The Kansas Communities That Care Survey Survey Development

Development History Six State Consortium with SDRG First funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP)

Survey Development Goals Self-report instrument appropriate for adolescents ranging from 11 to 18 years old Cost-effective measurement of a range of research-derived risk & protective factors and problem behaviors Provide data on the epidemiology of risk & protective factors among community youth

Survey Development Goals Help focus prevention interventions on geographic areas or subpopulations experiencing the highest levels of risk & lowest level of protection for later health & behavior problems Provide data to identify which risk & protective factors are elevated or depressed

Survey Development Goals Allow analysis of the co-occurrence and correlates of multiple risk and protective factors in different youth populations. Assess a broad set of risk & protective factors that have been identified by longitudinal research across domains Administered in a school setting in one class period (approx. 50 minutes)

Survey Instrument Measures Risk & Protective Factors Predictive of Substance Use Delinquency Problem Behaviors Gang Involvement Frequency of Substance Use Frequency of Antisocial Behaviors

Research Foundation Longitudinal Studies have indicated risk & protective factors that are predictive of adolescent drug use, delinquency, violence and school dropout

Definitions Reliability – – does the score closely match the true score (lack of error)? – when given multiple times is the same score achieved? Validity- – does the survey measure what it claims to measure?

Publication Publication in Peer Reviewed Journal in December of 2002 Survey Development Reliability Validity

Findings Reliability across all scales is good Risk & Protective Factors are correlated with problem behaviors (validity) Is reliable across gender and age (later shown to be so across race & ethnicity) Variability among factor means across grade levels reflects the developmental difference in exposure to risk Scales tap meaningful components of risk & protection at both school and individual levels

NCLB Title IV Implications Meets requirements of the Principles of Effectiveness in No Child Left Behind Title IV Scientifically based Established set of performance measures Provides objective data regarding incidence of violence and illegal drug use

Comparison Data Items measuring substance abuse were adopted from the Monitoring The Future survey. Items measuring delinquency and violence were adopted from the National Youth Survey