NIDA STRENGTHENING WASHINGTON, DC FAMILIES GRANT

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DESCRIPTION: (Applicant's Abstract) The goal of this five year research is to provide new knowledge on: 1) the causes of drug use and abuse in inner city African-American and White adolescents, and 2) the most cost-effective and cost-beneficial family-focused prevention interventions. The research aims of this randomized clinical trial involving over 800 at-risk Washington, D.C.-area families of 7 to 11 year olds in components of the 16 week Strengthening Families Program (SFP) are: 1) to test the differential efficacy of the three major components of SFP-parent training (PT), children's skills training (CT), and family skills training (FT) compared to a minimal contact control (MT) on precursors and substance use/abuse employing a 2 x 4 experimental design; 2) to estimate the cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness of the SFP components with 400 African American families and 400 White families; and 3) to empirically test several competing etiological and intervention theories of drug use/abuse underlying the intervention design by analyzing the survey research data from 1,600 12 to 19 year olds and the 800 intervention families using structural equation modeling, mediational analysis, hierarchical linear modeling, latent growth modeling, and transactional modeling (cross-lagged SEM, artificial intelligence, and neural network simulations) for gender, race, and other sub-groups. The rationale for the component design is that a major question exists concerning the efficacy of child-only interventions that group high-risk children together as well as the added benefit of working with the family together compared to parent-training only. Demonstrating the importance of involving parents and working with families would be very valuable information for prevention providers. Additional co-variate outcome analyses will be conducted to answer practical questions conceming the efficacy of the four interventions for different subgroups of clients. A strong process evaluation including a management information system (MIS) conducted by University of Maryland researchers wili document implementation process and provide feedback to improve implementation fidelity. Additional health services sub-aim questions will be addressed through analyses of recruitment, attrition, consumer satisfaction, participation variables, and client and trainer characteristics linked to outcomes. Seven nationally recognized consultants have agreed to support the culturally-specific program development, implementation, and data analyses.