Session: 21st Century Family-Based Prevention: Connecting Theory to Etiology, to Intervention Content (Society for Prevention Research 22nd Annual Meeting)

Family-based intervention can play an important role in supporting a child’s positive growth and development, through shifting parents and children away from negative interaction patterns that influence children’s developmental trajectories, including risk for drug use and abuse.  Many evidence-based drug abuse prevention interventions targeted to families of children and adolescents have demonstrated positive effects on parenting behaviors and family processes as well as child and adolescent behavioral, emotional and substance use outcomes.  Moreover, this research has led to a richer understanding of how negative behavior patterns operate between parent and child and between siblings.  Most of these intervention models are based on theory and empirical findings linking research on risk and protective factors to intervention outcomes to understanding the developmental course of drug abuse risk and initiation.   A fundamental question is whether the content and strategies employed in family-based interventions are keeping up with the changing sociological and technological contexts encountered by youth and families.  Given the current state of research on family-based intervention, what do we know about the essential content of interventions and approaches to program delivery, and what are the mechanisms of action of evidence-based interventions?   Also, how will next generation interventions need to be structured to increase their reach to families, on a large scale, and fit with target settings and systems?

This symposium will focus on the next steps in family-based drug abuse prevention research that build on the current evidence-base and incorporate contemporary issues for families of children and adolescents.  For example, how does the content of family-based interventions need to be modified to address current issues within families (e.g., shifts in family processes, such as communication within a dynamic technological age; media influences; time constraints as the result of work and travel congestion; peer pressures brought on by instant electronic access)?  How should scientific advances, such as understanding of the biological underpinnings of developmental processes (e.g., genetic risk), be incorporated into family-based interventions?   Speakers will address how their ongoing research intersects with these issues for the next generation of family-based prevention intervention, from different perspectives:  1) meta-analysis of family-based prevention intervention content and implications for next generation interventions; 2) impact of a family-based intervention on biological outcomes; and 3) adaptation of a family-based intervention based on core components and development of supports for larger-scale implementation.