 |
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
|
The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Naima T. Wong, BA, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan, 109 S. Observatory Street, Center for Research on Culture, Ethnicity and Health, SPH I, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, 734-615-1661, wongn@umich.edu, Pamela P. Martin, PhD, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 46 Thompson Street, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, and Joan Wright, BS, MPH, University of Michigan, SPH, 520 North Ashley, #12, Ann Arbor, MI 48103.
Concerns about scientific integrity regarding assessments of program effects and intervention fidelity must be addressed in the conduct of any community-based participatory research project. Thus, both outcome and process evaluations of the Fathers and Sons Project are vital issues that are also being addressed by the steering committee partners. The outcome evaluation component of community-based projects is particularly challenging because community partners may not support the idea of random assignment of participating families to an intervention or control group. The outcome evaluation component must balance community concerns regarding randomization that withholds the intervention for some father-son pairs, with scientific issues of internal and external validity. This paper describes the evaluation strategy being used by the Fathers and Sons Project as another example of the importance of the community-based participatory research approach. A multiple cohort quasi-experimental design is being used to assess program effects and the measures to be used in this evaluation have been defined collaboratively. This paper will also discuss how an assessment of mediating (e.g., mother influences) and moderating (e.g., neighborhood context) factors will help maintain the scientific integrity of the evaluation while also respecting community concerns. A discussion of the preliminary process evaluation of program fidelity and overall project implementation will be provided based on both qualitative and quantitative data. Results from this evaluation will document important details such as the amount of the time, energy, and resources necessary to effectively do community-based participatory research based on experiences with the Fathers and Sons Project.
Learning Objectives: After this session on community-based evaluation strategies, each participant should be able to
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.