How Are Community Interventions Conceptualized and Conducted? An Analysis of Published Accounts

Recent discussions about the conduct of community interventions suggest the importance of developing more comprehensive theorizing about their nature and effects. The present study is an effort to infer how community interventions are theorized by the way they are represented in the peer-reviewed scholarly literature. A coding of a random sample of 200 community intervention reports in eight journals encompassing public health, community psychology, and prevention science suggests the enduring influence of the laboratory tradition of psychology in both research design and the relationship of community interventionists to communities. Reflection on the underlying assumptions of community intervention theory and how community interventions are reported is recommended as critical to becoming more effective in improving community health. (Contains 2 tables and 1 footnote.)