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For this special issue, the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research solicited papers describing progress and advancements relative to the goals and 7 action steps of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare Grand Challenge to Ensure Healthy Development for All Youth by Unleashing the Power of Prevention.We received papers describing intervention research, implementation research, and methodological innovations that further collective thinking and action for taking effective prevention to scale. Three commentaries reflect on efforts to unleash the power of prevention from the perspectives of program developers, service providers, and educators. This introduction orients readers to the articles comprising the special issue on the Grand Challenge to Ensure Healthy Development for All Youth by Unleashing the Power of Prevention, provides a progress report on the 7 action steps to unleash the power of prevention, and offers suggestions for ongoing research.

Objective: Monitoring the implementation of preventive interventions in schools is challenging for educators and school social workers. This study sought to verify the implementation–outcome relationship; determine whether implementer characteristics predict participation in implementation-monitoring protocols; and suggest the number of (a) implementers requiring monitoring, (b) planned observations per implementer, and (c) items rated within each observation that are necessary to monitor program implementation. Method: Data are from a district-wide implementation of the Promoting Alternative Thinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum. Two technical-assistance providers attempted to make 8 observations of 170 classroom teachers across 15 elementary schools while they delivered the PATHS program. Teacher characteristics, adherence, participant responsiveness, overall implementation quality, and other implementation aspects were observed. Student social–emotional competence was assessed with the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment-Mini at 3 time points to verify the implementation– outcome relationship. Results: Growth of student social–emotional competence was predicted by the overall quality of PATHS implementation. Teacher compliance with implementation-monitoring protocols declined over time, and teachers who demonstrated an initial commitment to implementation participated more fully in monitoring, regardless of their initial implementation quality. A teacher’s initial implementation quality, however, predicted their long-term implementation quality. Items within a single observation were highly intercorrelated. Conclusions: Findings suggest strategies that can be used to improve teacher participation and reduce inefficiencies in implementation-monitoring protocols.

The Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA) and the DESSA-Mini are intended to be psychometrically sound and practical measures of social-emotional competence for use in school and out-of-school-time (OST) settings. These strength-based behavior rating scales yield a variety of information designed to support the large scale implementation of social and emotional learning programs. This paper discusses 1) the context for the development of measures, 2) the choice to use a nationally-normed, adult-completed behavior rating scale as the format for assessing student social-emotional competence, 3) the psychometric properties of the DESSA and the DESSA-Mini, 4) some challenges to assessing social-emotional competence in applied settings, 5) examples of how the DESSA and DESSA-Mini results have been used to inform practice decisions, and 6) future research and development needs for social-emotional assessment.

Social work claims social justice as a central value of the profession with the aim of challenging and changing oppressive structures. Despite this purported emphasis, there appears to be limited knowledge of how social justice is expressed and embedded in doctoral programs of social work. Social work PhD programs are of particular interest because of the unique position of program graduates to impact social work research and practice. This article examined how social work PhD programs in the US represent social justice discourses in program manuals and mission statements. Through a qualitative content analysis of selected social work PhD program documents, a continuum of social justice engagement emerged. Four categories were identified across this continuum: mentioning, theorizing, acting, and integrating. Social work PhD programs that reflect on how social justice is expressed within and beyond their programs may provide a more equitable and inclusive learning environment in social work PhD programs, impart to students a more in-depth understanding of social justice theory and praxis, and ultimately prepare emerging scholars to be critically aware researchers and educators.

There is a lack of psychometrically sound tools for measuring youth outcomes in out-of-school time (OST) settings. Consequently, behavior ratings completed by OST staff are being scored as though the raters were teachers, even though cross-informant correlations are notoriously low (meta-analysis r =.27). Across 26 schools, 227 students were assessed by both teachers and OST staff using the Devereux Student Strengths Assessment (DESSA) to measure Social Emotional Competence. These 4th and 5th grade students were 50% male; 53% 5th graders; and 51% Latino, 20% Mixed/Other, 11% Black, 11% Asian, and 7% White. In the full sample, OST staff rated children’s behavior more harshly than teachers (p

The Devereux Student Strengths Assessment Mini (DESSA-Mini) (LeBuffe, Shapiro, & Naglieri, 2014) efficiently monitors the growth of Social-Emotional Competence (SEC) in the routine implementation of Social Emotional Learning programs. The DESSAMini is used to assess approximately half a million children around the world. Since behavior rating scales can have 'rater bias', this paper examines rater characteristics that contribute to DESSA-Mini ratings. Rater characteristics and DESSA-Mini ratings were collected from elementary school classroom teachers (n=72) implementing TOOLBOX in a racially/ethnically diverse California school district. Teachers rated 1,676 students, who scored similarly to a national reference group. Multilevel modeling analysis showed that only 16% of variance in DESSA-mini ratings was attributable to raters. Relationships between teacher characteristics and ratings were estimated to examine rater variance. Collectively, four characteristics of teachers (perceived barriers to student learning, sense of their 'typical' student's level of SEC, anticipation of SEL program implementation challenges, and intentions to fully implement a newly adopted SEL program) accounted for bias in teacher-generated DESSA scores, leaving only 10% of the variance unexplained. Identified sources of 'rater bias' can be controlled for in research and addressed through thoughtful program selection, training, and implementation.

Out-of-School-Time (OST) programs are increasingly recognized as a venue to actively engage children and youth in character development activities, but little guidance exists as to how to assess individual children and youth in OST environments for the sake of evaluating their character development. This research brief uses an illustrative case study to reflect upon the experience of selecting and completing a strength-based, multi- modal social-emotional / character assessment that used a direct assessment and a multiple informant behavior rating scale in an OST setting. Insights derived from the case study reveal opportunities and challenges associated with each assessment modality. This paper shares lessons learned with those conducting individual assessments in OST environments and with those seeking to improve our capacity to complete screening, formative, and summative assessments of social-emotional and character constructs in OST youth development programs to help children.

Social-emotional competence (SEC) has been demonstrated to be a crucial factor for student mental health and is malleable through the high-quality implementation of effective school-based social and emotional learning (SEL) programs. SEL is now widely practiced in the United States as a Tier 1 strategy for the entire student body, yet it remains unclear whether disparities exist in the development of SEC across socio-culturally classified subgroups of students. Also, despite the field's widespread concern about teacher bias in assessing SEC within diverse student bodies, little evidence is available on the measurement invariance of the SEC assessment tools used to explore and facilitate SEC development. Based on a sociocultural view of student SEC development, this study aimed to measure and examine the extent to which gender, racial-ethnic, and socioeconomic disparities exist in SEC developmental trajectories during elementary school years. Specifically, using 3 years of SEC assessment data collected from a districtwide SEL initiative (N = 5452; Grades K-2 at baseline; nine measurement occasions), this study (a) tested the measurement invariance of a widely-used, teacher-rated SEC assessment tool (DESSA-Mini) across student gender, race and ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES); and (b) examined the extent to which multiyear SEC growth trajectories differed across these subgroups under a routine SEL practice condition. The invariance testing results supported strict factorial invariance of the DESSA-Mini across all the examined subgroups, thereby providing a foundation for valid cross-group comparisons of student SEC growth. The piecewise latent growth modeling results indicated that boys (vs. girls), Black students (vs. White students), Hispanic students (vs. White students), and low-income students (vs. middle-to-high-income students) started with a lower level of SEC, with these gaps being sustained or slightly widened throughout 3 elementary school years. Based on these findings, this study calls for future research that can inform practice efforts to ensure equitable SEC assessments and produce more equitable SEL outcomes, thereby promoting equity in school mental health., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The first author has no competing interests to declare. Although some of the other authors were involved in the development of the DESSA while employed at the Devereux Center for Resilient Children, no author of this paper receives any direct financial remuneration from the sale of the assessments or resources mentioned within this manuscript., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Prevention Science seeks to advance the prevention research and to translate scientific advances into the promotion of healthy development for all youth. Despite tremendous progress creating a robust evidence-base and set of translational tools, elaborations and expansions for equity are required. Our collective errors of omission as prevention researchers have left prevention practitioners and policy-makers without sufficient information to identify strategies that have been demonstrated to prevent behavioral health problems in young people who identify as Black, Indigenous, or other People of Color (BIPOC). We first describe the current shortcomings of available evidence, and then we call for individual and collective action to conceptualize equity-enhancing prevention, sample more inclusively, and improve analytic approaches such that we can truly promote the healthy development of all youth., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

School-based, universal social and emotional learning (SEL) has been widely practiced and promoted as a promising approach to prevent youth mental, emotional, and behavioral problems. Although prior research has accumulated robust evidence of the average effects of universal SEL, it remains unclear whether it works similarly or differentially across diverse sociocultural subgroups of students. Investigating subgroup effects has implications for understanding the impact of universal SEL on possible subgroup disparities in student social-emotional competence (SEC). This study examined whether the effects of a universal SEL program on student SEC development differed across diverse student subgroups classified by gender, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, disability status, and English learner status. Data came from student SEC progress monitoring collected during a 1-year quasi-experimental study of a universal SEL program (N = 1592; Grades K-2). The results of multigroup latent growth modeling suggest that (a) the intervention effects were slightly larger for Black students, compared to White or other racial-ethnic subgroups, and (b) the effects were not different across other examined subgroups. This study also found that in the comparison condition, the SEC disparities between Black and White students tended to widen throughout the year, whereas in the intervention condition, Black students showed a similar rate of growth as their White peers. Findings suggest that universal SEL may be similarly beneficial across many diverse student subgroups, while it may yield larger benefits among some racially marginalized subgroups, preventing racial disparities from further widening. Yet the benefits of SEL may not be sufficient to reduce existing subgroup disparities. These findings suggest a need for more studies to examine differential effects of universal preventive programs by diverse subgroups to better inform practices that enhance equity in youth outcomes., (© 2023. Society for Prevention Research.)

Objective: This paper identifies implementation leadership characteristics in the school nutrition setting and places findings in the context of implementation leadership literature., Methods: Fourteen interviews were conducted with school district leadership/staff in an urban school district. Modified grounded theory was employed., Results: Four themes emerged: (1) understanding of technical/operational intervention details; (2) ability to proactively develop and communicate plans; (3) supervisory oversight; and (4) intervention framing. Themes were consistent with 4 of the 5 dimensions comprising the Implementation Leadership Scale: knowledgeable, proactive, perseverant, and distributed leadership. The supportive domain was not a major finding. An additional domain, how leaders message the intervention to staff, was identified., Conclusions and Implications: Implementation leadership in school nutrition appears similar, but not identical, to leader behaviors present in the Implementation Leadership Scale. School nutrition leaders might consider involving staff early in implementation planning, incorporating technical expertise, and clearly communicating the intervention purpose to support successful implementation. Future research might explore the interplay between leadership and implementation outcomes., (Copyright © 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

High-quality implementation is important for preventive intervention effectiveness. Although this implies fidelity to a practice model, some adaptation may be inevitable or even advantageous in routine practice settings. In order to organize the study of adaptation and its effect on intervention outcomes, scholars have proposed various adaptation taxonomies. This paper examines how four published taxonomies retrospectively classify adaptations: the Ecological Validity Framework (EVF; Bernal et al. in J Abnorm Child Psychol 23(1):67-82, 1995), the Hybrid Prevention Program Model (HPPM; Castro et al. in Prev Sci 5(1):41-45, 2004. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:PREV.0000013980.12412.cd ), the Moore et al. (J Prim Prev 34(3):147-161, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10935-013-0303-6 ) taxonomy, and the Stirman et al. (Implement Sci 8:65, 2013. https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-8-65 ) taxonomy. We used these taxonomies to classify teacher-reported adaptations made during the implementation of TOOLBOX™, a social emotional learning program implemented in 11 elementary schools during the 2014-2015 academic year. Post-implementation, 271 teachers and staff responded to an online survey that included questions about adaptation, yielding 98 adaptation descriptions provided by 42 respondents. Four raters used each taxonomy to try to classify these descriptions. We assessed the extent to which raters agreed they could classify the descriptions using each taxonomy (coverage), as well as the extent to which raters agreed on the subcategory they assigned (clarity). Results indicated variance among taxonomies, and tensions between the ideals of coverage and clarity emerged. Further studies of adaptation taxonomies as coding instruments may improve their performance, helping scholars more consistently assess adaptations and their effects on preventive intervention outcomes.

The Devereux Student Strengths Assessment Mini (DESSA-Mini; Naglieri, LeBuffe, & Shapiro, 2011/2014) was designed to overcome practical obstacles to universal prevention screening. This article seeks to determine whether an entirely strength-based, 8-item screening instrument achieves technical accuracy in routine practice. Data come from a district-wide implementation of a new social emotional learning (SEL) initiative designed to promote students' social-emotional competence. All students, kindergarten through Grade 8, were screened using the DESSA-Mini. A random 5 students per classroom received additional assessment. Concurrent and predictive criterion studies were conducted using the full DESSA as well as administrative records of serious disciplinary infraction. The DESSA-Mini showed excellent internal reliability, exceeding .90. Negligible to small differences were found between scores on the DESSA-Mini screen and the DESSA full assessment. Classification consistency between the DESSA-Mini and the DESSA was high (87%-94%) in routine practice, with sensitivity and specificity estimates exceeding Glascoe's (2005) standards. Finally, predictive validity of the DESSA-Mini was reliable; students screened as having a Need for SEL Instruction at the beginning of the year were 4.5 times more likely to have a record of serious disciplinary infraction at the end of the school year compared with those who were not identified (p < .001). These findings compare quite favorably with other instruments used in schools to screen entire student populations, in cases where such analyses have been conducted, and is consistent with a practice preference of identifying, but not overidentifying, students for accelerated preventative interventions for mental, emotional, and behavioral problems. (PsycINFO Database Record, ((c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).)

Youth with severe emotional and behavioral problems receiving services in public behavioral health systems have strengths that are understudied in research and underutilized in practice. This study explores four alternative strategies (individual item scores, the number of "actionable" strengths, subscales, and a total composite) for summarizing the strengths of youth assessed with the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) in a large, urban, public behavioral health system. The paper examines whether these summarization strategies produce divergent understandings of the prevalence of strengths across gender, age, and racial groups. Analyses suggest that youth enter this system with high levels of strengths. There are few group differences in strengths across the diverse summarization strategies. Though the practice-preferred method of using individual strengths items provides the most interpretable information about strengths, the aggregation strategies may be useful for programs and systems. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

Social-emotional competence may be a protective factor for academic achievement among American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) students. This study used Fisher's r to Z transformations to test for group differences in the magnitude of relationships between social-emotional competence and achievement. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to determine the variance in academic achievement explained by student race, poverty, and social-emotional competence, and the schoolwide percentage of students by race. Data are from 335 students across 6 schools. This study suggests that promoting social-emotional competence among AI/AN students could be a strategy for reducing disparities in academic achievement and the consequences of these disparities.

Objective: To describe the reproductive and mental health of American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) women, an understudied population., Methods: Data from the 2004 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System survey were analyzed to determine the 1) prevalence of female sterilization among a nationally representative sample of reproductive age AI/AN women and 2) the association of female sterilization and poor mental health among AI/AN women compared with non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic women., Results: Nearly 25% of AI/AN women reported female sterilization, a prevalence higher than the comparison racial/ethnic groups (p < .005). Adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, AI/AN women reporting female sterilization had nearly 2.5 times the odds of poor mental health compared with AI/AN women not reporting female sterilization (p = .001). The same magnitude of relationship between female sterilization and poor mental health was not found for non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic women., Conclusions: The prevalence of female sterilization is greater among AI/AN women compared with non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, and Hispanic women, and AI/AN women reporting female sterilization have higher odds of reporting poor mental health. Common cultural experiences, such as a shared ancestral history of forced sterilizations, may be relevant, and could be considered when providing reproductive and mental health services to AI/AN women., (Copyright © 2016 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Purpose: Research indicates that lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) adolescents are three times more likely to consider suicide than their heterosexual peers. Although research has identified risk factors for suicide among this population, little is known about school-level protective factors among this population, which may buffer the impact of risk.This study aims to understand whether school-based protective factors (e.g., school safety, relationships with caring adults at school, school connectedness) are associated with decreased suicidal ideation for LGB adolescents., Methods: Logistic regression analyses were conducted on the data generated by the San Francisco Unified School District's 2011 California Healthy Kids Survey to examine the influence of protective factors related to suicidal ideation for LGB adolescents (n = 356)., Results: Results indicated that higher levels of school connectedness predicted less suicidal ideation (odds ratio = .59, p =. 005)., Conclusions: This study provided evidence that school protective factors were related to reduced suicidal ideation for LGB adolescents, controlling for risk factors and demographic variables., (Copyright © 2016 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: The Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system seeks to build community capacity for a science-based approach to the promotion of healthy youth development. Prior research shows the positive effects of CTC on youth protective factors during CTC implementation. This research tests sustained effects of CTC on youth protective factors 1 year after external support to communities for CTC implementation ended., Method: Data come from a community-randomized trial of CTC in 24 communities across 7 states. A panel of 4,407 youth in CTC and control communities was surveyed annually from Grade 5 through Grade 10. Youth reported their exposure to protective factors identified in the social development model. Global test statistics are calculated to examine effects of CTC across 15 protective factors in 5 domains (community, school, family, peer, and individual) assessed in Grade 10, 1 year after study support for CTC implementation ended. Analyses also examine variation in sustained effects by gender and baseline risk levels., Results: Global effects of CTC on protective factors across all domains are not sustained in Grade 10. However, sustained domain-specific effects are observed in the individual domain for males, in the peer domain for females, and in the individual domain for youth with low-to-medium risk at baseline., Conclusions: Greater emphasis on strengthening protective factors during high school might be needed to sustain broad effects of CTC on protective factors observed during middle school.

The widespread adoption of science-based prevention requires local infrastructures for prevention service delivery. Communities That Care (CTC) is a tested prevention service delivery system that enables a local coalition of community stakeholders to use a science-based approach to prevention and improve the behavioral health of young people. This paper uses data from the Community Youth Development Study (CYDS), a community-randomized trial of CTC, to examine the extent to which better internal team functioning of CTC coalitions increases the community-wide adoption of science-based prevention within 12 communities, relative to 12 matched comparison communities. Specifically, this paper examines the potential of both a direct relationship between coalition functioning and the community-wide adoption of science-based prevention and a direct relationship between functioning and the coalition capacities that ultimately enable the adoption of science-based prevention. Findings indicate no evidence of a direct relationship between four dimensions of coalition functioning and the community-wide adoption of a science-based approach to prevention, but suggest a relationship between coalition functioning and coalition capacities (building new member skills and establishing external linkages with existing community organizations) that enable science-based prevention.

Coalition-based efforts that use a science-based approach to prevention can improve the wellbeing of community youth. This study measured several coalition capacities that are hypothesized to facilitate the adoption of a science-based approach to prevention in communities. Using data from 12 coalitions participating in a community-randomized trial of the prevention strategy Communities That Care (CTC), this paper describes select measurement properties of five salient coalition capacities (member substantive knowledge of prevention, member acquisition of new skills, member attitudes toward CTC, organizational linkages, and influence on organizations), as reported by coalition members, and examines the degree to which these capacities facilitated the community leader reports of the community-wide adoption of a science-based approach to prevention. Findings indicated that the five coalition capacities could be reliably measured using coalition member reports. Meta-regression analyses found that CTC had a greater impact on the adoption of a science-based prevention approach in 12 matched pairs of control and CTC communities where the CTC coalition had greater member (new skill acquisition) and organizational capacities (organizational linkages).

Community coalitions have been promoted as a strategy to help overcome challenges to the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based prevention programs. This paper explores the characteristics of coalitions that enable the provision of implementation support for prevention programs in general and for the implementation of evidence-based prevention programs with fidelity. Longitudinal cross-lagged panel models were used to study 74 Communities That Care (CTC) coalitions in Pennsylvania. These analyses provide evidence of a unidirectional influence of coalition functioning on the provision of implementation support. Coalition member knowledge of the CTC model best predicted the coalition's provision of support for evidence-based program implementation with fidelity. Implications for developing and testing innovative methods for delivering training and technical assistance to enhance coalition member knowledge are discussed.