2009 · Study · English
Design and Analysis of the Community Youth Development Study Longitudinal Cohort Sample
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.
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. (2009). Design and Analysis of the Community Youth Development Study Longitudinal Cohort Sample. Evaluation Review, 33(4), 311–334. doi.org/10.1177/0193841x09337356
Summary
Methods 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.