Session: Long-Term Prevention of Conduct Disorder: Adult Outcomes of the Fast Track Project (Society for Prevention Research 22nd Annual Meeting)

One of the most well-replicated findings in developmental psychopathology is that early-starting, chronic conduct-problem children identified in kindergarten are at high risk to grow into problem adults, with chronic high crime and externalizing patterns. These individuals cost society from 3.2 to 5.5 million dollars each, in incarceration, adjudication, treatment, and costs to victims.  Thus, efficacious prevention of this life-long pattern is critical.

Models of antisocial development suggest avenues for prevention. Interventions that improve one component of antisocial development, e,g., parenting, social-cognitive skills, peer relationships or ecology, or academic skills, show short-term efficacy. However, no program for early-starters has reported effects lasting 20 years into adulthood.

This symposium will report findings from the Fast Track (FT) Prevention Program, a 10-year randomized controlled trial to prevent adult externalizing psychopathology by intervening with early-starting 6-year-old children. Created in 1990, FT tested the hypothesis that a comprehensive program addressing multiple components of antisocial development and continuously implemented to early-starters across 10 years will have a long-term impact on adult externalizing psychopathology and criminality. The program has been tested in four geographic sites across three cohorts of children screened at age 5 to be early-starters in conduct problems.

                Three presentations comprise this symposium.  The first presentation addresses the developmental model, theoretically-grounded intervention model, and implementation of the FT intervention.  The second presentation addresses young adult criminal outcomes.   The third presentation addresses participants’ mental health and substance abuse outcomes in their mid-20s.  An outside expert on violence prevention and its evaluation will serve as discussant.