News

G. Alan Marlatt presents 2009 Prevention Lecture

Dr. G. Alan Marlatt, Professor of Psychology and Director of the Addictive Behaviors Research Center at the University of Washington, was the 2009 Bennett Lecturer. The title of the Bennett Lecture was "Mindfulness-based Relapse Prevention in the Treatment of Addictive Behaviors". [press release on College site]

Changes to NIH Forms, Applications Take Effect January 25, 2010

NIH is entering into the final phase of the Enhancing Peer Review initiative, implementing two major changes - restructured/shortened applications and new forms and instructions. These changes affect the majority of competing applications and resubmissions for January 25, 2010 due dates and beyond. Additional details describing which applications are affected can be found in a Guide notice NOT-OD-09-149.

The new, restructured application format seeks to align the structure and content of the application with newly enhanced review criteria, thereby focusing applicants and reviewers on the same elements. Similarly, shorter page limits focus both reviewers and applicants on the essentials of the science, avoiding information overload, and potentially enabling a larger number of reviewers to read each application.

The new application forms contain changes to the Research Plan, Resources, and Biographical Sketch sections:

*Research Plan has new language added to Specific Aims and has a new section titled Research Strategy (which is a combination of 3 current sections - Background and Significance, Preliminary Studies/Progress Report, and Research Design and Methods).

*The Facilities and Other Resources has been updated to better reflect the Environment criterion.

*Biographical Sketch has new instructions requiring a Personal Statement and limiting the number of references.

To view a side-by-side comparison of the current instructions and to those that will accompany the restructured applications, see Details of Application Changes.

Turrisi receives research award from college

Rob Turrisi, professor of biobehavioral health, received the Evan G. and Helen G. Pattishall Outstanding Research Achievement Award at the College of Health and Human Development's awards ceremony on Wednesday, October 14. He was honored for his research on risky behaviors in adolescents and teens that has become a referent for shaping research and policy on health behavior and public health.

Turrisi has authored hundreds of articles and co-authored several books on topics that range from statistical analysis to the role of parenting in preventing risky behavior in children. He received a B.A. in psychology from Rhode Island University in 1983 and a Ph.D. in social psychology from the University at Albany – the State University of New York in 1988, and he has been a Penn State faculty member since 2004. [college press release]

Program to train educational scientists gets under way

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. (August 27, 2009) -- Faculty from three Penn State divisions -- the colleges of Education, Health and Human Development and the Liberal Arts -- are collaborating in a new interdisciplinary training program aimed at preparing the next generation of educational scientists.

Penn State’s Training Interdisciplinary Educational Scientists (TIES) program has been implemented to provide leadership for future educational scientists working with students who are at risk for school adjustment problems and poor educational outcomes. The goal is to enhance the literacy and social/emotional learning opportunities of at-risk students.

Thomas W. Farmer, associate professor of special education in the College of Education, and Karen L. Bierman, distinguished professor of psychology in the College of Liberal Arts, are co-directors of the TIES program.

Three associate directors are providing administrative support: James DiPerna, associate professor of school psychology in the College of Education, will support the TIES seminar series; Edward Smith, senior research associate in the College of Health and Human Development, supports TIES methodology training; and Robert Stevens, associate professor of educational psychology in the College of Education, is arranging the program’s summer institutes.

“The goal of TIES is to prepare individuals who can work collaboratively and across disciplines to address key issues in education that reflect the complex contributions of behavioral, biological, cognitive, emotional, environmental and sociocultural factors,” Farmer said. “This includes ensuring that each participating fellow develops expertise in research design, measurement, and analytic approaches that corresponds with her or his own individualized program of study.”

Twenty fellows will be recruited into the TIES program. They will undergo core research training that emphasizes cluster randomized trials -- experimental studies to evaluate interventions by taking into consideration the impact of multiple levels of influence including the community, school and classroom on students’ school adjustment and achievement. The training will also emphasize management of the research process, grant writing and applied research experiences. The fellows will participate in coursework, seminars, summer institutes and research apprenticeships.

During the latter years of training, the fellows will actively engage in their own research and then develop a programmatic line of inquiry to launch them into their professional careers. Their scholarship is intended to expose them to cutting-edge work in literacy and social/emotional learning that will underscore the developmental interplay between these two critical domains of school adjustment.

The TIES program enlists more than 30 faculty from 10 departments across the three participating colleges. The roster includes 17 members with expertise in literacy and social/emotional interventions as well as 14 members specializing in advanced research methods and statistics. This includes the design and analysis of cluster randomized trials.

TIES faculty are directing more than 40 federally funded research projects in literacy and social/emotional adjustment that are ongoing or that have recently completed the data collection phase and are available for analyses and dissemination.

“These studies will be used as a primary component of fellows’ research apprenticeships and will provide opportunities for field-based research experiences as well as hands-on exposure to data analyses and the preparation of research papers for presentation at national conferences and publication in research journals,” said Farmer.

The multiyear project is funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, which this year awarded predoctoral interdisciplinary research training to five universities: Penn State, Stanford University, Michigan State University, University of California–Berkeley, and the University of Washington.

Six Penn State research centers are supporting TIES activities: the Children, Youth, and Families Consortium; the Center for Human Development and Family Research in Diverse Contexts; the Child Study Center; the Methodology Center; the Prevention Research Center; and the Center for Educational and Developmental Sciences.

Farmer praised DiPerna and Stevens for their upfront coordination on the project. “They deserve the credit for initiating this effort and conceptualizing the general TIES framework,” he said. “If Jim and Bob had not done the initial work, we would have never gotten this off the ground.”

'keepin' it REAL' to partner with D.A.R.E. America in middle schools

UNIVERSITY PARK , Pa. (August 20, 2009)-- D.A.R.E. America, the internationally prominent substance abuse prevention program, has licensed a new curriculum as part of their middle school program nationwide. The program was jointly developed by Penn State and Arizona State University researchers.

"keepin' it REAL" is an effective, multicultural middle-school drug prevention program created by the Drug Resistance Strategies Project, headquartered at Penn State. The curriculum was developed by Michael Hecht, distinguished professor of communications arts and sciences and crime, law and justice, and Michelle Miller-Day, associate professor of communication arts and sciences at Penn State through 20 years of research.

The program's lessons engage youth through their own stories or narratives and teach youth critical thinking skills and resistance strategies. The curriculum has 10 lessons, 5 of which use videos, and was designated as an evidence-based program on the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices.

"We are excited to form this partnership with Penn State to create new D.A.R.E. programming for middle school using this successful, research-based curriculum," said Charles Parson, D.A.R.E. Executive Director.

"keepin' it REAL" was honored in 2008 as one of 15 stellar community-university partnerships that enabled Penn State to receive the prestigious Classification in Community Engagement from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

"This is a great opportunity to expand the 'keepin' it REAL' program nationwide through D.A.R.E.'s outstanding network of officers" says Hecht. "We very much look forward to working with the D.A.R.E. America organization and its partner schools."

The "keepin' it REAL" program is a perfect fit for D.A.R.E. America. Hecht notes that "keepin' it REAL" has been proven through evaluation research studies to be effective in limiting alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use by 7th and 8th graders. It is one of the few multicultural evidence-based programs that is ideal for a national and international program such as D.A.R.E."

The program has been implemented at individual school districts in many states including Texas, Arizona, Idaho, Maryland, Delaware, California, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Currently, the researchers are testing the prevention curriculum among a new target audience in rural Pennsylvania and Ohio schools and studying how teachers adapt the strategies for rural youth.

"keepin' it REAL" will join the D.A.R.E. programs in 10,000 U.S. communities and 43 other countries, with 23,000 current D.A.R.E. instructors teaching millions of students. Currently, D.A.R.E. programs reach students in 75 percent of elementary schools but only 40 percent of middle schools. D.A.R.E. leaders would like to see this expanded with the new curriculum.

"For several years, we have been working with experts in the research, education and prevention fields in developing a new middle school and high school curricula for D.A.R.E., working closely with our supporters and critics." notes Frank Pegueros, executive director of D.A.R.E. America. "Our goal is to persuade school, community leaders and local law enforcement that students still need to participate in follow-up programs in middle and high school. The curriculum has to fit into a set number of lessons due to the many other demands on middle school administrators and is most effective in the 10-lesson format of 'keepin' it REAL.' "

"We reviewed several programs and determined that the 'keepin' It REAL' was the best match for our delivery systems by our trained law enforcement officers," he added. "It is research-based and its lessons incorporate key academic objectives such as critical thinking, health, language arts and mathematics."

Many middle schools have school resource officers to deal with safety issues. If these officers also are teaching D.A.R.E. classes, they can develop positive relationships with students. This can help prevent risky and unsafe behavior, according to Pegueros.

D.A.R.E. America formally announced the new middle school curriculum at its annual international training conference July 20-24 in Orlando, naming Hecht the 2009 "D.A.R.E. Champion."

For fall 2009, D.A.R.E. America will begin to transition the middle school curriculum to the "keepin' it REAL" program, with the goal of completion by fall 2010.

Research center highlights successful youth crime prevention efforts

UNIVERSITY PARK , Pa. (July 29, 2009) — An evaluation by researchers at Penn State of youth crime in Pennsylvania shows that research-based strategies have resulted in reduced rates of youth delinquency and drug use, improved academic achievement and cost-savings in communities across the state.

Strategies include the use of “Communities That Care,” a model that engages communities in implementing programs in schools and communities. These evidence-based programs are intended to reduce drug and alcohol use, improve parenting and promote social and emotional learning in schools.

Research by the Evidence-based Prevention and Intervention Support Center (EPISCenter) at Penn State found that youth in these communities have better long-term academic achievement than youth in comparison communities.

In addition to the findings of lower delinquency and drug use, research by the center also found that prevention programs generated substantial cost-savings through reduced crime, drug treatment, social service and welfare use, increased graduation and employment rates and increased tax revenue, that they not only paid for themselves but represented a return on investment to the state measured in hundreds of millions of dollars.

Brian Bumbarger, director of the EPISCenter, provided testimony to the United States House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security about Pennsylvania’s successful and cost-effective efforts to prevent delinquency and youth drug use on July 15. Congress wants to develop similar initiatives nationally.

“It’s rare that we see such definitive positive impact from taxpayer-supported programs,” said Bumbarger. “This is clearly an example of effective government policy at work.”

According to Mark Greenberg, director of the Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania benefits in two ways from the research that the EPISCenter conducts.

“First, we’re finding that it’s not just the children and families directly involved in the programs that are benefiting. We’re seeing better outcomes – both delinquency and academic achievement – across the entire community. Second, the economic analysis shows these programs are a very good investment of scarce taxpayer resources because they ultimately save taxpayers between $5 and $25 for every dollar invested in the programs.”

Bumbarger went on to say that Pennsylvania’s Research-based Violence Prevention and Evidence-based Prevention Programs Initiatives are seen as models throughout the U.S. and abroad.

“In addition to requests by Congress, I’ve also presented on Pennsylvania’s prevention efforts to other state legislatures, to the Council of State Governments, and even to foreign governments. Pennsylvania’s progressive stance on prevention has made it a recognized leader in this area of government policy.”

The EPISCenter, a project of the Prevention Research Center in Penn State’s College of Health and Human Development, was created last year to support efforts by Pennsylvania’s Commission on Crime and Delinquency and Department of Public Welfare to reduce youth crime and drug use and strengthen families and communities, using community prevention coalitions and evidence-based prevention programs.

Sibling relationships target of intervention program

UNIVERSITY PARK , Pa. (July 1, 2009)-- A pilot prevention program targeting fifth graders and their younger siblings, "Siblings are Special," recently received $1.45 million from the National Institute on Drug Abuse as part of the National Institutes of Health's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding. The award is for two years.

The program aims to enhance the quality of sibling and family relationships and thereby decrease risky behavior and use of drugs among youth as they move into middle school. Previous research has shown that siblings are powerful influences on each other's development and well being, yet sibling conflict and rivalry -- which parents say is their number one stressor at home -- has largely been ignored by researchers.

Mark Feinberg, senior research associate, Prevention Research Center, Penn State's College of Health and Human Development and Susan McHale, professor of human development and director, Penn State's Social Science Research Institute, developed the program and are co-principal investigators on the project.

Participants will be chosen from fifth grade students with siblings no more than three years younger than them. Half the sibling pairs will go through the pilot program while the other half will be in the control group. The sibling pairs will attend weekly after school sessions over 12 weeks and parents will join the children for four "Family Fun Nights" where parents will be engaged as collaborators in the program. The siblings will receive homework each week.

The program combines the power of family intervention within the context of elementary school and a non-stigmatizing family focus on sibling relationships. Schools in rural and semi-rural Pennsylvania will participate in this pilot study, which will run for two years.

For more information on the NIH's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding, visit http://grants.nih.gov/recovery/. To track the progress of Health and Human Services activities funded through the recovery act, visit http://www.hhs.gov/recovery. To track all federal funds provided through the recovery act, visit http://www.recovery.gov/.

News Archive

An archived list of past news from the Prevention Research Center.