Quality Delivery of Evidence-Based Programs for National Guard and Reserve Component
National Guard, Reserve, and Active Duty (NGR/AD) military families face many unique challenges in meeting the combined demands from their civilian and military contexts. Clearly, the strength and stability of families are crucial to effective and productive service members; healthy family functioning is critical to deployment-related readjustment or reintegration into communities of residence. Child behavioral problems and decreased family functioning, especially during deployment and reintegration, can compromise the strength of military families through youth emotional difficulties, initiation of substance misuse, decreased school achievement, and poorer family communications.
The research will apply the scientifically proven PROSPER delivery system for evidence-based, family-focused interventions to achieve the goal of strengthening NGR/AD families reducing youth problem behaviors and decreasing family dysfunctional by integrating and synergizing civilian and military support infrastructures for military families.
The three aims of the project are:
- To adapt modifiable implementation procedures of the civilian evidence-based PROSPER delivery system for NGR/AD families, to address unique challenges and specific features of their lives and culture.
- To evaluate implementation of the adapted PROSPER implementation in community sites where NGR/AD families reside.
- To examine PROSPER outcomes with National Guard, Reserve, and Active Duty families using a randomized controlled design with 300 families at baseline. The three project aims to include a series of overlapping research activities to address the overarching question of PROSPER potential for addressing a top priority of military leadership concerning NGR/AD families.
This project aims to apply the PROSPER Partnership Model to the goal of strengthening NGR/AD military families reducing youth problem behaviors and decreasing family dysfunctional by integrating and synergizing civilian and military support infrastructures for NGR/AD families. With the PROSPER Partnership Model's proven success in reducing risk behaviors among children and increasing family functioning in participating families, successful adaptation and implementation with NGR/AD families could yield a substantial impact on warfighters and their families and help to improve military readiness, especially through a sustainable infrastructure supporting NGR/AD families. NGR service members and their families are particularly appropriate since they have been identified as a special needs population of high interest due to limitations in health care support related to not being attached to a military installation, among other factors, key among them being family challenges associated with separations and readjustment and reintegration following separations. AD families have health care support, but they face similar family challenges.
Co-Principal Investigator: Becky Lane (RTI-North Carolina)
Co-Principal Investigator: Richard Spoth
Funder: National Institute on Drug Abuse