2002 · Study · English
Promoting science-based prevention in communities
Hawkins J.D., Catalano R.F., Arthur M.W.
Hawkins J.D., Catalano R.F., Arthur M.W. (2002). Promoting science-based prevention in communities. Addictive Behaviors, 27(6), 951–976. doi.org/10.1016/s0306-4603(02)00298-8
Summary
Overview 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.