2004 · Study · English
Community variation in risk and protective factors and substance use outcomes
Hawkins, J.D., Van Horn, M.L. and M. W. Arthur
Hawkins, 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.org/10.1023/b:prev.0000045355.53137.45
Summary
Empirical 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.