02-12-04

NEW INSTITUTE WILL EXPAND RESEARCH ON PREVENTING YOUTH BEHAVIOR PROBLEMS

AMES, Iowa -- A new institute at Iowa State University will allow university researchers to expand, within Iowa and toother states, a successful partnership aimed at strengthening families and preventing youth problems. The Board ofRegents, State of Iowa, approved the Partnerships in Prevention Science Institute at its January meeting.

Researchers in the institute evaluate and refine strategies and programs--- typically offered through publicschools--that teach life and family skills designed to prevent youth behaviors such as aggression and substanceabuse.

Central to the institute's method of testing and refining interventions are partnerships of campus researchers, ISUExtension staff and community teams of both school personnel and social services experts.

Groundwork for the institute began in 1991, the first year the National Institute on Drug Abuse funded a researchproposal by Richard Spoth, a scientist affiliated with "Project Family" at Iowa State's Institute for Social andBehavioral Research. Since then, the nationally recognized Project Family effort has secured more than $51 million infunding, largely from several institutes at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Recent NIH funding will supportthe new institute through late 2008.

"Dr. Spoth has tested and scientifically validated multiple drug abuse prevention programs including the IowaStrengthening Families Program, Preparing for the Drug Free Years and a modification of the Life Skills Trainingprogram," said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. "His research also has contributedgreatly to understanding factors associated with the selection, use and ongoing maintenance of these preventioninterventions by communities. We hope the continuation of this research will lead to prevention programs that can beused in Iowa and elsewhere in the country."

Spoth is the Miller Senior Prevention Scientist at ISU and has been named the founding director of the institute.

"Iowa State's motto, 'Science with practice,' is really what the institute is all about," Spoth said. "We are usingscientifically-tested interventions to achieve positive outcomes among youth, families and communities. We're strivingfor student success in school, healthier families and a solid base of life skills in our youth."

The research:

• Tests which interventions work, through large-scale, long-term outcome studies.
  
  
• Assesses what factors are most influential in getting students and their parents or guardiansinvolved in the interventions and keeping them involved.
  
  
• Evaluates what factors influence how well community partnerships work and what sustainsthem.

Spoth said the research targets primarily middle and high school students and their families. In Iowa, more than 600schools and thousands of students have been involved in various ways. In earlier projects, youth showed reductions inproblem behaviors like substance use and conduct problems as long as six years following the initial assessment. Forexample, one study of students from sixth to 10th grade suggested that for every 10 youth in the general population whogot drunk for the first time during these years, only six in the intervention group did so.

Such studies also indicate that the partnership-based programs are a good investment, returning an estimated $9 (incosts not incurred when youth avoid alcohol disorders) for every dollar spent on one of the programs.

Fourteen Iowa school districts -- Burlington, Estherville, Fort Dodge, Fort Madison, Hampton, Howard-Winneshiek,Marshalltown, Mason City, Mount Pleasant, Muscatine, Ottumwa, Red Oak, Spencer and Winterset -- are participating inPROSPER, a five-year project in tandem with Pennsylvania State University to develop community partnerships thatstrengthen families and help young people avoid substance abuse and behavior problems. The project involves more than11,000 students in two successive sixth-grade classes and their families.

Spoth said colleagues from universities in about a dozen other states already have expressed interest in joining anational network of university-community partnerships. He said the formality of an institute will accomplish twothings: create a platform on which to build a larger network of community-university partnerships in Iowa and otherstates, and establish a network of scientists from ISU and other universities that can compete for funding forlarge-scale projects with national impact.

The institute will come under the umbrella of Iowa State's vice provost for research and advanced studies. It will workclosely with ISU Extension and ISU's Institute for Social and Behavioral Research.

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