Abstract
The Community Youth Development Study (CYDS) is a community-randomized trial of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system. Using data from 2001 and 2004 administrations of the Community Key Informant Survey, this study reports changes in three community-level outcomes 1.5 years after implementing CTC in 12 communities. Respondents consisted of 534 community leaders in 24 communities representing multiple sectors within each community. Results of multilevel analyses controlling for respondent and community characteristics indicated that (a) CTC and control communities had comparable baseline levels of adopting a science-based approach to prevention, collaboration across community sectors, and collaboration regarding specific prevention activities; and (b) CTC communities exhibited significantly greater increases in these outcomes between 2001 and 2004 relative to control communities. These results suggest that CTC was successful in changing proximal system outcomes theorized to lead to more effective prevention services and, ultimately, reduced risk, enhanced protection, and improved adolescent health and behavior outcomes.
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Notes
Coding rules for the six stages of Adoption are available from the first author.
Alternatively, we estimated several models fixing σ2 at various plausible values and freely estimating a variance for r 1ij . Results of these models indicated no substantive difference from conclusions drawn using the aforementioned parameterization.
Analysis of the Prevention Collaboration measure was conducted using both regression-estimated and Bartlett factor scores. Results of the two methods revealed no difference in substantive conclusions. Because regression-estimated factor scores have the advantage of being able to model the nine items as ordered categories and account for missing data among the items via maximum likelihood estimation, we presented results based on these scores.
Confirmatory factor analyses of the nine ordinal items and tests of measurement invariance were conducted using Mplus v3.11 via weighted least squares means and variances (WLSMV) estimation and delta parameterization (Muthén & Muthén 2004). Chi-square difference tests employed the DIFFTEST option in Mplus to obtain corrected chi-square values.
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Acknowledgement
This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Child Health and Human Development, National Cancer Institute, National Institute on Drug Abuse, and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration/Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (DA15183). We gratefully acknowledge helpful comments made by Mark E. Feinberg, Mark T. Greenberg, Mary Ann Pentz, Abigail A. Fagan, and Charles B. Fleming to earlier versions of this article, as well as all contributions made to this study by the Community Youth Development Study research team.
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Brown, E.C., Hawkins, J.D., Arthur, M.W. et al. Effects of Communities That Care on Prevention Services Systems: Findings From the Community Youth Development Study at 1.5 Years. Prev Sci 8, 180–191 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-007-0068-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-007-0068-3