Session: Variation in Effects of Communities That Care on Youth Outcomes: Differences By Design and Subgroups (Society for Prevention Research 23rd Annual Meeting)

Coordinated and sustainable community-based prevention systems that use evidence-based programs to address multiple risk and protective factors have great potential to improve youth health and behavior outcomes and achieve objectives set forth in the National Prevention Strategy. Communities That Care (CTC) is a tested and effective community-based prevention system that helps communities understand which risk factors are elevated and which protective factors are depressed among community youth; establish coordinated prevention priorities; and then install, implement, and monitor the results of evidence-based prevention programs that improve risk and protection, reduce problem behavior, and foster healthy youth development. CTC is implemented using a coalition representing multiple community sectors. CTC’s efficacy has been demonstrated in a randomized controlled trial begun in 2003 involving 24 communities from 7 states, matched in pairs within state. Significant reductions in targeted risk factors in youth living in CTC communities compared to youth in control communities and lower incidence and prevalence of adolescent problem behaviors (including delinquency, violence, alcohol use, and cigarette smoking) have been demonstrated using longitudinal survey data collected from a grade cohort of community youth followed from 5^th grade (baseline) through high school. The goal of this symposium is to share new evidence from the trial of CTC exploring variation in the effect of CTC based on youth survey data collected using a cross-sectional design and subgroup analyses by gender and baseline risk using the longitudinal panel data.

The first presentation will share findings from an evaluation of CTC effects on adolescent drug use and delinquency using a repeated cross-sectional design. The second paper will describe the effect of CTC on protective factors in the longitudinal panel through grade 10 by gender and risk-related subgroups. The third presentation will report on longer-term effects of CTC 9 years after baseline on boys’ and girls’ health-risk behaviors in late adolescence when the panel followed since 5^th grade was, on average, 19 years old. At the conclusion of the presentations, the discussant will make some summary statements, highlight implications for community-based prevention, and moderate a discussion between the presenters and the symposium attendees.