Schedule:
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Columbia A/B (Hyatt Regency Washington, Washington, DC)
* noted as presenting author
Emily LoBraico, BA,
Graduate Student, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Daniel Max Crowley, PhD, Assistant Professor, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Mark Feinberg, PhD, Research Professor and Senior Scientist, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Richard Spoth, PhD, F. Wendell Miller Senior Prevention Scientist Director, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Cleve Redmond, PhD, Research Scientist, Iowa State University, Ames, IA
Gregory Fosco, PhD, Associate Director, Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center; Associate Professor of Human Development and Family Studies and Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Introduction:The Strengthening Families Program: For Youth Ages 10-14 (SFP 10-14) has accumulated considerable support through randomized clinical trials with long-term follow-up assessments and has been established as an effective and cost-beneficial intervention program for decreasing and delaying substance use initiation, decreasing youth problem behavior, and improving family management skills and family climate. Work investigating the processes by which changes occur within families as a function of intervention, and how these changes impact outcomes, would provide greater understanding to processes that, typically, are obscured by the RCT “black box.” Preliminary work has begun to examine proximal targets as outcomes for SFP 10-14. We offer a different approach, using component analysis, that may also offer insight into “critical ingredients” that account for changes in distal youth outcomes following SFP 10-14, information that will allow program developers to optimize interventions and decrease costs.
Methods: Intervention attendance data were collected from 1003 rural families participating in the SFP 10-14 as a part of the PROSPER trial. SFP 10-14 group attendance was collected during Grade 6, and substance use initiation outcomes were collected at baseline and 4-year follow-up (Grade 10). Using a content coding system developed and validated previously (Van Ryzin et al., 2016), we coded family component dosage (in minutes) based on family attendance to SFP 10-14 sessions. Content codes included parental monitoring/behavior management, self-regulation, and resisting peer risk.
Results. As a first step, we computed bivariate correlations among intervention component dosage and substance use follow-up outcomes. Our analyses revealed that variation in dosage in three components predicted substance use initiation by 10th grade. Parental monitoring/behavior management content was significantly negatively correlated with initiation of cigarette use, r = -.15, p < .01, and initiation of marijuana use, r = -.16, p < .01. Self-regulation content was significantly negatively correlated with initiation of cigarette use, r = -.12, p < .01, and marijuana use, r = -.12, p < .01. Resisting peer risk content was related to lower rates of cigarette use initiation by Grade 10 (r = -.10, p<.05) and lower frequency of marijuana use, r = -.13, p < .01. Multiple regression analyses revealed parental monitoring as a unique predictor of both cigarette use initiation (β = -.16, p < .05) and marijuana use initiation (β = -.16, p < .05) at 10thgrade.
Conclusions. These findings provide insight into the “black box” of family-based intervention programming and mechanisms of change, insight which is critical to improving the efficiency, cost, and success of intervention programs.
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