Project Alliance 2: Transitions
Promoting Adolescent Success in the High School Transition
Funding period: May 27, 2005–February 28, 2010
Principal Investigator: Dr. Elizabeth Stormshak
Co-Investigators: Dr. Thomas Dishion, Dr. Kate Kavanagh
Project Director: Allison Caruthers
Funded by: National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health
We learned a great deal about substance use prevention with middle school youth from the past decade’s work with Project Alliance 1. The goal for Project Alliance 2 is to build on our success from Project Alliance 1 and enhance that study’s effects. Specific aims are to enhance school-wide behavior management by establishing family resource centers in participating schools, address expectations and concerns relevant to the transition to high school, develop and test intervention components that focus on cultural enhancement, evaluate how family engagement affects the growth of adolescent risk behaviors, and develop a training and fidelity model.
This study is the third generation study of the Adolescent Transitions Program. In this study we have again embedded our family-centered school-based intervention model, EcoFIT, into three middle schools in Portland, Oregon. The 593 families involved in Project Alliance 2 (PAL 2) currently have a child enrolled in 7th or 8th grade at one of those schools.
In PAL 2, we are working to enhance our program in three ways. First, we are focusing on the transition to high school. Our work and that of many other researchers reveal that substance use and certain problem behaviors dramatically increase during this period. Our family-centered model will be extended to provide parents with appropriate information and support for promoting a smooth transition from middle to high school. We expect that this transition will be an important time to focus on reducing early substance use and increasing school retention, academic achievement, and parental monitoring.
Second, we have enhanced our program by making it more relevant to culturally diverse families. For instance, African American and Latino youth are more likely to experience family poverty and stress, racial discrimination, and oppression. Research has shown that a positive ethnic identity is related to a number of important social–emotional outcomes for youth, including lower rates of depression, enhanced social competence, and higher levels of achievement. We are paying explicit attention to these factors in our assessments and in our work with families, believing that they will help further reduce risk behaviors and promote healthy development in culturally diverse adolescents. We are especially attending to the parents’ role in helping culturally diverse young adolescents navigate being a minority person in the social world involving peers and adults outside the home. Our Cultural Enhancement Team of community leaders shapes and guides our intervention efforts in this area.
Last, we are currently working with Portland Public Schools to test and refine our research tools and training process to maximize the potential success of implementing this program throughout the school system.
Daily Operations
We use a variety of methods to collect data from participating families. For families engaged in the School Study, we collect survey data annually from youth beginning in 6th grade and conduct annual telephone interviews with their parents. Teachers and schools provide data about the participating youth’s attendance, behavior problems, and academic achievement.
Families participating in our Family Study participate in all these ways, and also participate in an annual Family Check-Up. The Family Check-Up consists of in-person interviews, a videotaped family discussion, and feedback and support from our family consultants. Our assessment team collects and organizes data from these activities for use by both the intervention team and data analysts associated with the project. We stay in touch with all families participating in the project and recontact them if they have moved.
Our family consultants strive to provide a strong link between home and school. In addition to providing feedback, support, and follow-up to families participating in the Family Check-Up, we meet regularly with school counselors and student management teams to problem solve and assist with students’ academic and social adjustment. In addition, we attend all school–parent functions (e.g., back-to-school night) and advocate for families as necessary. We maintain a family resource room at each school and hold topic nights about concerns such as supervision and academic success.
At about the time they transition to high school, youth participating in the Family Study also have the opportunity to participate in our Teen Check-Up. The Teen Check-Up helps teens identify strengths and potential barriers to high school success. Areas for feedback include academic behaviors and attitudes, personal strengths, healthy choices, and support. We began offering the Teen Check-Up in spring 2008.
2008 Progress
In PAL 2, we are interested in collecting data from parents and youth each year of middle school and on into high school. So far, we have collected two waves of school survey data from both cohorts of youth, and collected Wave 3 data from Cohort 1 in May 2008. In 2008 we also completed Wave 1 of the parent telephone interview with more than 80% of families. In addition, we have completed Wave 1 Family Check-Ups with more than 150 families in the family study and have completed Wave 2 FCUs with one third of these families so far.
2009 Progress
By March 2009 we had collected three waves of school survey data from both cohorts of youth and had started Wave 4 data collection with Cohort 1. Wave 2 Family Check-Ups with most of the Cohort 2 families will be completed before the end of the 2008–2009 school year. In summer and fall 2009 Cohort 1 families will receive Wave 3 of the Family Check-Up.
