The candidate in this K23 application proposes to launch a programmatic line of research that integrates the science of training and prevention science. She will attain the skills and experience necessary to establish 'best practices'for the design and delivery of prevention-oriented training programs in community-based settings, based upon what has been developed in highlycontrolled settings. There is a well-recognized gap between experimentally derived research demonstrating the efficacy of novel prevention programs, and a later inability to 'transport'or 'export'these effectively to community- based settings. This gap is explained, in part, by a failure in training practices and transfer processes. It now is vitally important to develop and evaluate standardized training for maximal intervention success in 'real world'settings where services are needed urgently - program success never will surpass skill levels of community-based implementation agents (lAs). The candidate's interests are specifically focused on developing models, methods, and measures for enhancing training for community-based lAs who are charged with carrying forth a variety ofinterventions for youth. The candidate's education plan provides: a) multi-disciplinary study and collaborative learning in models of adult learning, training, and transfer processes, and,b) explicit instruction and supervised learning in study design and methods associated with prevention trials, observational assessment, and analytic strategies. The research will occurin the context oftwo NIMH-funded trials using distinct preventive interventions targeting youth - Promoting Resilient Children Initiative, a school-based prevention program in Rochester, NY,and QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) a """"""""gatekeeper"""""""" suicide prevention programunderway in CobbCounty, GA. The research plan proposes a series of fully integrated research projects on the development of implementer knowledge, attitudes and skills to implement manualizedinterventions with adherence and competence. The studies are guidedby a heuristic model oftraining and transfer. Study i will develop reliable, efficient, observational rating scales of communityimplementer adherence and competence,which is a necessary requisite to study the proximate effects ofvariations in training practices. Study 2 will examine IAadherence and competence, separately and in combination, as predictors of children's outcomes in the PRCI intervention. Study 3 manipulates a training design factor (active learning) and tests the impact on implementer learning outcomes. Results ofthese studies will guidefuture research, which is to conduct trials that vary training factors and to evaluatethe interacting effects ofimplementer knowledge, attitudes, adherence and competence in program implementation on predetermined target outcomes, particularly during dissemination.
