This study examined the relationship of cardiovascular reactivity to both interpersonal mistreatment and discrimination in a community-based sample of African American and European American women (N=363) in midlife. Subtle mistreatment related positively to diastolic blood pressure (DBP) reactivity for African American participants but not their European American counterparts. Moreover, among the African American participants, those who attributed mistreatment to racial discrimination exhibited greater average DBP reactivity. In particular, these women demonstrated greater DBP reactivity to the speech task, which bore similarities to an encounter with racial prejudice but not to a nonsocial mirror tracing task. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that racial discrimination is a chronic stressor that can negatively impact the cardiovascular health of African Americans through pathogenic processes associated with physiologic reactivity.

Three studies assessed changes in the content, consensus, and favorableness of 10 ethnic and national stereotypes by replicating and extending the Princeton trilogy. Results indicated that throughout the past 60 years, almost all of the ethnic and national stereotypes that were examined had changed in content, and more than half had changed in consensus. Most changes in consensus reflected increases rather than decreases, suggesting that modern members of stereotyped groups may confront stereotypes more frequently than did previous members of stereotyped groups. However, the damaging effects that consensual stereotypes can have on members of these groups may be tempered by the finding that most of the stereotypes became more favorable. These results are discussed in terms of changing social roles, intergroup contact, and stereotype accuracy.

Estimating total present value of benefit realized by prevention of an alcohol disorder The following provides a detailed description of the analytic procedure used to estimate the total present value of the benefit realized by prevention of a single alcohol disorder in adolescence. Statement of General Rationale and Assumptions. Though the cost to intervene requires an investment of monies in the present, the prevention of a case of alcohol-use disorder produces only future benefits by avoiding the costs that would have been incurred had the disorder not been prevented. Because a given amount of money in hand is valued more highly than the same amount to be received in the future, the benefits must be discounted according to when in the future they are expected to be realized. Thus, it is necessary to estimate for each year of age the average benefit (i.e., avoided costs) to be realized by the prevention of a case of alcohol-use disorder by means of an intervention delivered in adolescence. The analytic procedure required several assumptions. First, it was necessary to choose the number of years across which the average alcohol disordered adult would be expected to produce costs. We assumed that adult alcohol-use disorders could commence as early as age 18, but could extend no longer than age 74.7, the latter number reflecting the decreased life expectancy of alcohol disordered adults (Makela, 1998), which is reduced from the population average of 76.7 (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1995). Second, for any particular year of age, an adult was considered to be either disordered or not during that entire year of age. Though this assumption was not absolutely necessary it was useful because it substantially reduced the

This study examined a community-university partnership model for sustained, high-quality implementation of evidence-based interventions. In the context of a randomized study, it assessed whether implementation quality for both family-focused and school-based universal interventions could be achieved and maintained through community-university partnerships. It also conducted exploratory analyses of factors influencing implementation quality. Results revealed uniformly high rates of both implementation adherence-averaging over 90%-and of other indicators of implementation quality for both family-focused and school-based interventions. Moreover, implementation quality was sustained across two cohorts. Exploratory analyses failed to reveal any significant correlates for family-intervention implementation quality, but did show that some team and instructor characteristics were associated with school-based implementation quality.The extant literature clearly indicates the need to evaluate the quality of implementation of preventive interventions, particularly those that are evidence-based (Durlak, 1998;Goggin, Bowman, Lester, & O'Toole, 1990;Greenberg, Domitrovich, Graczyk, & Zins, 2001;Mihalic & Irwin, 2003). Although there is an expanding set of evidence-based interventions (hereafter EBIs) shown to be efficacious in reducing youth problem behaviors and promoting positive youth development, low-quality intervention implementation frequently diminishes positive outcomes (Backer, 2003;Domitrovich & Greenberg, 2000; Fixsen, Naoom, Blasé, Friedman, & Wallace, 2005). Quality monitoring is especially important when implementation occurs under real-world conditions, guided by community-based organizations or partnerships . Sustained, high quality implementation by communities is essential to the achievement of greater public health impact of EBIs Lamb, Greenlick, & McCarty, 1998;.Because of the importance of sustained, quality implementation of EBIs by communitybased partnerships, there is a need to systematically evaluate partnership models guiding such implementation . In addition, there is a need to study factors potentially influencing sustained, quality, community-based implementation of EBIs to better understand how to improve implementation systems (Fixsen et al., 2005;Greenberg et al., 2001). These research needs are addressed by the three objectives of the present study. The first objective is to examine adherence rates and other implementation quality ratings NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript achieved through a community-based model for EBI implementation. To study the sustainability of the partnership model, the second objective is to determine how well implementation quality was maintained over time. The third and final objective was to explore whether community team and intervention instructor factors were correlated with implementation quality for family-focused and school-based EBIs. Spoth, Guyll, Trudeau, and Goldberg-Lillehoj (2002) examined the implementat...

In this article, the authors examine whether delayed substance initiation during adolescence, achieved through universal family-focused interventions conducted in middle school, can reduce problematic substance use during young adulthood. Sixth-grade students enrolled in 33 rural midwestern schools and their families were randomly assigned to 3 experimental conditions. Self-report questionnaires provided data at 7 time points for the Iowa Strengthening Families Program (ISFP), Preparing for the Drug Free Years (PDFY), and control groups through young adulthood. Five young adult substance frequency measures (drunkenness, alcohol-related problems, cigarettes, illicit drugs, and polysubstance use) were modeled as distal outcomes affected by the average level and rate of increase in substance initiation across the adolescent years in latent growth curve analyses. Results show that the models fit the data and that they were robust across outcomes and interventions, with more robust effects found for ISFP. The addition of direct intervention effects on young adult outcomes was not supported, suggesting long-term effects were primarily indirect. Relative reduction rates were calculated to quantify intervention-control differences on the estimated proportion of young adults indicating problematic substance use; they ranged from 19% to 31% for ISFP and from 9% to 16% for PDFY. Keywordsuniversal family-focused prevention; adolescent substance use; mediation of long-term outcomes; young adult substance useIn this article, we examine whether universal family-focused interventions conducted during sixth grade can reduce problematic substance use during young adulthood through their impact on adolescent substance initiation. Epidemiological data highlight how problematic or serious types of substance use often are more prevalent in young adulthood than in earlier developmental stages (Johnston, O'Malley, Bachman, & Schulenberg, 2007 Administration, 2007). The consequences of problematic adult substance use include less competent functioning and lower educational and occupational attainment (Ackerman, Zuroff, & Moskowitz, 2000), risky sexual practices (Park, Mulye, Adams, Brindis, & Irwin, 2007), mental health problems (Windle & Windle, 2001), adult crime (Kosterman, Graham, Hawkins, Catalano, & Herrenkohl, 2001), and increased mortality (Park et al., 2007).Many of the risk and protective factors for adolescent substance misuse originate in the family environment (Hawkins, Catalano, & Miller, 1992;Wood, Read, Mitchell, & Brand, 2004). These include parental monitoring, consistent discipline, clear communication about rules and expectations, and parent-child affection and warmth. For this reason, family-focused preventive interventions designed to reduce substance use among elementary and middle school age children have been developed. Reviews of the literature on family-focused intervention reveal a number of effective strategies (see Alexander, Robbins, & Sexton, 2000;Lochman & van den Steenhoven, 2002;Spoth, 2008;Sp...

Psychotherapy may be underutilized because people experience self-stigma-the internalization of public stigma associated with seeking psychotherapy. The purpose of this study was to experimentally test whether the self-stigma associated with seeking psychotherapy could be reduced by a self-affirmation intervention wherein participants reflected on an important personal characteristic. Compared with a control group, we hypothesized that a self-affirmation writing task would attenuate self-stigma, and thereby evidence indirect effects on intentions and willingness to seek psychotherapy. Participants were 84 undergraduates experiencing psychological distress. After completing pretest measures of self-stigma, intentions, and willingness to seek psychotherapy, participants were randomly assigned to either a self-affirmation or a control writing task, and subsequently completed posttest measures of self-stigma, intentions, and willingness to seek psychotherapy. Consistent with hypotheses, participants who engaged in self-affirmation reported lower self-stigma at posttest. Moreover, the self-affirmation writing task resulted in a positive indirect effect on willingness to seek psychotherapy, though results failed to support an indirect effect on intentions to seek psychotherapy. Findings suggest that self-affirmation theory may provide a useful framework for designing interventions that seek to address the underutilization of psychological services through reductions in self-stigma.

This study extends earlier investigation of family risk-related moderation of two brief, family-focused preventive interventions. It examines effects on the trajectories of substance initiation over a period of six years after a pretest assessment, evaluating whether effects were comparable across higher- and lower-risk subgroups. The two interventions, designed for general-population families of adolescents, were the seven-session Iowa Strengthening Families Program (ISFP) and the five-session Preparing for the Drug Free Years program (PDFY). Thirty-three rural public schools were randomly assigned to either the ISFP, the PDFY, or a minimal contact control condition. Curvilinear growth curve analyses were used to evaluate the universality of intervention effectiveness by testing for risk moderation of intervention effects on school-level substance use trajectories of initiation of alcohol and illicit substance use. Results were most consistent with the interpretation that both interventions provided comparable benefits for both outcome measures, regardless of family risk status. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for implementing universal preventive interventions in general populations.

Acculturation and ethnic identity may be associated with Latino/as' educational outcomes and be relevant to their lower levels of academic achievement. This article explores how these relationships might be mediated by considering several empirically supported and theory-based social psychological processes-the selffulfilling prophecy, stigma consciousness, and stereotype threat. These processes suggest specific mediational mechanisms that remain largely unexamined, thereby offering novel directions for research and the potential to enrich understanding of the relationship between Latino/a ethnicity and academic performance. Consideration of these mediational mechanisms suggests that some groups within the Latino/a population face even greater challenges with regard to educational achievement. Accordingly, the particular difficulties encountered by Latinas and the children of families of migrant workers and new and undocumented immigrants are discussed. In addition, the potential relevance of education policies to the operation of the reviewed processes is explored.Latino/as in the United States face a number of challenges regarding education and lag behind their Euro-American counterparts in terms of academic achievement. Educational disparities for Latino/as begin in preschool and are evident at all subsequent markers of achievement, including decreased rates of attaining undergraduate and graduate degrees (Fry,