ASU Prevention Research Center for Families in Stress

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal is to fund an Advanced Center for Intervention and Services Research at Arizona State University. The Center focuses on preventive interventions for children who are at risk for developing mental health problems because of exposure to the high stress situations of parental divorce, parental death and inner-city, Mexican American children in transition to high school. These stressors increase risk for development of serious mental health problems such as depression, conduct problems, substance abuse and social adaptation problems. The proposal builds on a 9-year history of productive research with these populations, which has demonstrated efficacy to reduce mental health problems, diagnosis of mental disorder, substance use and to improve academic achievement. The overall objective of the proposal is transition from University-based studies of the efficacy of preventive interventions to the evaluation of effectiveness of programs implemented in community agencies. Guiding this transition is an innovative model that integrates findings from efficacy trials with marketing and quality function deployment concepts and methods. The resulting systematic process of proactively anticipating and resolving barriers to high quality implementation of prevention programs in community agencies can serve as a model to speed the transportation of efficacious interventions into settings where they can affect public health. The Center consists of four Cores. The Principal Research Core utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to prepare the interventions for delivery in community agencies. Concepts and methods from service marketing, and quality management and educational design are used to redesign the programs fore implementation in community agencies. Experts on cross-cultural adaptation collaborate to make interventions that are culturally sensitive yet culturally broad. The multidisciplinary teams work with key stakeholders in Family Courts and agencies that work with bereaved children and experienced effectiveness researchers. The Research Methods Core develops collaborative workgroups of methodologists and substantive researchers to focus on five methodological issues; measurement, variability in outcomes, implementation and compliance with interventions, multilevel data, and economic analysis. The Research Network Development Core develops collaborations with Family Courts, provider agencies and Bereavement Agencies to implement evidence based prevention programs in community settings. The Operations Core provides critical infrastructure for Center decision making and management, web-based data collection, data management, statistical analysis, analysis of ethical issues and training. OPERATIONS CORE