Drug Prevention Coalition Context and Capacity Assessment: Comparing the United States and Mexico

Introduction: Contextual factors and initial coalition capacity can have a powerful influence on coalition ability to support the implementation of prevention programs and policies. Yet we know relatively little about how community and coalition characteristics vary across contexts. This presentation will examine how the context and initial capacity of prevention coalitions in Mexico compare to those in the United States. Community coalitions in both Mexico and the United States focused on the prevention of youth substance use and violence.

Developing strong measures of coalition context and capacity is of critical importance for prevention scientists to understand how readiness influences coalition success. A second goal of this presentation is to describe the psychometric properties of our assessment of coalition context and capacity. Measures of coalition context under examination include community problems, community leadership, and sense of community. Measures of coalition capacity include the existence of collaborative partnerships and coalition champions in different community sectors, along with member strengths.

Method: Participants in 9 Mexican community coalitions in Juarez, Nogales, and Tijuana completed 195 surveys about coalition context and capacity. We administered an English version of the same survey to 139 participants in 8 community coalitions across the state of Pennsylvania.

Results: Psychometric analyses indicate the measures have moderate to strong internal consistency. The constructs also demonstrate good convergent and discriminant validity. Analyses comparing the context in which the coalitions from the United States and Mexico operate indicate that members of Mexican coalitions perceive substantially more serious community problems, especially with education, law enforcement, and access to alcohol and drugs. Sense of community is perceived to be weaker and prevention efforts are not as valued by the population where the coalitions are located.

Conclusions: The reliability and validity of the coalition context and capacity assessment appears strong. Coalitions can use the assessment to identify strengths and troubleshoot weaknesses. The Mexican coalitions appear to be operating in a substantially more challenging environment for the prevention of violence and substance use. Their ability to manage these challenges will likely play a large role in determining whether they are successful in their prevention efforts.