Papers by Brittany Cooper
Background Parent behaviors are strongly associated with students' substance use in high scho... more Background Parent behaviors are strongly associated with students' substance use in high school. However, there have been few studies the associations of parenting of college students with students' risk behaviors. Furthermore, there have been few attempts to educate parents about informational and relational needs of students leaving home. Freshmen are especially at risk for substance abuse and associated harms; thus, parent training may provide a promising avenue for preventive intervention. We report data from a pilot study of a preventive intervention, delivered in the form of a handbook, targeting parents of rising college freshmen. The handbook was designed to help parents 1) understand the developmental and situational challenges their student confront as they transition to college; and 2) clarify and discuss expectations for their student’s academic, social, and substance use behaviors while at college. Our hypothesis at baseline was that parent communication, attitu...
Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2015
Social and emotional skills facilitate school readiness, yet evaluations of preschool programs ty... more Social and emotional skills facilitate school readiness, yet evaluations of preschool programs typically focus on the cognitive benefits of early education and rarely examine the impact of preschool on "noncognitive" outcomes. This study used propensity score matching to create two groups of preschool participants to compare how preschool duration was associated with children's emotion knowledge, social competence, and behavioral adjustment at kindergarten. Subjects were drawn from an evaluation study of a comprehensive public preschool program that included an evidence-based social-emotional curriculum. Compared to children who participated in one year of the preschool program, children who attended for two years were rated by teachers as exhibiting greater levels of social competence over time from the first year of preschool to kindergarten. At kindergarten, children who attended the program for two years demonstrated higher levels of emotion knowledge. Implications of the results for preschool interventions are discussed.
Prevention Science, 2013
The overall goal of this study is to introduce latent class analysis (LCA) as an alternative appr... more The overall goal of this study is to introduce latent class analysis (LCA) as an alternative approach to latent subgroup analysis. Traditionally, subgroup analysis aims to determine whether individuals respond differently to a treatment based on one or more measured characteristics. LCA provides a way to identify a small set of underlying subgroups characterized by multiple dimensions which could, in turn, be used to examine differential treatment effects. This approach can help to address methodological challenges that arise in subgroup analysis, including a high Type I error rate, low statistical power, and limitations in examining higher-order interactions. An empirical example draws on N = 1,900 adolescents from the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health. Six characteristics (household poverty, single-parent status, peer cigarette use, peer alcohol use, neighborhood unemployment, and neighborhood poverty) are used to identify five latent subgroups: Low Risk, Peer Risk, Economic Risk, Household & Peer Risk, and Multi-Contextual Risk. Two approaches for examining differential treatment effects are demonstrated using a simulated outcome: 1) a classify-analyze approach and, 2) a model-based approach based on a reparameterization of the LCA with covariates model. Such approaches can facilitate targeting future intervention resources to subgroups that promise to show the maximum treatment response.
Prevention Science, 2007
The transition from high school to college provides a potentially critical window to intervene an... more The transition from high school to college provides a potentially critical window to intervene and reduce risky behavior among adolescents. Understanding the motivations (e.g., social, coping, enhancement) behind high school seniors' alcohol use could provide one important avenue to reducing risky drinking behaviors. In the present study, latent class analysis was used to examine the relationship between different patterns of drinking motivations and behaviors in a sample of 12th graders (N=1,877) from the 2004 Monitoring the Future survey. Unlike previous variable-centered analyses, this person-centered approach identifies types of motivations that cluster together within individuals and relates membership in these profiles to drinking behaviors. Results suggest four profiles of drinking motivations for both boys and girls, including Experimenters, Thrill-seekers, Multi-reasoners, and Relaxers. Early initiation of alcohol use, past year drunkenness, and drinking before 4 P.M. were associated with greater odds of membership in the Multi-reasoners class as compared to the Experimenters class. Although the strength of these relationships varied for boys and girls, findings were similar across gender suggesting that the riskiest drinking behavior was related to membership in the Multi-reasoners class. These findings can be used to inform prevention programming. Specifically, targeted interventions that tailor program content to the distinct drinking motivation profiles described above may prove to be effective in reducing risky drinking behavior among high school seniors.
Prevention Science, 2013
Over the past four decades, significant strides have been made in the science of preventing youth... more Over the past four decades, significant strides have been made in the science of preventing youth problem behaviors. Subsequently, policymakers and funders have begun to insist on the use of evidence-based programs (EBPs) as a requirement for funding. However, unless practitioners are able to sustain these programs beyond initial seed funding, they are unlikely to achieve their ultimate goal of broad public health impact. Despite its obvious importance, sustainability has received relatively little attention in prevention science until recently. Moreover, there have been few opportunities to study the correlates of sustainability in large-scale, multi-year initiatives involving multiple programs. The present study examined rates of sustainment of a wide range of proven-effective prevention and intervention programs; identified factors related to organizational support and readiness, program and implementer characteristics, and sustainability planning that distinguished sustained programs; and examined variability in these associations across classroom-based, community/mentoring, familyfocused prevention, and family treatment program types within the context of a state-wide EBP dissemination initiative in Pennsylvania over 4 years. The majority of EBPs sustained functioning 2 years or more beyond their initial funding. In general, sustained programs reported greater community coalition functioning, communication to key stakeholders, knowledge of the program's logical model, communication with the trainer or program developer, and sustainability planning. In addition to these universal correlates, important programspecific correlates emerged as well. Implications for the technical assistance and support necessary to promote the sustainability of EBPs in nonresearch contexts are also discussed.
The Journal of Primary Prevention, 2013
When evidence-based programs (EBPs) are scaled up in natural, or non-research, settings, adaptati... more When evidence-based programs (EBPs) are scaled up in natural, or non-research, settings, adaptations are commonly made. Given the fidelityversus-adaptation debate, theoretical rationales have been provided for the pros and cons of adaptations. Yet the basis of this debate is theoretical; thus, empirical evidence is needed to understand the types of adaptations made in natural settings. In the present study, we introduce a taxonomy for understanding adaptations. This taxonomy addresses several aspects of adaptations made to programs including the fit (philosophical or logistical), timing (proactive or reactive), and valence, or the degree to which the adaptations align with the program's goals and theory, (positive, negative, or neutral). Self-reported qualitative data from communities delivering one of ten statefunded EBPs were coded based on the taxonomy constructs; additionally, quantitative data were used to examine the types and reasons for making adaptations under natural conditions. Forty-four percent of respondents reported making adaptations. Adaptations to the procedures, dosage, and content were cited most often. Lack of time, limited resources, and difficulty retaining participants were listed as the most common reasons for making adaptations. Most adaptations were made reactively, as a result of issues of logistical fit, and were not aligned with, or deviated from, the program's goals and theory.
Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 2011
Executive function (EF) skills are integral components of young children's growing competence, bu... more Executive function (EF) skills are integral components of young children's growing competence, but little is known about the role of early family context and experiences in their development. We examined how demographic and familial risks during infancy predicted EF competence at 36 months in a large, predominantly low-income sample of non-urban families from Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Using latent class analysis, six ecological risk profiles best captured the diverse experiences of these families. Profiles with various combinations of family structure, income, and psychosocial risks were differentially related to EF. Much of the influence of early risks on later EF appears to be transmitted through quality of parent-child interactions during infancy. Findings suggest that early family environments may prove to be especially fruitful contexts for the promotion of EF development.
Journal of Community Psychology, 2008
Infant Behavior and Development, 2011
The primary goal of this study was to compare several variable-centered and person-centered metho... more The primary goal of this study was to compare several variable-centered and person-centered methods for modeling multiple risk factors during infancy to predict the quality of caregiving environments at six months of age. Nine risk factors related to family demographics and maternal psychosocial risk, assessed when children were two months old, were explored in the understudied population of children born in low-income, non-urban communities in Pennsylvania and North Carolina (N = 1047). These risk factors were 1) single (unpartnered) parent status, 2) marital status, 3) mother's age at first child birth, 4) maternal education, 5) maternal reading ability, 6) poverty status, 7) residential crowding, 8) prenatal smoking exposure, and 9) maternal depression. We compared conclusions drawn using a bivariate approach, multiple regression analysis, the cumulative risk index, and latent class analysis (LCA). The risk classes derived using LCA provided a more intuitive summary of how multiple risks were organized within individuals as compared to the other methods. The five risk classes were: married low-risk; married low-income; cohabiting multiproblem; single low-income; and single low-income/education. The LCA findings illustrated how the association between particular family configurations and the infants' caregiving environment quality varied across race and site. Discussion focuses on the value of person-centered models of analysis to understand complexities of prediction of multiple risk factors.
American Journal of Kidney Diseases, 2011
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Papers by Brittany Cooper