2024 · Conference paper · German

Effekte von Communities That Care auf kommunale Präventionsstrukturen – Ergebnisse der quasi-experimentellen CTC-EFF-Studie

Röding, D., Decker, L., von Holt, I., Ünlü, S., & Walter, U.

Röding, D., Decker, L., von Holt, I., Ünlü, S., & Walter, U. (2024). Effekte von Communities That Care auf kommunale Präventionsstrukturen – Ergebnisse der quasi-experimentellen CTC-EFF-Studie. German Medical Science GMS Publishing House. doi.org/10.3205/24gmds298

Summary

Conference report (in German, GMS proceedings) with the first German findings on whether Communities That Care changes municipal prevention structures. CTC has five core elements: network building, training, local data on risk factors, selection of evidence-based programmes and quality-assured delivery. US and Australian research (Community Youth Development Study) indicates that around 95% of CTC’s effect on adolescent problem behaviour runs through communities adopting a science-based approach to prevention. The quasi-experimental CTC-EFF study followed 21 intervention and comparison communities in four federal states (2020–2023); 79 key informants were surveyed at baseline (2021) and follow-up (2023). The primary outcome was adoption of evidence-based prevention on a 21-item index; secondary outcomes were cross-sector cooperation, quality of collaboration, community support and the budget share for prevention. At follow-up the intervention communities were significantly ahead on the primary outcome (30% vs 10%; p = 0.034); secondary outcomes improved descriptively but not significantly. The authors read this as support for CTC in Germany, to be interpreted cautiously given pandemic disruption and reduced samples.