Jochebed G. Gayles

Building healthy communities requires organizational arrangements that center on resident and community assets while using data to guide decisions. This study examines how the Evidence2Success framework was implemented in three communities, Kearns, UT, Mobile, AL, and Memphis, TN, to understand how citizen-led asset mapping, coalition processes, and funding strategies shape youth well-being efforts. Using an interpretive case-study design, we analyzed process-evaluation interviews, implementation milestones and benchmarks, strengths-and-concerns reports, and community case materials to trace how coalitions mobilized assets, reoriented institutional resources, and adapted evidence-based programs. The results show that broad, cross-sector Community Boards completed most implementation tasks, increased participation by people of color, and developed more inclusive decision-making structures that addressed historical inequities. Coalitions also strengthened data-use capacities, employing youth survey results and local qualitative input to select priorities, braid funding, and make culturally responsive adaptations while maintaining program fidelity. Overall, the findings suggest that when evidence-based planning frameworks are embedded within asset-based, resident-governed structures, communities can build sustainable organizational arrangements that support youth well-being and advance more equitable local systems.

The research-practice gap between evidence-based intervention efficacy and its uptake in real-world contexts remains a central challenge for prevention and implementation science. Providing technical assistance (TA) is considered a crucial support mechanism that can help narrow the gap. However, empirical measurement of TA strategies and their variation is often lacking. The current study unpacks the black box of TA, highlighting different TA strategies, amounts, and their relation to intervention characteristics. First, we qualitatively categorized interactions between TA providers and implementers. Second, we explored how characteristics of implementing organizations and the intervention related to variations in the amount of TA delivered. Using data spanning six years, we analyzed over 10,000 encounters between TA providers and implementers. Content analysis yielded four distinct strategies: Consultation (27.2%), Coordination Logistics (24.5%), Monitoring (16.5%), and Resource Delivery (28.2%). Organizations with prior experience required less monitoring and resource delivery. Additionally, characteristics of the intervention were significantly associated with the amount of consultation, monitoring, coordination logistics, and resource delivery provided. The specific features of the intervention showed significant variation in their relation to TA strategies. These findings provide initial insights into the implications of intervention characteristics in determining how much of which TA strategies are needed to support implementations in real-world settings.

Evidence in majority White and low‐population areas suggest that community prevention systems can create social capital that is needed to support high‐quality implementation and sustainability of evidence‐based programs. This study expands prior work by asking the question: How does community social capital change during the implementation of a community prevention system in low‐income, highly populated communities of color? Data were collected from Community Board members and Key Leaders in five communities. Linear mixed effect models analyzed data on reports of social capital over time, first as reported by Community Board members then by Key Leaders. Community Board members reported social capital improved significantly over time during the implementation of the Evidence2Success framework. Key Leader reports did not change significantly over time. These findings suggest that community prevention systems implemented in historically marginalized communities may help communities build social capital that is likely to support the dissemination and sustainability of evidence‐based programs.

Background: Over 5000 community anti-drug coalitions operating in the USA serve as a cornerstone of federal drug prevention. These coalitions, however, have demonstrated effectiveness in preventing substance use only when they use technical assistance (TA) and implement evidence-based programs (EBPs). The absence of TA and EBP implementation by coalitions is a key research-to-practice gap. The Coalition Check-Up TA system is designed to fill this gap by supporting community coalition implementation of EBPs. Existing TA models for evidence-based coalition approaches are resource intensive and coalition model specific. The Coalition Check-Up is a lower cost strategy that works with a variety of types of coalitions to support sustainable implementation of EBPs. This study protocol describes a hybrid type 3 effectiveness-implementation trial applying Wandersman’s Interactive Systems Framework to test the effects of the Coalition Check-Up on coalition EBP implementation capacity and outcomes. The Interactive Systems Framework outlines how the prevention support system—especially TA—bolsters EBP dissemination and implementation. Methods: Using a cluster randomized controlled design, this trial will test the overall effectiveness of the Coalition Check-Up, including how it contributes to EBP implementation and prevention of youth substance use. The first aim is to estimate the impact of the Coalition Check-Up on coalitions’ capacity to do their work. We will recruit 68 anti-drug coalitions for random assignment to the Coalition Check-Up or “TA as usual” condition. We will evaluate whether the Coalition Check-Up improves coalition capacity using measures of coalition member responses about team processes, coalition network composition, and collaborative structure. Our second aim is to estimate the impact of the Coalition Check-Up on implementation of EBPs, and our third aim is to estimate the impact of the Coalition Check-Up on youth substance use. Discussion: This project will clarify how the Coalition Check-Up, a scalable approach to TA due to its low cost, affects coalition capacity to support EBP implementation. Analyses also provide insight into causal pathways from the prevention support system to the prevention delivery system outlined by the Interactive Systems Framework. Results will build the evidence-base for how to support community coalitions’ sustainable implementation of evidence-based prevention programs and policies. Trial registration: Clinicaltrials.gov registration number NCT04592120. Registered on October 19, 2020.

The intersection of a family's heritage culture and mainstream cultural norms results in person‐to‐person differences in values, beliefs, and behaviors, particularly among immigrant families. These differences often lead to divergent cultural views and patterns of behavior both within and between family members. According to the acculturation‐gap distress hypothesis, cultural orientation gaps between family members have consequences for family functioning, particularly adolescents' adjustment. Studies supporting this notion have primarily focused on processes in parent–adolescent dyads. Although scholarship on family cultural gaps emerged from a systems perspective, applications of key systems tenets are notably limited in existing work. In this article, we review the background and current state of research on family cultural gaps, provide an overview of key principles of systems perspectives, and integrate the literature on cultural gaps with key systems principles to identify future directions in research and theory.

Background Little is known about variation in individual cytokines/cytokine profiles for a large healthy, pediatric population. When cytokines in a healthy group are not abnormally high as in a disease state, it is challenging to determine appropriate statistical strategies. The aims of the study were (1) to describe variation among cytokine concentrations and profiles in healthy adolescent girls, (2) to illustrate utility of data reduction approaches novel to cytokine research, (variable-centered [principal factor analysis, PFA], person-centered [latent profile analysis, LPA]), and (3) to demonstrate utility of such methods in linking cytokine profiles to health outcomes (e.g., depressive, anxiety symptoms). Method Serum was analyzed for 13 cytokines representing adaptive and innate immune responses in 262 girls (age = 11, 13, 15, and 17 years). Results There was great variation in cytokine concentrations. PFA revealed a four-factor solution explaining 73.13% of the shared variance among 13 cytokines (e.g., factor 1 included interleukin [IL]-4, IL-13, IL-5, interferon gamma; 26.65% of the shared variance). The LPA supported classifying girls into subgroups characterized by “high overall” (7.3% of sample), “high adaptive” (26.7%), “high innate” (21%), or “low overall” (45%) cytokine levels. Factors and profiles were useful in describing individual differences in depressive/anxiety symptoms (e.g., factor 1 positively associated with depressive symptoms but negatively with trait anxiety; increased depressive symptoms or trait anxiety was associated with greater likelihood of being in the “high adaptive” group). Conclusions Healthy girls showed differences in cytokine levels and patterns of variation and important associations with psychological variables. PFA and LPA offer novel approaches useful for examining cytokine panels in healthy populations.

Research on mindful parenting, an extension of mindfulness to the interpersonal domain of parent-child relationships, has been limited by its reliance on self-report assessment. The current study is the first to examine whether observational indices of parent-youth interactions differentiate between high and low levels of self-reported mindful parenting. The Iowa Family Interaction Rating Scales (IFIRS) were used to code interactions between mothers and their 7th grade youth. Mothers drawn from the top and bottom quartiles (n = 375) of a larger distribution of self-reported interpersonal mindfulness in parenting (N = 804) represented clearly defined high- and low-mindful parenting groups. Discriminant function analysis (DFA) was used to analyze how well 6 composite IFIRS observational rating variables (e.g., parental warmth, consistent discipline) discriminated between high and low self-reports of mindful parenting. DFA results were cross-validated, with statistically significant canonical correlations found for both subsamples (p < .05). Subsequent independent samples t tests revealed that group means were significantly different on all 6 IFIRS composite ratings. Confirmation of the relations between self-report mindful parenting and the observational ratings was also provided through hierarchical regression analyses conducted with a continuous predictor of mindful parenting using the full sample. Thus, the present study provides preliminary evidence for a link between self-reported mindful parenting and observed interactions between parents and youth.

There is growing support for the efficacy of mindfulness training with parents as an intervention technique to improve parenting skills and reduce risk for youth problem behaviors. The evidence, however, has been limited to small scale studies, many with methodological shortcomings. This study sought to integrate mindfulness training with parents into the Strengthening Families Program: For Parents and Youth 10-14 (SFP 10-14), an empirically-validated family-based preventive intervention. It used a randomized-controlled comparative effectiveness study design (N = 432 families, 31% racial/ethnic minority) to test the efficacy of the Mindfulness-Enhanced Strengthening Families Program (MSFP), compared to standard SFP 10-14 and a minimal-treatment home study control condition. Results indicated that, in general, MSFP was as effective as SFP 10-14 in improving multiple dimensions of parenting, including interpersonal mindfulness in parenting, parent-youth relationship quality, youth behavior management, and parent well-being, according to both parent and youth reports at both postintervention and 1-year follow-up. This study also found that in some areas MSFP boosted and better sustained the effects of SFP 10-14, especially for fathers. Although the pattern of effects was not as uniform as hypothesized, this study provides intriguing evidence for the unique contribution of mindfulness activities to standard parent training.

The fields of psychology and human development are experiencing a resurgence of scientific inquiries about phenomena that unfold at the level of the individual. This article addresses the issues of analyzing intraindividual psychological/developmental phenomena using standard analytical techniques for interindividual variation. When phenomena are characterized by intraindividual variation, analyses must be done at the level of the individual. Research on these processes generally uses methods analyzing interindividual variation, rather than intraindividual, however, a noteworthy fundamental difference exists between the two. The current article provides theoretical and empirical illustrations of the fundamental contrast between variation within subjects and variation between subjects. First, we explain this distinction through the classical ergodic theorems. Next, we discuss the utility of analysis of intraindividual variation for developmental processes. We then provide an empirical example, using recently-developed methods for analyzing person-specific developmental processes. This article presents for the first time a methodological approach in which first the factor model is determined by exploratory and confirmatory P-technique, and then in a separate second phase the dynamic model for the latent factor series is determined.

The current study tested a developmental-contextual model of depressive symptomatology among Mexican-origin, female early and middle adolescents and their mothers. The final sample comprised 271 dyads. We examined the interrelations among cultural (i.e., acculturation dissonance), developmental (i.e., pubertal development and autonomy expectation discrepancies), and interpersonal (i.e., mother-daughter conflict and maternal supportive parenting) factors in predicting adolescents' depressive symptoms. For both early and middle adolescents, maternal support was negatively associated with mother-daughter conflict and depressive symptoms. Mother-daughter autonomy expectation discrepancies were positively associated with mother-daughter conflict, but this association was found only among early adolescents. Further, mother-daughter acculturation dissonance was positively associated with mother-daughter conflict but only among middle adolescents. Findings call for concurrently examining the interface of developmental, relational, and cultural factors in predicting female adolescents' depressive symptomatology and the potential differences by developmental stage (e.g., early vs. middle adolescence).