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

描述（由申请人提供）：提议的项目申请资金，以评估通过家庭法院实施新开始计划的系统，这是一个有效的预防干预离异家庭的年轻人。NBP是一个10期的育儿小组，已经在两个基于大学的随机实验试验中进行了评估，并在6年的时间里证明了积极的项目效果，可以减少多种问题的结果：减少大麻、毒品和酒精的使用，减少37%的精神障碍的患病率；减少外化问题，减少高风险性行为；提高平均成绩和自尊（Wolchik et al., 2008）。中介分析表明，这些影响的大部分是由改善亲子关系质量，有效的纪律或两者兼而有之。对于许多结果来说，项目对那些进入项目时风险最高的年轻人的益处最大。在过去三年中，主要调查人员与家事法院的人员和服务营销研究人员合作，开发并试点测试了通过家事法院提供NBP的系统的组成部分。拟议的研究测试了NBP在亚利桑那州五个法院的有效性。这个应用程序有四个具体目标：1。检查随机分配到NBP的家庭是否比分配到关于积极育儿措施、青少年药物使用和精神健康问题的简短讲习班的家庭表现出更大的改善。评估将在测试前、测试后和6个月的随访中进行；分析将测试6个月时项目对青少年结果的影响是否由项目对测试后父母教养的影响介导。2. 测试NBP的效果是否被项目开始时的儿童风险水平、父母的性别、父母的种族（即墨西哥裔美国人与非西班牙裔高加索人）或儿童的年龄所调节。3. 检查实施的可变性是否解释了积极育儿和青少年结果的可变性。分析还将测试实施维度和结果之间的关系是否因父母性别和种族而异。4. 实验测试一个简短的电话约定面谈是否相对于一个标准的信息接触（即表达参加意向）增加了参加NBP的父母的启动（即至少参加一次会议）。订婚访谈的效果将在整体样本中进行测试，并分别对父亲和母亲、墨西哥裔美国人和非西班牙裔白人进行测试。该项目为后续在大量法院中解决NBP传播问题的研究奠定了科学基础。这项提议的研究对预防药物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150万父母离婚的美国儿童造成了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.