The Prevention and Methodology Training (PAMT) Program
Background
Prevention research is quite complex. It requires the application of new methods and analytic strategies in order to maximize the lessons to be learned from field trials of prevention strategies. At the same time, methodological advances need to be grounded in the reality of field work: measurement issues, research designs, and the accompanying data analysis strategies need to be fully responsive to the complexities of conducting field work in applied settings.
The prevention field has a pressing need for two types of well-trained scientists: prevention scientists and methodologists. Prevention scientists need to apply the most appropriate methodology in their research, and to be able to do this even when the methodology is advanced and cutting-edge. Methodologists need to understand and be committed to prevention, have experience “in the trenches” of prevention field work, and work to improve and disseminate methodology for use in prevention research.
The PAMT program has been established in response to these needs. The Prevention Research Center and the Methodology Center will work together to train researchers in the development and application of cutting-edge research methods in the design and evaluation of substance abuse and co-morbid prevention programs for children, youth, families, and communities.
A goal of the PAMT program is to combine two existing “research cultures”—preventionists and methodologists––in a fluid community of preventionists who are comfortable with cutting-edge methods and of methodologists who consider themselves prevention scientists.
Each Center already has substantial funding from NIDA and other NIH institutes and a strong visible group of senior scientists in prevention science. Both of these Centers are in the College of Health and Human Development and draw upon a superior history of research and research training. In addition, both have strong ties to other Penn State academic units (College of the Liberal Arts, Eberly College of Science, and Penn State College of Medicine); Pennsylvania state policy makers; substance abuse and children and youth service agencies and the public school community; and a network of internationally recognized prevention and methodological researchers from many fields.
These linkages, combined with the strengths of the two Centers in substance abuse etiology, methods, statistics, evaluation, and program development and testing, will provide a high-quality training environment for the development of future leaders of multidisciplinary research teams.
We intend to create a balance among the trainees between those who will come primarily or exclusively from a prevention background and others who will have a methodological/statistical background. At the end of the training period, each trainee will have his or her own area of emphasis, but all will be conversant in both the science of drug abuse prevention and methodology. To foster this integration, all post-docs will have two mentors, one who conducts Prevention research and and the other who conducts Methodological research.