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Community and Team Member Factors that Influence the Operations Phase of Local Prevention Teams: The PROSPER Project

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Abstract

This study examined the longitudinal predictors of quality of functioning of community prevention teams during the “operations” phase of team development. The 14 community teams were involved in a randomized-trial of a university-community partnership project, PROSPER (Spoth et al., Prevention Science, 5(1): 31–39, 2004b), that implements evidence-based interventions intended to support positive youth development and reduce early substance use, as well as other problem behaviors. The study included a multi-informant approach to measurement of constructs, and included data from 137 team members, 59 human service agency directors and school administrators, 16 school principals, and 8 Prevention Coordinators (i.e. technical assistance providers). We examined how community demographics and social capital, team level characteristics, and team member attributes and attitudes are related to local team functioning across an 18-month period. Findings indicate that community demographics (poverty), social capital, team member attitudes towards prevention, and team members’ views of the acceptability of teen alcohol use played a substantial role in predicting various indicators of the quality of team functioning 18 months later.

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Notes

  1. Although one could draw distinctions, we utilize the terms coalitions, partnerships, and local teams interchangeably in this manuscript. These terms in our usage refer to a range of informal through formal collaborative groups formed to enact positive change in a community.

  2. One community did not have any Agency Directors participate in the interview at wave 1.

  3. The Pennsylvania School District achievement data was collected from the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment District Report Cards (2003). The Iowa School District achievement data was collected directly from the participating school district offices.

  4. We estimated the AD community collaboration value with a multivariate OLS regression for the one community that did not have any Agency Directors participate in the interview.

  5. Technical reports for each measure by each respondent are available from the first author.

  6. Results for all regressions can be obtained from the first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Prevention Research Center, Pennsylvania State University, Henderson S-109, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Mark E. Feinberg, Sarah M. Chilenski & Mark. T. Greenberg

  2. Iowa State University, Ames, IA, USA

    Richard L. Spoth & Cleve Redmond

Authors
  1. Mark E. Feinberg
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  2. Sarah M. Chilenski
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  3. Mark. T. Greenberg
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  4. Richard L. Spoth
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  5. Cleve Redmond
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark E. Feinberg.

Additional information

Work on this paper was supported by research grant DA 013709 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse

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Feinberg, M.E., Chilenski, S.M., Greenberg, M.T. et al. Community and Team Member Factors that Influence the Operations Phase of Local Prevention Teams: The PROSPER Project. Prev Sci 8, 214–226 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-007-0069-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-007-0069-2

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