Contact: Diana Strand, Phone 541-485-2711
SAN FRANCISCO – For the third year, OSLC Research Scientists Dr.’s J. Mark Eddy and Charles Martinez, Jr. chaired the Sloboda and Bukoski Society for Prevention Research (SPR) Cup Competition, held at the annual meeting last week. Teams of early career prevention scientists competed for the honor of winning the traveling cup, named for two of the founders of SPR, Dr. Zili Sloboda and Dr. Bill Bukoski. Teams applied last fall, and two teams were accepted to compete: the Prevention Fellows from the Prevention Research Center, College of Health and Human Development, Pennsylvania State University, and the Prevention Research Center Post-Docs, Prevention Research Center, School of Public Health, University of California Berkeley. Two months before the meeting, teams were given a data set, the National Institute on Drug Abuse-sponsored Monitoring the Future 2006 national survey of students in the 8th, 10th, and 12th grades. The task for each team was to choose variables of interest, conduct a literature review, develop hypotheses, conduct analyses, and create a 20-minute presentation. After each presentation, a panel of four judges and audience members rated the quality of the work of the team and their presentation style. The team with the highest total rating was the Prevention Fellows, who examined the relationship between profiles of “protective factors” in the life of youth and whether or not youth used drugs. Team members Joche Gayles, Amy Syvertsen, and Michael Cleveland accepted the Cup on behalf of their team. Next year, a representative of the winning team will return to the SPR Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C. to pass the Cup on to the 2009 winning team.