Despite increasing attention on gender-specific programming for girls involved in the juvenile justice system, not much is known about the effectiveness of gender-specific programs. The authors review the evidence base for the effectiveness of programs for girls in custody or under supervision by examining the evaluation evidence for nine…

Objective: To assess the cost-effectiveness of two alternate forms of Family Connections (FC), a child neglect prevention program, in relation to changes in risk and protective factors and improvements in child safety and behavioral outcomes. Methods: In the original FC study, a sample of 154 families (473 children) in a poor, urban neighborhood,…

This article describes the implementation of small-group reading instruction as secondary- and tertiary-level components of a three-tier model of prevention and intervention. The study consisted of 83 students who were targeted in the winter of kindergarten as being at high risk for reading failure. Intervention consisted of evidence-based…

Community coalitions (CCs) have labored with some difficulty to demonstrate empirical evidence of effectiveness in preventing a wide range of adolescent problem behaviors. Training and technical assistance (TA) have been identified as important elements in promoting improved functioning of CCs. A reliable, valid, and inexpensive method to assess…

The most widely used school-based substance abuse prevention program in the United States is the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program, which is funded by a variety of sources, including private, federal, and other public entities. DAREs primary mission is to provide children with the information and skills they need to live drug- and…

This article is a response to a number of articles that use a culturally relevant prevention (CRP) approach for ethnic and racial minorities. The reaction is from a research practitioner's viewpoint. The authors argue in favor of determining an operational definition of cultural relevance by implementing prevention services with fidelity in the…

The 1987-88 annual report reviews progress on 17 longitudinal studies to determine the efficacy of early intervention with handicapped children. The overview chapter reviews previous research on this topic; considers ethical, practical, and scientific considerations of randomized experiments in early childhood special education; examines benefits…

Identifies major issues in current research on child sexual-abuse prevention including the effectiveness of assessment methods, potential side-effects of prevention programs, the developmental appropriateness of programs, the differential effectiveness of presenters of prevention materials, parental involvement in sexual-abuse prevention efforts,…

In 2006, more than 6 million individuals were victimized by violent crimes. Although violence is below levels of the early 1990s, it remains high. The extent of violence and its impact highlight a critical need to develop and implement effective programs to reduce violence and victimization. Communities have initiated a wide range of such…

Evaluation of a training procedure to improve staff skills in the preventative and reactive management of severely challenging behaviors in a small residential treatment unit found reduced (though not statistically significant) behavioral incidents, use of major reactive strategies (restraint and emergency medication), and staff and resident…

The study investigated whether a consultant-driven prereferral intervention (Mainstream Assistance Teams) may be shortened in duration, thus improving its efficiency, without reducing its effectiveness. Subjects were 60 general educators, their 60 most difficult-to-teach nonhandicapped pupils, and 22 consultants, representing 17 elementary schools…

Although recent survey findings have indicated a decrease in the percentage of teenage smokers, cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. A social learning smoking prevention intervention, consisting of four sessions which occurred at 2-week intervals, was conducted with fifth and…

Evaluation of a personal safety program with 172 preschoolers found that participants demonstrated greater knowledge about sexual abuse and higher levels of personal safety skills than controls, that children taught by their parents recognized inappropriate-touch requests better than children taught by teachers, and that children taught at both…

Women (n=97) identified as at risk for engaging in child abuse were referred to the Child Parent Enrichment Project (CPEP) during or just after pregnancy. CPEP services involve home visits and linkage to community resources. No advantages on self-report measures or child abuse reports were found for the CPEP group compared to a control group. (DB)

Although a necessary component of good program management and accountability, monitoring data do not usually provide answers to questions about whether, how, and why a specific program works. More in-depth, systematic inquiry is needed to do this. In this article, the authors focus on the evaluation of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-prevention…