Based on Research Conducted at OSLC
Founded to integrate the findings from our longitudinal research on the etiology of juvenile antisocial behavior with our experience developing intervention strategies for antisocial youngsters and their families.
Project Overview
The Oregon Prevention Research Center (OPRC) was formed in 1990 in order to integrate the findings from our longitudinal research on the etiology of juvenile antisocial behaviors with our experience developing intervention strategies for antisocial youngsters and their families. Through this integration, the OPRC comprised a systematic and comprehensive effort to understand, assess, and prevent the occurrence of antisocial behavior in youth. These efforts were focused into three types of core components.
Project Cores: Project cores supported development in three areas. The theory-building core, led by Leslie Leve, supported projects intended to expand the understanding of the development of conduct problems and criminal behavior. Projects in this core extended current theory by generalizing to new populations, using intervention findings to improve theory, extending theory to improve interventions, or integrating several models of development. The intervention core, led by Philip Fisher, supported projects focused on developing and pilot testing new interventions, as well as projects that aimed to refine current interventions for specific community adaptations. The community collaboration core, led by Mark Eddy, supported the development of collaborative projects to test interventions in community settings.
Cultural Capacity Building Cores: The Northwest Indian Prevention Intervention Research Center, directed by Tom Ball, focused on preparing Tribes in the Northwest region for the development of their own regional prevention and intervention research center. The Adaptation of Assessment and Theory for Hispanic Families component, directed by Charles Martinez, developed strategies for the establishment of community links with Hispanic families that foster knowledge of cultural family processes and encourage the development and utilization of preventive intervention services for these families.
Infrastructure and Support Cores: The biostatistics core addressed statistical and methodological issues for evaluating intervention trials. Areas of study included techniques for estimating effect sizes in small samples, statistical models and graphic techniques for analyzing data, and techniques appropriate for behavior genetics study. The observation core continued the work of the previous three decades in the development and tailoring of coding systems and coding technology, with a focus on making coding systems more flexible and adaptable. The data management core explored techniques to better collect, control, manage, analyze, and archive data. The mentoring core provided a training opportunity for pre-college, pre-doctoral, postdoctoral, mid-career, and established researchers. The cost-effectiveness core, led by Lew Bank, worked to develop systems to conduct cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses on intervention projects.
Funder: National Institute of Mental Health