The proposed research is designed to examine long-term effects, particularly on reduction in youth substance use and other problem behaviors, resulting from the application of an innovative intervention partnership model called PROSPER (Promoting School/community-university Partnerships to Enhance Resilience). The need for this research is indicated by epidemiological data on substance use and related problems among adolescents, and by the limited diffusion of evidence-based interventions (EBIs) designed to prevent such problems. The proposed project builds upon results from several federally-funded projects at Iowa State University and Pennsylvania State University. A randomized, cohort sequential design was applied in the first grant period. Eligible school districts (e.g., those with higher proportions of school-lunch eligible families) were identified, with district enrollments ranging between approximately 1,300 and 5,200 students. Fourteen school districts in IA and in PA (N = 28) meeting eligibility criteria were selected, blocked on size and geographic location, and randomly assigned to either the PROSPER partnership condition or to a usual programming control condition with no PROSPER partnership. Approximately 11,000 6th graders in two consecutive cohorts in each state completed school- based assessments;979 randomly selected students and their parents in the second cohort completed in- home interviews. Local partnership teams selected and implemented interventions from a menu of family- focused and school-based EBIs. Positive results from the first phase of the project include: (1) effective community team mobilization, team functioning, and generation of local funding for sustained EBI implementation;(2) effective team recruitment of general population families across multiple cohorts;(3) consistently high levels of EBI implementation quality;(4) positive proximal outcomes on family functioning and young adolescent competencies;and (5) positive effects on a number of substance use measures at 1 Vz years past baseline. The practical significance of key substance use outcomes was suggested by relative reductions in use, community-level effect sizes, and by projections of current effects on use trajectories. The proposed study will evaluate long-term partnership-based outcomes of the middle-school EBIs selected from a menu in two cohorts that participated in the first phase of the project, along with study of mechanisms and moderators of long-term effects, guided by the process-to-outcome model described in the original proposal (Aim 1). As an extension of the second aim of the original proposal, factors that influence the sustained, long-term functioning of community teams and their quality of EBI implementation will be examined (Aim 2). In addition, outcomes of the PROSPER model sustained by mature community teams also will be evaluated by testing for the effects of mature community team processes on communities'adoption and implementation of a new set of late-elementary EBIs (Aim 3). Results will guide application of the partnership model to other school districts in IA and PA and, subsequently, to other states.
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