2015 · Study · English

Building Local Infrastructure for Community Adoption of Science-Based Prevention: The Role of Coalition Functioning

Shapiro, V. B., Hawkins, J. D., & Oesterle, S.

Shapiro, V. B., Hawkins, J. D., & Oesterle, S. (2015). Building Local Infrastructure for Community Adoption of Science-Based Prevention: The Role of Coalition Functioning. Prevention Science, 16(8), 1136–1146. doi.org/10.1007/s11121-015-0562-y

Summary

Analysis in Prevention Science of whether how well a CTC coalition works as a team affects how far its community adopts science-based prevention. Data come from the Community Youth Development Study, the community-randomised trial of CTC, comparing 12 intervention communities with 12 matched controls. The authors test two links: a direct one from four dimensions of coalition functioning to community-wide adoption of a science-based approach, as reported by key leaders, and one from functioning to the coalition capacities – building new member skills and establishing external linkages with existing organisations – that are thought to enable adoption. They find no evidence of a direct relationship between coalition functioning and community-wide adoption, but do find that better-functioning coalitions developed more of those capacities. The interpretation is that internal functioning matters indirectly: it produces the skills and linkages through which a coalition changes its community. For European coalition coordinators, a reason to treat good meetings as a means rather than a goal.