Session: Abstract of Distinction: The Economic Cost of Enhancing Supporting Relationships (Society for Prevention Research 26th Annual Meeting)

The existence of supportive relationships is a key contributor to positive outcomes across development. Due to this, numerous interventions exist to enhance supportive relationships include those that focus on parenting, improving school climate, and connecting youth with a mentor. Unfortunately, most research focuses on understanding the benefits of interventions with little attention to the costs. Part of this a “distaste” for the notion that the decision about which services to provide to youth and families is in part dictated by cost; however, limited resources make understanding which programs and policies yield better returns an important consideration in decision-making. Current best practices in assessing cost go beyond a focus simply on the budget and require an understanding of all the resources needed to conduct an intervention (i.e., ingredients method) as well as all for an understanding of the cost of expanding the scale of programs (i.e., marginal cost estimates). Therefore cost analyses inherently require a focus on implementation fidelity and sustainability and can be a tool to support the use of evidence-based practices.

This panel presents three different cost analyses, all of which evaluate widely disseminated initiatives to enhance supportive relationships. Specifically, the first paper presents the evaluation of a home visiting intervention for families at risk of child welfare system involvement and includes information about the total return on investment for the intervention. The second paper advances the literature around the cost of mentoring by taking into account fixed costs and understanding the cost of program growth. The third paper considers the costs of a widely distributed behavioral management initiative for schools, PBIS. Specifically, it examines the costs to implement for different stakeholder groups including schools, districts, and the state. Interestingly, while each initiative works with a different population or setting and utilizes a different approach to intervention, the analyses all identify similar primary cost drivers. Attention to the distribution of costs can support our understanding of issues around implementation and sustainability. These points will be expanded upon by a discussant with knowledge of cost benefit studies of youth development programs.