Session: Community Assessment of Risk, Protection and Behavior for Children 0-8: A Comparison of Different Methods of Prevention Needs Assessment (Society for Prevention Research 22nd Annual Meeting)

SESSION INTRODUCTION: Obtaining accurate measures of community levels of risk and protection is a critical part of many science-based approaches to prevention and promotion efforts focused on early childhood. Random household surveys of parents of young children obtain representative data, but the increased costs and administrative complexities of these surveys—compared with school surveys—may be beyond the resources of local communities. The goal of this symposium is to consider the value-added of early childhood data to inform prevention, the practical challenges and costs of gathering these data, and to explore alternatives and efficiencies in data collection.

This symposium relies on work done as part of the implementation of Evidence2Success, a prevention model emphasizing public systems and community engagement, and the use of evidence-based programs aligned with community needs. It was developed as an international collaboration and versions of the model are being piloted in the U.S. and U.K.

The first paper, “Added-value, advantages and challenges of gathering data on outcomes, risk and protective factors in the early years,” outlines what prevention efforts can gain by including the assessment of young children (ages 0-8) via parent-report surveys, and highlights some of the challenges in collecting this type of data based on recent practical experiences in the U.S. and U.K.

Given the complexities and costs of collecting data on children ages 0-8, the second paper, “Comparing community profiles of risk, protection and behavior outcomes from 6^thgrade self-report school-surveys to those obtained from parents of children 0-8” uses data from three communities in the U.S. to empirically explore whether prevention efforts can rely on self-report data on the wellbeing of early middle school children (grade 6) as a proxy for the wellbeing of younger children (ages 0-8).

The third paper, “Comparing community profiles of risk, protection and outcomes from parent reports of children 0-4 and 5-8” uses the same household survey data to explore whether parent-report data on wellbeing of early elementary children (ages 5-8) can be used as a proxy for that of infants and preschoolers  (ages 0-4).

 The symposium supports the main conference theme, as Evidence2Success is a comprehensive prevention system which has transcended national boundaries and created partnerships between public agencies and community members, and the special conference of prevention in early childhood. At the conclusion of the presentations, the discussant will make summary statements from the perspective of a U.S. Foundation which focuses on promoting child wellbeing via evidence-based early intervention, and moderate a discussion between presenters and attendees.