Multi-Court Trial of NBP to Prevent Substance Abuse and Mental Health Disorder

说明（由申请人提供）：拟议的项目要求提供资金，以评估通过家庭法院执行新开端方案的制度，这是对离婚家庭青年的有效预防干预。NBP是一个为期10次的育儿小组，已经在两个基于大学的随机实验中进行了评估，并证明了积极的计划效果，以减少六岁时的多种问题结果：减少大麻，毒品和酒精的使用，减少37%的诊断精神障碍的患病率;减少外化问题，减少高风险的性行为;以及提高的平均成绩和自尊（Wolchik等人，2008年）。中介分析表明，这些影响中的大多数是由改善亲子关系质量，有效的纪律或两者兼而有之。对于许多结果，计划的好处是最强的青年谁是在最高风险时，他们进入该计划。在过去三年中，主要调查人员与家庭法院和服务营销研究人员合作，开发和试点测试通过家庭法院提供NBP的系统组件。拟议的研究测试的有效性，NBP交付在亚利桑那州的五个法院。本申请有四个具体目标：1.检查随机分配到NBP的家庭是否比分配到积极育儿措施，青年药物使用和心理健康问题的简短研讨会的家庭表现出更大的改善。 评估将在测试前、测试后和6个月随访时进行;分析将测试6个月时项目对青少年结果的影响是否由测试后项目对养育子女的影响介导。2.测试NBP的影响是否受到项目进入时儿童风险水平、父母性别、父母种族（即，墨西哥裔美国人与非西班牙裔高加索人）或儿童年龄。3.审查执行情况的变化是否导致积极育儿和青年成果的变化。分析还将检验执行和成果各方面之间的关系是否因父母性别和族裔而异。4.实验测试是否一个简短的电话参与面试增加启动（即出席至少一次会议）相对于标准的信息接触的父母谁在NBP注册（即表示打算参加）。订婚面试的效果将测试的整体样本，并分别为父亲和母亲，墨西哥裔美国人和非西班牙裔高加索人。这一项目为以后在大量法院传播《国家警察法》的研究奠定了科学基础。这项拟议的研究对预防物质使用和心理健康问题具有重要的公共卫生意义，这些问题对每年父母离婚的150万美国儿童造成了巨大的个人和社会成本。 公共卫生相关性：这项拟议的研究对预防物质使用和滥用以及精神健康问题和疾病具有重要的公共卫生意义，这些问题和疾病每年在美国150万父母离婚的儿童中产生巨大的个人和社会成本。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed project requests funding to evaluate a system for implementation through the family courts of the New Beginnings Program, an efficacious preventive intervention for youth from divorcing families. The NBP is a 10- session, parenting group that has been evaluated in two university-based randomized experimental trials and has demonstrated positive program effects to reduce multiple problem outcomes at six-years: reduced marijuana, drug and alcohol use, 37% reduction in prevalence of diagnosed mental disorder; reduced externalizing problems, and reduced high risk sexual behavior; and improved grade point average and self-esteem (Wolchik et al., 2008). Mediational analyses indicated that most of these effects were accounted for by improvements in parent-child relationship quality, effective discipline or both. For many outcomes, program benefits were strongest for youth who were at highest risk when they entered the program. Over the past three years, the primary investigators have collaborated with personnel from family courts and service marketing researchers to develop and pilot test components of a system for delivering NBP through the family courts. The proposed research tests the effectiveness of the NBP as delivered in five courts in Arizona. There are four specific aims of this application: 1. Examine whether families randomly assigned to the NBP show greater improvement than those assigned to a brief workshop on measures of positive parenting, youth substance use and mental health problems. Assessments will occur at pre-test, post-test and 6-month follow-up; analyses will test whether program effects on youth outcomes at 6-months are mediated by program-induced effects on parenting at post-test. 2. Test whether the effects of the NBP are moderated by level of child risk at program entry, gender of parent, ethnicity of parent (i.e., Mexican American vs. non-Hispanic Caucasians) or age of child. 3. Examine whether variability in implementation accounts for variability in positive parenting and youth outcomes. Analyses will also test whether relations between dimensions of implementation and outcomes differ across gender of parent and ethnicity. 4. Experimentally test whether a brief telephone engagement interview increases initiation (i.e. attendance at least one session) relative to a standard informational contact for parents who enroll in the NBP (i.e. express intent to attend). The effect of the engagement interview will be tested for the overall sample, and separately for fathers and mothers, and Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic Caucasians. This project lays the scientific foundation for later studies that address the dissemination of the NBP in a large number of courts. The proposed research has important public health implications for preventing substance use and mental health problems that have substantial individual and societal costs in the 1.5 million U.S. children whose parents divorce each year. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: The proposed research has important public health implications for preventing substance use and abuse and mental health problems and disorders that have substantial individual and societal costs in the 1.5 million U.S. children whose parents divorce each year.