Olivia Silber Ashley, DrPH¹, Mindy Herman-Stahl, PhD¹, Karl Bauman, PhD¹, Antonio Morgan-Lopez, PhD¹, Wendy K.K. Lam, PhD¹, Kevin Cramer, MPP², Kelly Arey, MAA², and Sue Rusche³. (1) Center for Interdisciplinary Substance Abuse Research, RTI International, P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709-2194, (919) 541-6427, osilber@rti.org, (2) Corporation for National and Community Service, 1201 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20525, (3) National Families in Action, 2957 Clairmont Road NE, Suite 150, Atlanta, GA 30329

Despite evidence of parents’ influence over their children’s substance use, the effectiveness of parent-led prevention groups has not been fully evaluated. The Parent Corps, a prevention priority in the 2003 National Drug Control Strategy, is a three-year effort to create a national training system and network of volunteer parents to form groups engaged in nationwide substance abuse prevention. This study, funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service, is designed to assess the implementation of the Parent Corps in 10 states and its impact on the intentions to use tobacco, alcohol, or illicit drugs; initiation of use; and rates and frequency of use among adolescents aged 12 to 18 in five of these states. A Request For Applications (RFA) has sought state partners to help National Families in Action implement the Parent Corps in their states. Applicants will propose pairs of schools for implementation, matched on demographics, school size, grade levels, public/private status, and urban/rural county types. Applicants will also provide a letter of support from each principal demonstrating willingness to participate in the Parent Corps and its evaluation. One member of each of 9 selected matched pairs will be randomly assigned to treatment or control. A pretest-posttest experimental design will be used to test the impact of the Parent Corps. Impact evaluation data will be collected from parents and their adolescents using computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI). Progress to date demonstrates that random-assignment evaluation designs can be implemented through successful multi-agency collaboration between evaluators, community partners, and government funders.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the Parent Corps evaluation design.
• Apply knowledge about the Parent Corps RFA and random assignment design to other evaluation efforts.
• Discuss collaboration necessary to implement a random assignment evaluation design.

Keywords: Adolescents, Substance Abuse Prevention

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.