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Experiences in Disseminating Evidence-Based Prevention Programs in a Real-World Setting

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Abstract

The primary aim of family-based prevention programs is to promote children’s health. Unfortunately, it is difficult to reach families with such evidence-based prevention programs (EBP). Therefore, implementing EBP on a population level could be a promising approach to reach more families, including those faced with socioeconomic challenges who are usually less likely to participate in randomized controlled trials (RCT). Is a population rollout appropriate to reach more and different families than those participating in RCT, especially those representative of the target population? We implemented three EBP in a city in an uncontrolled trial. The effects of this population rollout were tracked on the level of the participating families and on the level of all families living in the city. More than 3480 families (30 % of the population) with children up to 12 years of age participated based on practitioner report. Analyses indicate that a greater percentage of low socioeconomic-status families attended a program compared with a randomly surveyed sample from the city’s general population. The sizes of the within-subject effect for parental strategies, child behavior problems, and children’s quality of life for a subsample of n = 411 families were similar to those of other uncontrolled EBP studies. The study contributes to highly needed type 2 translation research. The population-based dissemination of EBP could be a promising approach to reach families at risk. However, there are considerable barriers to the implementation process, which currently limit the effectiveness of this rollout in a community.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by grants from the German Government of Justice [Gefördert von der Stiftung Deutsches Forum für Kriminalprävention und vom Bundesministerium der Justiz aufgrund eines Beschlusses des Deutschen Bundestages]. We are very grateful for Matthew Sanders’ feedback on the first revision of this manuscript.

Conflict of Interest

Nina Heinrichs and Kurt Hahlweg are members of the international scientific advisory committee for Triple P. Inga Frantz and Nina Heinrichs are members of the Triple P Research Network since 2014 (academic disclosure). Julia Plück is co-author of PEP and conducts courses for PEP trainers (financial disclosure).

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  1. Inga Frantz & Nina Heinrichs

    Present address: Department of Psychology, University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany

    Inga Frantz & Nina Heinrichs

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany

    Mark Stemmler

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany

    Kurt Hahlweg

  4. Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical Faculty, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Julia Plück

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  1. Inga Frantz
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Correspondence to Inga Frantz.

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Frantz, I., Stemmler, M., Hahlweg, K. et al. Experiences in Disseminating Evidence-Based Prevention Programs in a Real-World Setting. Prev Sci 16, 789–800 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-015-0554-y

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