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Project Family began with grants from the
National Institutes of Health in the early 1990's. It has evolved
into a large-scale program of research on interventions designed to
build family and youth competencies, thereby preventing youth
substance abuse and other problem behaviors. The program of research
has included a number of studies funded by the National Institute on
Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, as well as
smaller investigations supported by foundations and other agencies
(e.g., Center for Substance Abuse Prevention). To date, over $48
million in grants has been secured for Project Family research.
The purpose of Project Family is to conduct
research directed toward the evaluation, refinement, and diffusion
of interventions. These interventions are designed to increase the
proportions of competent caregivers and youth in general populations
through community-school-university partnerships that contribute to
research-practice integration.
Project Family consists of a series of
interrelated investigations addressing four goals across several
phases of intervention research.
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To conduct needs assessments for preventive
interventions, through surveys of the prevalence of protective
and risk factors for youth problems.
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To examine factors influencing parent and youth
participation in preventive interventions.
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To evaluate the efficacy of family and youth
competency-training interventions in diverse
populations, using findings to clarify intervention-related
change mechanisms.
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To develop strategies for diffusion of
empirically-supported family and youth interventions
through community-school-university collaboration.
Initially funded in the fall of 1991, Project
Family's flagship study has been supported by five competitive
grants from the National Institutes of Health. The project started
with a controlled pilot study in 1992. Beginning with families of
5th graders in 1993, a subsequent longitudinal efficacy study has
since been extended to include data collection from participating
families during their child's senior year in high school. Two
family-focused preventive interventions are being evaluated through
the study, the Iowa Strengthening Families Program and Preparing for
the Drug Free Years. As part of this project, a number of studies
examine factors influencing parent and youth participation in
preventive interventions.
The Capable Families and Youth (CaFaY) project is a more recent
addition to longitudinal Project Family studies. The project
includes both family and school based interventions for Parents and
Youth (Life Skills Training and the Strengthening Families Program
for Parents and Youth 10-14, respectively), and evaluates whether a
combination of school- and family-focused interventions is more
effective than a school-based intervention alone. The CaFaY project
was proposed as a five-year study. Through a NIDA MERIT award to
the principal investigator, a five-year extension to the project has
been funded. This is one of only three such grants ever awarded for
a NIDA-funded preventive intervention research project.
Another longitudinal outcome study, known as Harambee, was
undertaken in Des Moines, Iowa, to examine an adaptation of the
Strengthening Families Program for African-American Families. This
study is part of a larger investigation at the Institute--the Family
and Community Health Study. Preliminary findings from the Des Moines
study have guided further revisions of the Strengthening Families
Program for Parents and Youth 10-14, for application to rural
families in Georgia. A large-scale prevention trial is now underway
in Georgia, in collaboration with colleagues at the University of
Georgia in Athens.
The Des Moines study is part of a larger effort to improve
understanding of methods for culturally-sensitive adaptations of
interventions for minority populations. This work began with
efforts designed to adapt interventions and intervention assessment
methods for Native Americans. Groundwork with Native Americans has
lead to a preventive intervention outcome study with Mille
Lacs tribes in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Grounded in experience with earlier projects, particularly CaFaY,
the PROSPER project (PROmoting School/community-university
Partnerships to Enhance Resilience) has been
developed. It is designed to promote the development of sustainable
partnerships among schools, communities and universities. These
partnerships are intended to facilitate the delivery of
scientifically-tested interventions aiming to reduce adolescent
substance use or other problem behaviors and to promote youth
competence. Funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the
PROSPER project involves partnerships in selected communities in two
states (Iowa and Pennsylvania). A randomized trial is evaluating
effectiveness on a range of outcomes, focusing on youth competencies
and problem behavior reduction. Also, the project will examine
relationships among partnership functioning, intervention
implementation quality, and intervention outcomes.
To date, Project Family research has received a number of
recognitions, in addition to the MERIT award. It was one of ten
projects selected and described in the National Institute on Drug
Abuse's (1997) Preventing Drug Abuse Among
Children and Adolescents: A Research-based Guide. In addition,
since 1997, the Iowa adaptation of the Strengthening Families
Program has been recognized by three federal agencies, based upon
positive findings from Project research. The Project supported the
program's development and refinement. Through ISU Extension, this
program has been offered to families in almost one-half of Iowa's
counties and in a large number of other states.
Project Family Website |
