2013 · Study · English
Prevention System Mediation of Communities That Care Effects on Youth Outcomes
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.
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. (2013). Prevention System Mediation of Communities That Care Effects on Youth Outcomes. Prevention Science, 15(5), 623–632. doi.org/10.1007/s11121-013-0413-7
Summary
Mediation 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.