Education Development Center, Inc., collaborating with the New York City Public Schools and Department of Health, the New York Academy of Medicine, the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club, and the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, proposes a five-year cooperative agreement to design and evaluate school and community interventions to reduce excess morbidity and mortality among inner-city African American and Hispanic youth. Working with the Brooklyn communities of Fort Greene and East New York, the interventions highlight three major health risks to this population-- violence, the consequences of early sexual behaviors, and alcohol and drug use--within comprehensive health programs that focus on all causes of preventable illness and premature death, including poor nutrition, inadequate exercise, other injuries, and lack of access to health services. Over a three-year period, 7th- and 8th-grade students at two treatment and one control middle school will be enrolled in the study. The anticipated number of students in the study will be between 6,000 to 8,000 students.
The specific aims are to 1. Develop school and community interventions, designed to be effective with both inner-city African American and Hispanic youth and with both males and females. 2. Evaluate the effect of a comprehensive school health curricular intervention (Intervention I) on young minority adolescents' health-risk behaviors. 3. Evaluate the effect of a coordinated school-clinic-community health program (Intervention II), including (a) a comprehensive school health curricular intervention and (b) interventions focusing on school climate, school health and social services, and community-based youth services, on young minority adolescents' health-risk behaviors. 4. Analyze the effects of Interventions I and II on health-risk behaviors, within groups of African American and Hispanic male and female adolescents, and within students at high and low initial risk, to identify factors that improve the effectiveness of the interventions with specific subgroups. 5. Identify factors that impede or promote institutionalization of these interventions in New York City and establish guidelines for dissemination to other communities.
