and the 2011 review of the third volume, which lists both 2007 books as the series' predecessors. Read more →CitationBašić, J., Ferić Šlehan, M., & Kranželić Tavra, V. (2007). Zajednice koje brinu: model prevencije poremećaja u ponašanju. Knj. 2: Strategija promišljanja, resursi i programi prevencije u Istarskoj županiji. Istarska županija, Pula; Sveučilište u Zagrebu, Edukacijsko-rehabilitacijski fakultet, Centar za prevencijska istraživanja. Source: https://katalog.nsk.hr/discovery/fulldisplay?docid=alma990006548640109367&vid=385BUKINET_ZANSK:VU1 | |||||
| 2007 | Brown, E. C., Hawkins, J. D., Arthur, M. W., Briney, J. S., & Abbott, R. D. | StudyEffects of Communities That Care on Prevention Services Systems: Findings From the Community Youth Development Study at 1.5 Years | Study | English | |
SummaryFirst system-level outcome paper from the Community Youth Development Study, the community-randomised trial of Communities That Care, reporting change in three community outcomes 1.5 years after CTC was introduced in 12 communities. Data came from the Community Key Informant Survey administered in 2001 and 2004 to 534 community leaders across all 24 communities, representing multiple sectors in each. Multilevel analyses controlling for respondent and community characteristics showed that CTC and control communities started from comparable levels of adopting a science-based approach to prevention, of collaboration across community sectors and of collaboration on specific prevention activities, and that CTC communities showed significantly greater increases on all three between 2001 and 2004. The authors conclude that CTC changed the proximal system outcomes theorised to lead to more effective prevention services and, in turn, to lower risk, stronger protection and better youth outcomes, the results that the German Röding et al. trial later set out to replicate. Read more →CitationBrown, E. C., Hawkins, J. D., Arthur, M. W., Briney, J. S., & Abbott, R. D. (2007). Effects of Communities That Care on Prevention Services Systems: Findings From the Community Youth Development Study at 1.5 Years. Prevention Science, 8(3), 180–191. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-007-0068-3 | |||||
| 2007 | Fagan, A. A., Van Horn, M. L., Hawkins, J. D., & Arthur, M. W. | StudyGender Similarities and Differences in the Association Between Risk and Protective Factors and Self-Reported Serious Delinquency | Study | English | |
SummaryCross-sectional analysis of Communities That Care Youth Survey data from 7,829 Grade 10 pupils, examining whether 22 psychosocial risk and protective factors relate to serious delinquency differently for boys and girls. All 22 factors were significantly associated with serious delinquency in both sexes, supporting the survey’s assumption that the same constructs matter for everyone. The strength of association was significantly greater for boys on 12 of the 22 factors, and on 18 factors boys reported more risk exposure and less protection than girls. The authors conclude that boys’ higher rates of serious offending in late adolescence reflect both greater exposure to risk and a tighter coupling between those risks and offending. The study is self-report and cross-sectional, so it cannot establish causal direction. For CTC coalitions it supports planning from a shared risk-and-protection profile while remaining alert to the gender-specific weight of some factors. Read more →CitationFagan, A. A., Van Horn, M. L., Hawkins, J. D., & Arthur, M. W. (2007). Gender Similarities and Differences in the Association Between Risk and Protective Factors and Self-Reported Serious Delinquency. Prevention Science, 8(2), 115–124. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-006-0062-1 | |||||
| 2007 | Feinberg, M. E., Greenberg, M. T., Osgood, D. W., Sartorius, J., & Bontempo, D. | StudyEffects of the Communities That Care Model in Pennsylvania on Youth Risk and Problem Behaviors | Study | English | |
SummaryThe first large-scale quasi-experimental evaluation of youth outcomes under Communities That Care, using state-wide school surveys in Pennsylvania. Fifteen risk factors and six behavioural outcomes (substance use and delinquency) were compared for 38,107 pupils in 2001 and 98,436 pupils in 2003 in communities with and without a CTC coalition, with multilevel models controlling for community poverty. Results favoured CTC communities more often than chance would predict, with lower levels of some risk factors and some problem behaviours; the effects were not uniform across measures. In a follow-up analysis restricted to grade cohorts that could actually have been reached by a CTC-funded programme, given its timing and target age, the evidence of CTC effects was stronger. The authors conclude that community coalitions can shift adolescent public-health problems at population level, particularly when they implement evidence-based programmes. The design is observational, so selection into CTC cannot be ruled out, but it remains the largest naturalistic test of CTC available. Read more →CitationFeinberg, M. E., Greenberg, M. T., Osgood, D. W., Sartorius, J., & Bontempo, D. (2007). Effects of the Communities That Care Model in Pennsylvania on Youth Risk and Problem Behaviors. Prevention Science, 8(4), 261–270. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-007-0073-6 | |||||
| 2007 | Feinberg, M. E., Ridenour, T. A., & Greenberg, M. T. | StudyAggregating Indices of Risk and Protection for Adolescent Behavior Problems: The Communities That Care Youth Survey | Study | English | |
SummaryPsychometric study aimed at making the Communities That Care Youth Survey easier to use for research and for local resource decisions. The 31 risk and protective factor scales were examined in two waves of the Pennsylvania survey of pupils in Grades 6–12 (43,842 respondents in 2001; 101,988 in 2003). Factor analysis and reliability testing yielded seven coherent aggregate indices: community cohesion, family cohesion, family risk, school support for prosocial activities, antisocial peer domain, attitudes toward risky behaviour, and risky behavioural tendencies. Four scales – religiosity, academic performance, personal transitions and mobility, and early initiation of drug use and antisocial behaviour – did not fit and were left out. The indices correlated with one another and with antisocial behaviour and substance use as expected, and the structure replicated across the two waves. The authors recommend the indices for researchers and communities; for European sites they offer a tested way to summarise a crowded survey profile. Read more →CitationFeinberg, M. E., Ridenour, T. A., & Greenberg, M. T. (2007). Aggregating Indices of Risk and Protection for Adolescent Behavior Problems: The Communities That Care Youth Survey. Journal of Adolescent Health, 40(6), 506–513. DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2006.09.002 | |||||
| 2007 | Jonkman, H. | Book chapterGewaltprävention in den Niederlanden. Auf dem Weg zu einer Politik effektiver Prävention | Book chapter | German | |
SummaryGerman-language chapter (pp. 151–172) in the volume Early Prevention – Frühe Prävention. Strategien und Erfahrungen aus 12 Ländern (Deutsches Jugendinstitut, Munich, 2007), in which Harrie Jonkman (Netherlands Institute for Care and Welfare, NIZW) describes the Dutch route towards an evidence-based prevention policy. He first traces trends in youth violence and delinquency (the share of minors with police contact rose from 2.8% in 1980 to about 4.2%), then sets out a holistic developmental perspective on how problem behaviour arises across family, school, peers and neighbourhood, and finally presents two examples of effective early prevention: the classroom programme Taakspel, a Dutch adaptation of the Good Behavior Game tested in a randomised trial with 644 pupils at 13 primary schools, and Communities That Care as a neighbourhood strategy. The CTC section explains the five-phase process, the youth survey, the programme menu and the NIZW’s three-year support model, summarises US, British and Dutch evaluations (in three of the four Dutch pilot areas CTC became the basis of local youth policy) and points to the then-running US randomised trial in 24 communities. An early European account of CTC for German-speaking readers. Read more →CitationJonkman, H. (2007). Gewaltprävention in den Niederlanden. Auf dem Weg zu einer Politik effektiver Prävention. Source: https://www.dji.de/fileadmin/user_upload/bibs/_Band10_EarlyPrevention.pdf | |||||
| 2006 | Crow, I., France, A., & Hacking, S. | StudyEvaluation of Three Communities That Care Projects in the UK | Study | English | |
SummaryPeer-reviewed article in Security Journal presenting the evaluation of the first three Communities That Care projects in England and Wales, funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and reported in full in Crow et al. (2004). CTC projects aim to improve community security by lowering the risk of young people becoming involved in problem behaviour through a risk-factor model, community coalitions and evidence-based programmes. The evaluation combined process research with repeated school surveys of risk and protective factors in the project areas and among comparison pupils. Results: two of the three projects were not implemented as intended, so no effect could be expected there; the one project that was implemented showed indications of a positive impact on the factors associated with problem behaviour among children living in the CTC area compared with children from the same schools living outside it. The authors draw out issues for community-based programmes built on the risk-factor paradigm, particularly implementation quality, site selection and the time needed before effects can be expected, and the lessons for early-intervention initiatives. Findings are indicative rather than conclusive; the design allowed no causal attribution. Read more →CitationCrow, I., France, A., & Hacking, S. (2006). Evaluation of Three Communities That Care Projects in the UK. Security Journal, 19(1), 45–57. DOI: 10.1057/palgrave.sj.8350001 | |||||
| 2006 | Steketee, M., Mak, J., & Huygen, A. | BookOpgroeien in veilige wijken: Communities that Care als instrument voor lokaal preventief jeugdbeleid | Book | Dutch | |
SummaryMain report of the national evaluation the Verwey-Jonker Institute carried out from 2004 to 2006 for the Dutch Ministries of Justice and of Health, Welfare and Sport on the CTC pilots then running in Amsterdam-Noord, Rotterdam-Oude Noorden, Zwolle-Zuid, Almere-Buiten and Leeuwarden, published as a book by Van Gorcum with the institute. According to its companion volume and later Verwey-Jonker reports, it presents the background of CTC, the study design (plan, process, output and outcome evaluation with milestones-and-benchmarks ratings, questionnaires to prevention teams and repeated school surveys), the results and effects, and conclusions with suggestions for the future. The findings, as summarised in the authors' later work, were that CTC improved the quality of planning and decisions, strengthened cooperation between local partners, made programming more coordinated, focused attention on risk and protective factors and increased the use of effective or promising interventions, while behavioural effects could not be established. The book itself could not be opened; bibliographic data come from the Library of Congress record (viii, 117 pages, ISBN 90-232-4286-6) and the companion volume's foreword, so this summary is second-hand. Read more →CitationSteketee, M., Mak, J., & Huygen, A. (2006). Opgroeien in veilige wijken: Communities that Care als instrument voor lokaal preventief jeugdbeleid. Van Gorcum / Verwey-Jonker Instituut. Source: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL23068504M | |||||
| 2006 | Steketee, M., Mak, J., & Huygen, A. | ReportCommunities that Care in de praktijk: Beschrijving van vijf pilotprojecten | Report | Dutch | |
SummaryCompanion volume to Opgroeien in veilige wijken, the Verwey-Jonker Institute's 2004 to 2006 national evaluation of Communities that Care for the Ministries of Justice and of Health, Welfare and Sport. It contains site-specific descriptions of five Dutch pilots: Amsterdam-Midden-Noord (Van der Pekbuurt, Vogelbuurt and Bloemenbuurt), Rotterdam Oude Noorden, Zwolle-Zuid, Almere-Buiten and Leeuwarden-HASW. Each chapter follows the same structure: positioning and city-wide roll-out, local context and situation of young people, organisation (steering group, prevention team, project leader), administrative and political embedding, the objectives set for prioritised risk and protective factors, implementation of the prevention plan, registration and monitoring, and bottlenecks experienced in the CTC process. The descriptions rest on start reports of April 2005, project documents, written questionnaires to project leaders, coaches and NIZW support staff, and interviews in spring 2005 and 2006. The volume is a documentation of implementation, not an evaluation of effects; findings on results and conclusions are reserved for the main book. It records, for instance, that the first pilots began in 1999 with untranslated programmes and changing project leaders, and that CTC gradually came to be seen as a steering instrument. Read more →CitationSteketee, M., Mak, J., & Huygen, A. (2006). Communities that Care in de praktijk: Beschrijving van vijf pilotprojecten. Verwey-Jonker Instituut. Source: https://www.verwey-jonker.nl/publicatie/communities-that-care-in-de-praktijk/ | |||||
| 2005 | Bannister, J., & Dillane, J. | ReportCommunities That Care: An Evaluation of the Scottish Pilot Programme | Report | English | |
SummaryFour-page Research Findings summary (No. 79/2005, Crime and Criminal Justice) of the evaluation commissioned by the Scottish Executive Justice Department of the three Scottish CTC pilots launched in 2000 with local authorities, Social Inclusion Partnerships and health boards, and supported by CTC (UK) as sole licensed provider. Method: qualitative case-study research between February 2000 and December 2003 covering community readiness, community mobilisation and assessment, and programme implementation. Findings: the pilot areas departed markedly from the model's criteria of size and neighbourhood structure; overlap and mismatch with Social Inclusion Partnership boundaries cut both ways; the process fostered partnership working and ownership, but attendance was inconsistent and few residents, especially young people, took part; risk audits challenged preconceptions, yet doubts about scoring methodology and data reliability weakened the evidence base; the Promising Approaches guide was seen as useful but incomplete; coordinators were crucial; the CTC philosophy was strongly supported by local professionals. Conclusion: methodological and practical problems hindered transfer to Scotland, and any effect on outcomes would depend on monitoring frameworks that were not clearly in place. No outcome data are reported. Read more →CitationBannister, J., & Dillane, J. (2005). Communities That Care: An Evaluation of the Scottish Pilot Programme. Scottish Executive Social Research. Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20130208005639/http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/54357/0012332.pdf | |||||
| 2005 | France, A., & Crow, I. | StudyUsing the ‘risk factor paradigm’ in prevention: lessons from the evaluation of Communities that Care | Study | English | |
SummaryThe paper discusses results of the evaluation of the UK Communities That Care programme, which the Joseph Rowntree Foundation set up in 1997 on David Farrington's suggestion to test whether a risk- and protection-focused approach could work in the British context. Background: three demonstration projects in England and Wales were funded for three years each; the evaluation ran over five years, with an intervention period of two and a half years. Results: the model looks promising to the authors, but they name substantial implementation difficulties, from the data base and the work of the local boards to the selection and delivery of interventions, that would need to be resolved for the approach to succeed over a longer time frame. Conclusion: the risk factor paradigm can be applied in communities, but it demands reliable data, trained coordination and time; the British trial could not provide robust evidence of effect. Read more →CitationFrance, A., & Crow, I. (2005). Using the ‘risk factor paradigm’ in prevention: lessons from the evaluation of Communities that Care. Children & Society, 19(2), 172–184. DOI: 10.1002/chi.866 | |||||
| 2005 | Glaser, R.R., Van Horn, M.L., Arthur, M.W., Hawkins, J.D. and R. F. Catalano | StudyMeasurement properties of the Communities That Care Youth Survey across demographic groups | Study | English | |
SummaryLarge measurement study of the Communities That Care Youth Survey, the instrument that captures the risk and protective factors known to predict adolescent substance use and related problem behaviour. Using a sample of 172,628 pupils surveyed in seven US states in 1998, the authors examined the factor structure of the risk and protective factor scales and tested whether the measurement models were equivalent across five racial and ethnic groups (African Americans, Asians or Pacific Islanders, Caucasians, Hispanic Americans and Native Americans), four grade levels (6, 8, 10 and 12) and both genders. The results support the construct validity of the scales and show that the measures are equally reliable for boys and girls and across the five groups. Implications for science-based prevention planning are discussed. Published in the Journal of Quantitative Criminology, the study is the psychometric foundation on which later adaptations of the survey, including the German and Portuguese versions, build. Read more →CitationGlaser, R.R., Van Horn, M.L., Arthur, M.W., Hawkins, J.D. and R. F. Catalano (2005). Measurement properties of the Communities That Care Youth Survey across demographic groups. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 21(1), 73–102. DOI: 10.1007/s10940-004-1788-1 | |||||
| 2005 | Gomez, B. J., Greenberg, M. T., & Feinberg, M. E. | StudySustainability of Community Coalitions: An Evaluation of Communities That Care | Study | English | |
SummaryEarly study of what predicts whether a Communities That Care coalition survives once start-up money runs out, based on 20 CTC sites in Pennsylvania that had received three years of state seed funding. Coalition processes during the funded period were assessed through interviews with coalition members and through ratings by the research team and by the state’s technical consultants; these were related to markers of sustained board activity after funding ended. Three early characteristics predicted later survival: members’ knowledge of prevention, the coalition’s internal functioning, and fidelity to the CTC model. The sample is small and the sustainability markers are limited, but the paper is one of the first empirical looks at coalition sustainability, and its message – invest early in member competence, working relationships and faithful use of the model – anticipates the larger Pennsylvania follow-up studies and remains relevant for European sites planning beyond their initial grant. Read more →CitationGomez, B. J., Greenberg, M. T., & Feinberg, M. E. (2005). Sustainability of Community Coalitions: An Evaluation of Communities That Care. Prevention Science, 6(3), 199–202. DOI: 10.1007/s11121-005-0003-4 | |||||
| 2005 | Greenberg, M. T., Feinberg, M. E., Gomez, B. J., & Osgood, D. W. | Book chapterTesting a Community Prevention Focused Model of Coalition Functioning and Sustainability: A Comprehensive Study of Communities That Care in Pennsylvania | Book chapter | English | |
CitationGreenberg, M. T., Feinberg, M. E., Gomez, B. J., & Osgood, D. W. (2005). Testing a Community Prevention Focused Model of Coalition Functioning and Sustainability: A Comprehensive Study of Communities That Care in Pennsylvania. Wiley. DOI: 10.1002/9780470713624.ch11 | |||||
| 2005 | Hawkins, J.D., Catalano, R.F. | ReportInvesting in Your Community's Youth: An Introduction to Communities That Care System | Report | English | |
CitationHawkins, J.D., Catalano, R.F. (2005). Investing in Your Community's Youth: An Introduction to Communities That Care System. | |||||
| 2005 | Jonkman, H., Junger-Tas, J., van Dijk, B. | StudyFrom Behind Dikes and Dunes: Communities that Care in the Netherlands | Study | English | |
SummaryOverview article on the introduction of Communities That Care in the Netherlands, the first European country to trial the system. The authors sketch the socio-historical background of the initiative, explain the rationale and starting point of the Dutch experiment and describe the tools used in the process, among them the youth survey, the community profile and the programme menu. They then discuss the implementation of CTC and some of the problems encountered in trying to introduce the approach into Dutch structures, before summarising the main outcomes of the first, process-oriented evaluation of the pilot. Published in Children & Society, the paper is a primary source on how a US-designed prevention system was first transplanted into a European welfare state, and its account of the early obstacles, above all the limited supply of tested programmes, anticipates findings that the later Dutch and US comparison studies would confirm. Read more →CitationJonkman, H., Junger-Tas, J., van Dijk, B. (2005). From Behind Dikes and Dunes: Communities that Care in the Netherlands. Children & Society, 19(2), 105–116. DOI: 10.1002/chi.865 | |||||
| 2005 | Myers, D. L., & Arter, M. L. | StudyEvaluating the Implementation of Indiana Area ‘Communities That Care | Study | English | |
CitationMyers, D. L., & Arter, M. L. (2005). Evaluating the Implementation of Indiana Area ‘Communities That Care. Crime Prevention and Community Safety, 7(1), 43–52. DOI: 10.1057/PALGRAVE.CPCS.8140208 | |||||
| 2004 | Crow, I., France, A., Hacking, S., & Hart, M. | ReportDoes Communities that Care work? An evaluation of a community-based risk prevention programme in three neighbourhoods | Report | English | |
SummaryFinal report of the evaluation commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation of the three British CTC demonstration projects in England and Wales (from 1997/98). The Foundation had adapted the US model for the UK, founded a delivery organisation (CTC UK) and funded a coordinator post in each project for three years. Method: process and outcome evaluation over roughly five years with an impact period of two and a half years; the guiding questions were whether CTC was implemented successfully, whether risk and protective factors changed in the project areas, and what part the projects played in any change. Results: implementation differed markedly between the three areas; the observed changes in risk and protective factors were limited and could not be attributed to CTC with the design available. Conclusion: the authors call the approach promising but hold that substantial implementation problems would have to be solved before effects over a longer period could be expected. The report underpins the cautious British assessment of CTC to this day. Read more →CitationCrow, I., France, A., Hacking, S., & Hart, M. (2004). Does Communities that Care work? An evaluation of a community-based risk prevention programme in three neighbourhoods. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Source: https://core.ac.uk/download/288389332.pdf | |||||
| 2004 | Fairnington, A. | StudyCommunities that care: a case study of regeneration from Wales | Study | English | |
SummaryArticle in Critical Public Health, part of a special issue on building multidisciplinary public health in the UK, presenting Communities that Care as a case study of community regeneration from Wales. Starting from the observation that genuine strategic partnerships involving residents as well as agencies remain rare in public health and regeneration, the author draws on the experience of more than 30 CTC partnerships across England, Scotland and Wales, with the Welsh site as the illustrative case, to identify the processes that make such partnerships work. The argument is that the risk and protective factor model gives partners a shared, joined-up data set from the schools survey and archival audit, and that this produces an action plan that is community led, evidence based and capable of being sustained over several years. A practice-based case study by an author involved in the Welsh programme rather than an independent evaluation; it reports no outcome measurements, and its claims about sustainability predate the 2004 JRF evaluation and the closure of CtC UK in 2009. Only the abstract could be read; the full text is behind a paywall. Read more →CitationFairnington, A. (2004). Communities that care: a case study of regeneration from Wales. Critical Public Health, 14(1), 27–36. DOI: 10.1080/09581590310001647489 | |||||
| 2004 | Feinberg, M. E., Greenberg, M. T., & Osgood, D. W. | StudyReadiness, Functioning, and Perceived Effectiveness in Community Prevention Coalitions: A Study of Communities That Care | Study | English | |
SummaryCross-sectional study of 21 Communities That Care prevention boards in Pennsylvania testing whether community readiness, prevention knowledge, coalition functioning and perceived barriers relate to how effective a coalition is judged to be. Interviews were conducted with 203 key leaders; community-level means of the self-report measures were analysed alone and alongside ratings from research staff and state technical-assistance staff. Readiness was strongly linked to perceived effectiveness, but the link ran through internal coalition functioning, which mediated it. The extent of a board’s links to outside community bodies was unrelated to perceived effectiveness. Member turnover and infighting emerged as the main threats to internal functioning. The outcome is perceived rather than measured effectiveness, an important limitation. Still, the study is an early empirical argument for assessing community readiness before launching CTC and for protecting the internal working of the board – points that European CTC support structures have since built into Phase 1. Read more →CitationFeinberg, M. E., Greenberg, M. T., & Osgood, D. W. (2004). Readiness, Functioning, and Perceived Effectiveness in Community Prevention Coalitions: A Study of Communities That Care. American Journal of Community Psychology, 33(3-4), 163–176. DOI: 10.1023/b:ajcp.0000027003.75394.2b | |||||
| 2004 | Feinberg, M. E., Greenberg, M. T., & Osgood, D. W. | StudyTechnical Assistance in Prevention Programs: Correlates of Perceived Need in Communities That Care | Study | English | |
CitationFeinberg, M. E., Greenberg, M. T., & Osgood, D. W. (2004). Technical Assistance in Prevention Programs: Correlates of Perceived Need in Communities That Care. Evaluation and Program Planning, 27(3), 263–274. DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2004.04.001 | |||||
| 2004 | Hawkins, J.D., Catalano, R.F. | ReportCommunities That Care Prevention Strategies Guide | Report | English | – |
CitationHawkins, J.D., Catalano, R.F. (2004). Communities That Care Prevention Strategies Guide. | |||||
| 2004 | Hawkins, J.D., Van Horn, M.L. and M. W. Arthur | StudyCommunity variation in risk and protective factors and substance use outcomes | Study | English | |
SummaryEmpirical test of the premise underlying community-tailored prevention. If a community is to identify its most elevated risk factors and most depressed protective factors for substance use and then choose interventions that target them, there must be reliable differences between communities in risk and protection, and those differences must relate to differences in substance use. Using data from 28,091 pupils in 41 US communities, the authors compute intraclass correlation coefficients to assess how far communities differ reliably and meaningfully in their levels of risk and protective factors, and then correlate community means with levels of substance use. They find meaningful between-community differences in specific risk and protective factors and show that these differences are associated with different levels of substance use. The results provide the empirical foundation for tailoring community-wide prevention to the specific profiles of risk and protection experienced by young people in different places, the logic behind CTC's community profile. Read more →CitationHawkins, J.D., Van Horn, M.L. and M. W. Arthur (2004). Community variation in risk and protective factors and substance use outcomes. Prevention Science, 5(4), 213–220. DOI: 10.1023/b:prev.0000045355.53137.45 | |||||
| 2004 | Ince, D., Beumer, M., Jonkman, H., & Vergeer, M. | BookVeelbelovend en effectief: Overzicht van preventieprojecten en -programma's in de domeinen gezin, school, kinderen en jongeren, wijk | Book | Dutch | |
SummaryProgramme inventory compiled at the Netherlands Institute for Care and Welfare (NIZW) as the Dutch counterpart of the American CTC guide of promising approaches: an overview of prevention projects and programmes in the domains family, school, children and young people, and neighbourhood, organised by the risk and protective factors of the CTC model so that prevention teams could select interventions for their prioritised factors. A draft sourcebook had been used in the four pilots from 2000; the DSP-groep evaluation of 2004 refers to the second edition, and a fourth edition appeared with SWP and the Netherlands Youth Institute in 2007. The inventory is generally regarded as the forerunner of the Databank Effectieve Jeugdinterventies; the Verwey-Jonker evaluations note that only a handful of listed programmes met effectiveness standards. It is a catalogue, not an evaluation. The document could not be opened: only a library record (NIZW, 2004, ISBN 90-5957-229-7, 278 pages, first author Deniz Ince) was found, and the full author list and subtitle are taken from citations in the CTC-EU technical report and in Vergeer and de Vries (2008). Read more →CitationInce, D., Beumer, M., Jonkman, H., & Vergeer, M. (2004). Veelbelovend en effectief: Overzicht van preventieprojecten en -programma's in de domeinen gezin, school, kinderen en jongeren, wijk. Nederlands Instituut voor Zorg en Welzijn (NIZW). Source: https://openlibrary.org/books/OL61421485M | |||||
| 2004 | van Dijk, B., Geldorp, M., & Tulner, H. | ReportEindrapportage vier pilotprojecten CtC: Amsterdam, Arnhem, Rotterdam, Zwolle | Report | Dutch | |
SummaryFinal report of the evaluation commissioned by the Dutch Ministries of Justice and of Health, Welfare and Sport of the four CTC pilot projects in neighbourhoods of Amsterdam, Arnhem, Rotterdam and Zwolle, which started in 2000 for three years with NIZW as national support body and DSP-groep as evaluator. Method: process evaluation along the five phases (project-leader interviews, a repeated key-person survey on support, written questionnaires) plus a first and a final school survey with the Dutch version of the CTC questionnaire; earlier stages were reported in 2001 and 2002. Results: in three of the four pilots most process objectives were met, all phases took longer than planned, and Arnhem discontinued CTC after the experimental period for lack of support in the municipal administration; usable Dutch instruments emerged, neighbourhood profiles and prevention plans were rated positively, cooperation between agencies improved, and 28 of the 90 planned activities (31 per cent) appeared in the second edition of the programme guide Veelbelovend en effectief; new projects were harder to introduce than strengthening existing provision. Conclusion: no changes in risk factors, protective factors or problem behaviour could be expected or found one year into implementation; three municipalities continued CTC with their own funds. Read more →Citationvan Dijk, B., Geldorp, M., & Tulner, H. (2004). Eindrapportage vier pilotprojecten CtC: Amsterdam, Arnhem, Rotterdam, Zwolle. DSP-groep. Source: https://www.dsp-groep.nl/publicatie/eindrapportage-vier-pilotprojecten-ctc/ | |||||
| 2002 | Arthur, M. W., Hawkins, J. D., Pollard, J. A., Catalano, R. F., & Baglioni, A. J. | InstrumentCommunities That Care Youth Survey | Instrument | English | |
CitationArthur, M. W., Hawkins, J. D., Pollard, J. A., Catalano, R. F., & Baglioni, A. J. (2002). Communities That Care Youth Survey. American Psychological Association (APA). DOI: 10.1037/t05243-000 | |||||
| 2002 | Arthur, M.W., Hawkins, J.D., Pollard, J.A., Catalano, R.F. and A. J. Baglioni Jr. | StudyMeasuring risk and protective factors for substance use, delinquency, and other adolescent problem behaviors: The Communities That Care Youth Survey | Study | English | |
SummaryMethodological paper in Evaluation Review introducing the Communities That Care Youth Survey (CTC-YS), the self-report questionnaire for 11- to 18-year-olds on which every CTC community assessment rests. The authors describe how the instrument was developed and report evidence on the reliability and validity of its scales, which cover risk and protective factors in the community, school, family, peer and individual domains alongside substance use, delinquency and other problem behaviours. The stated purpose is epidemiological: a community should be able to describe the distribution of risk and protection among its young people and then decide which factors to target with preventive programmes. For European CTC sites the paper is the reference point for the survey they administer and the origin of the scale structure that later validation studies in Estonia, Colombia and elsewhere have tested. Read more →CitationArthur, M.W., Hawkins, J.D., Pollard, J.A., Catalano, R.F. and A. J. Baglioni Jr. (2002). Measuring risk and protective factors for substance use, delinquency, and other adolescent problem behaviors: The Communities That Care Youth Survey. Evaluation Review, 26(6), 575–601. DOI: 10.1177/0193841x0202600601 | |||||
| 2002 | Beinart, S., Anderson, B., Lee, S., & Utting, D. | ReportYouth at risk? A national survey of risk factors, protective factors and problem behaviour among young people in England, Scotland and Wales | Report | English | – |
SummaryReport of the national schools survey funded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and carried out by Communities that Care (UK) in 2001 with the revised UK version of the CTC youth survey, covering more than 14,000 secondary pupils aged roughly 11 to 16 in England, Scotland and Wales. According to the CTC-EU technical report and to Farrington, Utting and Axford (2021), who reanalysed the same data (n = 14,445), the survey measured risk and protective factors in family, school, community and peer domains alongside self-reported problem behaviour, and provided the first national benchmarks against which local CTC risk audits could be compared. Reported patterns include increases in delinquency and drug use with age and the prominence of drug availability, parental attitudes condoning problem behaviour, low school commitment and poor supervision as risk factors, with family opportunities, rewards and attachment as protective factors. The document itself could not be opened: the migrated JRF PDF and its Findings summary (No. 432) return 404 and the OpenGrey handle fails, so this description rests on secondary sources. Read more →CitationBeinart, S., Anderson, B., Lee, S., & Utting, D. (2002). Youth at risk? A national survey of risk factors, protective factors and problem behaviour among young people in England, Scotland and Wales. Joseph Rowntree Foundation / Communities that Care. | |||||
| 2002 | Feinberg, M. E., Greenberg, M. T., Osgood, D. W., Anderson, A., & Babinski, L. | StudyThe effects of training community leaders in prevention science: Communities That Care in Pennsylvania | Study | English | |
CitationFeinberg, M. E., Greenberg, M. T., Osgood, D. W., Anderson, A., & Babinski, L. (2002). The effects of training community leaders in prevention science: Communities That Care in Pennsylvania. Evaluation and Program Planning, 25(3), 245–259. DOI: 10.1016/s0149-7189(02)00019-8 | |||||
| 2002 | Greenberg, M., Feinberg, M. | ReportAn Evaluation of PCCD's Communities that Care Delinquency Prevention Initiative. Final Report | Report | English | |
CitationGreenberg, M., Feinberg, M. (2002). An Evaluation of PCCD's Communities that Care Delinquency Prevention Initiative. Final Report. | |||||
| 2002 | Hawkins J.D., Catalano R.F., Arthur M.W. | StudyPromoting science-based prevention in communities | Study | English | |
SummaryOverview article in Addictive Behaviors, written by the developers of CTC, that places the system within the then-young discipline of prevention science. The authors summarise its premises: empirically verifiable risk and protective factors predict later substance abuse and related problems, and those outcomes can be prevented by reducing risk and strengthening protection during development. They observe that although a growing number of interventions had been shown to prevent adolescent tobacco, alcohol and drug abuse, delinquency and violence, most US communities were still investing in strategies with little evidence, so that translating prevention science into community systems had become a research priority. CTC is presented as the field-tested answer: tools that help a community read local data on risk and protection and then install tested programmes where risk is high. The paper also reports what implementation evaluations showed to that point. It is the standard short citation for the rationale of CTC, published before the randomised trial began. Read more →CitationHawkins J.D., Catalano R.F., Arthur M.W. (2002). Promoting science-based prevention in communities. Addictive Behaviors, 27(6), 951–976. DOI: 10.1016/s0306-4603(02)00298-8 | |||||
| 2002 | Jonkman, H., Vergeer, M. | ArticleCommunities that Care: Das Prinzip, die Grundlagen und das Ziel | Article | German | |
SummaryGerman-language chapter (from p. 119) in Nachbarn lernen voneinander. Modelle gegen Jugenddelinquenz in den Niederlanden und in Deutschland (Deutsches Jugendinstitut, Munich, 2002), written by two staff of the Netherlands Institute for Care and Welfare (NIZW) halfway through the first Dutch CTC pilot. After a rise in youth crime in the 1990s, a government-commissioned study had identified Communities That Care as a strategy that met the requirements of good prevention policy, and the ministries of justice and health funded a three-year trial that started in autumn 1999 in four contrasting areas: Amsterdam-Noord, Rotterdam-het Oude Noorden, Arnhem-Presikhaaf-West and Zwolle-Zuid. The authors explain the principle (a developmental theory of risk and protective factors, an intervention theory of tested programmes, an innovation theory of how to work), report early experiences with steering groups, prevention teams, local project leaders and the first youth survey in spring 2000, including practical problems with data definitions, geographic units and missing reference data, and close with reflections on innovation between top-down product and bottom-up process. It is the earliest German-language description of CTC, written before any German implementation. Read more →CitationJonkman, H., Vergeer, M. (2002). Communities that Care: Das Prinzip, die Grundlagen und das Ziel. Source: https://www.dji.de/fileadmin/user_upload/bibs/_6_Nachbarn_1.pdf | |||||
| 2001 | France, A., & Crow, I. | ReportCTC – the story so far: An interim evaluation of Communities That Care | Report | English | |
SummaryInterim report of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's independent evaluation of the first three CTC demonstration projects in England and Wales, covering the setting-up and early implementation stages before any outcome data were available; by 2001, 23 projects were running in 15 British towns and cities, and the final report followed in 2004. Drawing on participant surveys, interviews and observation in the three sites, it examines community mobilisation, professional involvement and the role of local coordinators, and then the use of evidence through risk audits, resource audits and action plans. Findings: site selection matters, with natural communities and existing infrastructure easing implementation; those engaged from the start stayed more involved than later joiners; the risk audits challenged professional assumptions and gave residents a say in decisions about resources, but problems with data collection and audit quality left it unclear how far the final action plans were evidence based. The authors list lessons for evidence-based community work: robust and understandable data, normative benchmarks, training for residents and professionals, and continuous consultation. Explicitly a process report; it does not assess effects on risk factors or behaviour. Read more →CitationFrance, A., & Crow, I. (2001). CTC – the story so far: An interim evaluation of Communities That Care. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Source: https://hdl.handle.net/2134/2507 | |||||
| 2000 | Arthur, M.W., Blitz, C. | StudyBridging the gap between science and practice in drug abuse prevention through needs assesment and strategic community planning | Study | English | |
SummaryPolicy essay in the Journal of Community Psychology on why prevention science was not reaching practice. Arthur and Blitz note that despite advances in knowledge about the predictors of substance abuse and about interventions that work, drug use among American adolescents remained high; the US government spent $2.45 billion on drug-abuse prevention services and research in 1999 with little evidence of population-level effects, while drug abuse was estimated to cost society more than $250 billion a year. The paper reviews recent advances in prevention science and the methods available for assessing prevention needs among children and adolescents, and asks how these can inform strategic community planning. Its argument is the CTC logic in a nutshell: community prevention systems should focus science-based interventions on the predictors of drug use that are actually prevalent among local youth, and it discusses how such planning can be supported. A foundational text for the needs-assessment step of CTC. Read more →CitationArthur, M.W., Blitz, C. (2000). Bridging the gap between science and practice in drug abuse prevention through needs assesment and strategic community planning. Journal of Community Psychology, 28(3), 241–255. DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6629(200005)28:3%3C241::AID-JCOP2%3E3.0.CO;2-X | |||||
| 2000 | Hawkins, J. D., Herrenkohl, T., Farrington, D.P., Brewer, D., Catalano, R.F., Harachi, T.W. Cother, L. | ReportPredictors of Youth Violence | Report | English | |
SummaryUS OJJDP Juvenile Justice Bulletin summarising what long-term studies say predicts adolescent violence. It rests on a meta-analysis of 66 longitudinal studies drawn from Lipsey and Derzon’s (1998) bibliography, supplemented by OJJDP Study Group reports and Seattle Social Development Project analyses; associations are expressed as weighted mean correlations and, where available, odds ratios. Predictors are set out in five domains: individual (hyperactivity, aggressiveness, early violence, antisocial beliefs), family (parental criminality, maltreatment, poor family management, conflict), school (academic failure, low commitment, truancy, dropout), peer (delinquent siblings and peers, gang membership) and community (poverty, disorganisation, availability of drugs and firearms, exposure to violence). Predictor strength shifts with age – early offending and substance use rank highest at ages 6–11, weak social ties and antisocial peers at 12–14 – and risk accumulates: in the Cambridge Study, 3% of boys with no risk factors were later convicted of violence against 31% with four. The evidence base behind the risk-factor lists CTC communities work from. Read more →CitationHawkins, J. D., Herrenkohl, T., Farrington, D.P., Brewer, D., Catalano, R.F., Harachi, T.W. Cother, L. (2000). Predictors of Youth Violence. Source: https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/179065.pdf | |||||
| 1999 | Hawkins, J.D | StudyPreventing Crime and Violence through Communities That Care | Study | English | |
SummaryArticle in the European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research in which Hawkins introduces CTC to a European criminological readership as a system that lets communities organise outcome-focused prevention planning with the tools of prevention science. He reports two measurement achievements of a collaborative US project: 22 reliable and valid archival indicators for 12 major risk factors, which predict county-level rates of adolescent drug use, and a validated school survey that measures risk, protection, delinquency and drug use consistently across states and ethnic groups. Together they allow a diagnosis of risk and protection for any geographical unit from a state down to a neighbourhood, so that a community can assess its own profile objectively and choose tested strategies matched to its strengths and needs. The paper notes that CTC had by then been introduced in England and Wales, Scotland and the Netherlands – the first European wave. An early statement of the CTC rationale, written before any trial evidence existed. Read more →CitationHawkins, J.D (1999). Preventing Crime and Violence through Communities That Care. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, 7(4), 443–458. | |||||
| 1999 | Pollard, J.A., Hawkins, J.D. and M.W. Arthur | StudyRisk and protection: Are both necessary to understand diverse behavioral outcomes in adolescence? | Study | English | |
SummaryCross-sectional analysis in Social Work Research that addresses a debate still alive in prevention practice: should programmes concentrate on building resilience and protective factors, or also on reducing risk? Some had argued that protection-focused interventions produce better outcomes; others objected that a resilience-only lens stresses individual traits and ignores social and contextual risks. Using self-report data from students in grades 6 to 12 in five US states, the authors relate exposure to a comprehensive set of risk and protective factors to substance use, academic outcomes and delinquency. Both sets of factors turn out to be associated with the outcomes, and neither on its own accounts for the pattern. The conclusion is that prevention policy and programmes should aim to reduce risk and promote protection together if they want lower substance use, crime and violence or better school performance. This is the empirical justification for the two-sided risk-and-protection profile that CTC draws for a community. Read more →CitationPollard, J.A., Hawkins, J.D. and M.W. Arthur (1999). Risk and protection: Are both necessary to understand diverse behavioral outcomes in adolescence? Source: https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1093/swr/23.3.145 | |||||
| 1998 | Catalano R.F., Arthur M.W., Hawkins J.D., Berglund L., Olson J.J. | Book chapterComprehensive community and school based interventions to prevent antisocial behavior | Book chapter | English | |
CitationCatalano R.F., Arthur M.W., Hawkins J.D., Berglund L., Olson J.J. (1998). Comprehensive community and school based interventions to prevent antisocial behavior. In Serious & violent juvenile offenders: Risk factors and successful interventions (pp. 248–283). SAGE. DOI: 10.4135/9781452243740.n11 | |||||
| 1998 | Farrington, D. | StudyEvaluating ‘Communities that Care | Study | English | |
SummaryShort rejoinder in the journal Evaluation, part of an early British exchange on how CTC should be evaluated. Farrington (1997) had proposed an evaluation design for the UK pilot of Communities that Care; Pawson and Tilley (1998) had criticised it from the standpoint of ‘scientific realism’. Farrington agrees that comparing research designs is useful but argues that most of the criticism rests on a different picture of what CTC is: he treated it as a well-developed technology ready for testing, whereas Pawson and Tilley treated it as an iterative, loosely defined and highly variable procedure still in need of exploratory work – a description he thinks fits realist evaluation better than CTC. He adds that he has no personal stake in CTC and recommended it only as the best-developed vehicle for risk-focused prevention. Useful for anyone designing a European evaluation: it lays out the choice between testing CTC as a defined intervention and studying it as a developing process. Read more →CitationFarrington, D. (1998). Evaluating ‘Communities that Care. Evaluation, 4(2), 204–210. DOI: 10.1177/13563899822208536 | |||||
| 1998 | Hawkins, J.D., Herrenkohl, T., Farrington, D.P., Brewer, D., Catalano, R.F. and T. W. Harachi | Book chapterA review of predictors of youth violence | Book chapter | English | |
CitationHawkins, J.D., Herrenkohl, T., Farrington, D.P., Brewer, D., Catalano, R.F. and T. W. Harachi (1998). A review of predictors of youth violence. In Serious & violent juvenile offenders: Risk factors and successful interventions (pp. 106–146). SAGE. | |||||
| 1996 | Catalano, R.F., & Hawkins, J.D. | Book chapterThe social development model: A theory of antisocial behavior | Book chapter | English | |
CitationCatalano, R.F., & Hawkins, J.D. (1996). The social development model: A theory of antisocial behavior. | |||||
| 1996 | Catalano, R.F., Kosterman, R., Hawkins, J.D., Newcomb, M.D., & Abbott, R.D. | StudyModeling the etiology of adolescent substance use: A test of the social development model | Study | English | |
SummaryLongitudinal test of the social development model, the theory underneath CTC, published in the Journal of Drug Issues. The model integrates risk and protective factors with propositions from control theory, social learning theory and differential association theory to explain antisocial behaviour through developmental pathways. The authors use structural equation modelling on 590 participants of the Seattle Social Development Project, a panel recruited in 1985 from fifth-grade classes in high-crime neighbourhoods, to ask whether constructs measured at ages 9–10 and 13–14 predict drug use at ages 17–18. All path coefficients but one were significant and in the expected direction, yet the initial model fitted less well than hoped (CFI = .87); after second-order factors were specified for opportunities, involvement and rewards, fit became acceptable (CFI = .90). The authors conclude that the model gives an acceptable account of later drug use and discuss implications for prevention. The paper is the empirical anchor for the ‘social development strategy’ CTC teaches. Read more →CitationCatalano, R.F., Kosterman, R., Hawkins, J.D., Newcomb, M.D., & Abbott, R.D. (1996). Modeling the etiology of adolescent substance use: A test of the social development model. Journal of Drug Issues, 26(2), 429–455. DOI: 10.1177/002204269602600207 | |||||
| 1996 | Harachi, T. W., Ayers, C. D., Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Cushing, J. | StudyEmpowering communities to prevent adolescent substance abuse: Process evaluation results from a risk- and protection-focused community mobilization effort | Study | English | |
SummaryProcess evaluation of TOGETHER! Communities for Drug-Free Youth, an early state-wide demonstration of the Communities That Care mobilisation strategy in Oregon. Thirty-five communities were mobilised to carry out quantitative assessments of local risk factors and protective resources, to write comprehensive prevention plans that matched promising approaches to their priority risk factors, and to put those plans into practice. At the end of the four-year demonstration 31 of the 35 communities were still active, and the state of Oregon institutionalised the project. The article describes the strategy, the process results and several case examples, and discusses implications for comprehensive prevention of adolescent substance abuse and related problem behaviours. It reports no youth outcomes. Its significance for European readers is historical: it documents CTC in its original form, before the later emphasis on tested programmes, and shows that most communities could complete a risk-focused planning cycle and stay engaged. Read more →CitationHarachi, T. W., Ayers, C. D., Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Cushing, J. (1996). Empowering communities to prevent adolescent substance abuse: Process evaluation results from a risk- and protection-focused community mobilization effort. Journal of Primary Prevention, 16(3), 233–254. DOI: 10.1007/bf02407424 | |||||
| 1996 | Hawkins, J.D. (Ed.) | BookDelinquency and Crime: Current Theories | Book | English | |
CitationHawkins, J.D. (Ed.) (1996). Delinquency and Crime: Current Theories. Source: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1996-98939-000 | |||||
| 1995 | Hawkins, J.D., Arthur, M.W., Catalano, R.F. | Book chapterPreventing Substance Abuse | Book chapter | English | |
CitationHawkins, J.D., Arthur, M.W., Catalano, R.F. (1995). Preventing Substance Abuse. Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1147600 | |||||
| 1992 | Hawkins, J.D., Catalano, R.F. & Associates | BookCommunities That Care: Action For Drug Abuse Prevention | Book | English | |
CitationHawkins, J.D., Catalano, R.F. & Associates (1992). Communities That Care: Action For Drug Abuse Prevention. Source: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1992-98370-000 | |||||
| 1992 | Hawkins, J.D., Catalano, R.F. and J.Y. Miller | ReviewRisk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: Implications for substance abuse prevention | Review | English | |
SummaryThe review in Psychological Bulletin that established the risk-focused approach on which CTC is built. Hawkins, Catalano and Miller argue that the most promising route to effective prevention of adolescent alcohol and drug problems is to identify risk factors for drug abuse, find methods that have demonstrably reduced them, and test those methods in controlled studies with high-risk and general-population samples. The paper compiles the longitudinal evidence on contextual factors (laws and norms, availability, economic deprivation, neighbourhood disorganisation) and individual and interpersonal factors (family conflict and management, early conduct problems, academic failure, low commitment to school, peer rejection, drug-using peers, favourable attitudes and early onset), reviews protective factors that buffer risk, evaluates a range of prevention approaches for their potential with high-risk groups, and closes with recommendations for research and practice. Its risk-factor taxonomy is, with later refinements, the one still printed in CTC survey reports, and the paper remains one of the most cited in prevention science. Read more →CitationHawkins, J.D., Catalano, R.F. and J.Y. Miller (1992). Risk and protective factors for alcohol and other drug problems in adolescence and early adulthood: Implications for substance abuse prevention. Psychological Bulletin, 112(1), 64–105. DOI: 10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.64 | |||||
| 1992 | Peterson, P. L., Hawkins, J. D., & Catalano, R. F. | StudyEvaluating Comprehensive Community Drug Risk Reduction Interventions: Design Challenges and Recommendations | Study | English | |
SummaryMethodological paper that set out how a comprehensive community intervention such as Communities That Care could be evaluated rigorously. It summarises recommendations from a 1991 conference on evaluating comprehensive community interventions and uses CTC as the worked example. Because the intervention operates on whole communities, individual randomisation is impossible and standard designs fail; the participants therefore recommended a multi-site experimental trial in which communities are matched in pairs and each pair is randomised to intervention or comparison, with randomisation at the community level. The authors discuss what this implies for selecting communities, for the number of communities needed and for statistical power. There are no empirical results. The paper is nonetheless a cornerstone of the CTC literature: the design it proposes is essentially the one used a decade later in the Community Youth Development Study, and the same matched-pair logic underlies the current German CTC-EFF trial. Read more →CitationPeterson, P. L., Hawkins, J. D., & Catalano, R. F. (1992). Evaluating Comprehensive Community Drug Risk Reduction Interventions: Design Challenges and Recommendations. Evaluation Review, 16(6), 579–602. DOI: 10.1177/0193841x9201600601 | |||||
| 1985 | Hawkins, J.D., Weis, J.G. | StudyThe social development model: An integrated approach to delinquency prevention | Study | English | |
SummaryThe original statement of the social development model, published in the Journal of Primary Prevention in 1985 and still the theoretical backbone of CTC. Hawkins and Weis integrate social control theory with social learning theory into a developmental account of delinquency: family, school, peers and community shape behaviour in sequence, and socialisation succeeds when a young person has opportunities for involvement in conforming activities within each unit, the skills to take part successfully, and consistent recognition from the people involved. Those three conditions are expected to build attachment to others, commitment to conforming behaviour and belief in the conventional order; such bonds then inhibit association with delinquent peers and, through that, delinquent behaviour. The paper sets out prevention approaches consistent with the model and states plainly that their effects on delinquency require rigorous evaluation. The chain of opportunities, skills, recognition and bonding that CTC trainers teach as the social development strategy is taken directly from this article. Read more →CitationHawkins, J.D., Weis, J.G. (1985). The social development model: An integrated approach to delinquency prevention. The Journal of Primary Prevention, 6(2), 73–97. DOI: 10.1007/bf01325432 | |||||
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