2002 · Study · English
Measuring risk and protective factors for substance use, delinquency, and other adolescent problem behaviors: The Communities That Care Youth Survey
Arthur, M.W., Hawkins, J.D., Pollard, J.A., Catalano, R.F. and A. J. Baglioni Jr.
Arthur, 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.org/10.1177/0193841x0202600601
Summary
Methodological 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.