INTERACTIVE ONLINE CAPACITY BUILDING FOR POSITIVE YOUTH DEVELOPMENT

CDC
ID: 1R43DP005380-01
PI: MELANIE LIVET, ABRAHAM WANDERSMAN
TERM: 09/14 – 09/15

With extensive government resources contributed each year to training and technical assistance for helping communities deliver public health programs, it is crucial for state and federal officials to identify cost-effective capacity-building solutions. Practitioners are under substantial pressure to quickly acquire the knowledge and tools to successfully plan, select, implement, and evaluate public health programs. With CDC’s continued focus on accountability for program outcomes, it has become critically important to develop innovative, cost-effective, scalable strategies to strengthen community capacity to protect and promote health.

The proposed project will directly address this need through the development and testing of a customizable interactive software product designed to empower communities to build the competencies needed to successfully deliver prevention programs. Scaling up this type of capacity building requires the integration of two components: (1) an evidence-based model used to train community practitioners to effectively deliver public health programs; and (2) an interactive technology platform that allows for customizable training. Getting to Outcomes (GTO) is a results-based approach to accountability that builds capacity to deliver effective programs using a 10-step process. We will adapt GTO for use with Positive Youth Development (PYD) programs.

PYD is an approach that engages youth in their environments in a manner that is constructive, recognizes youths’ strengths, and promotes positive outcomes. The goal of this project is to develop interactive web-based software for individualized training and practice that will build community practitioners’ capacity to effectively plan, implement, and evaluate PYD programs. The proposed software will be built on a state of the art dynamic e-learning platform. Community practitioners will learn through a tailored experience combining customized instruction with interactive exercises to encourage learners to reflect on, apply, and practice their skills. No other technology product offers a comparable system for building capacity of communities to effectively deliver PYD programs.

This Phase I SBIR project will accomplish three specific aims: (1) Gather recommendations on how to adapt GTO to PYD through consultation with experts and literature searches; (2) Develop a working PYD GTO software prototype; and (3) Conduct a feasibility test with 60 stakeholders. By building local capacity to plan, implement, and evaluate PYD programs on a broad scale, the proposed product has the potential to significantly impact public health by maximizing positive outcomes for the nation’s youth. In addition, this cost-effective training software can extend to areas beyond PYD to potentially transform the public health approach to capacity building.

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DEB CHILDRESS, PHD

Chief of Research and Learning Content

BIOGRAPHY

Dr. Childress obtained her PhD in psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to coming to 3C Institute, she served as a research associate and a postdoctoral fellow in the Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill working on a longitudinal imaging study aimed at identifying the early markers of autism through behavioral and imaging methodologies. She has 19 years of autism research experience, during which she has examined the behavioral, personality, and cognitive characteristics of individuals with autism and their family members. Dr. Childress also has experience developing behavioral and parent report measurement tools, coordinating multi-site research studies, and collecting data from children and families. She has taught courses and seminars in general child development, autism, and cognitive development at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Expertise

  • autism
  • early development
  • behavioral measurement
  • integrating behavioral and biological measurement

Education

  • Postdoctoral fellowship, Carolina Institute for Developmental Disabilities (Institutional NRSA-NICHD), University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • PhD, developmental psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • BS, psychology (minor in sociology), University of Iowa

Selected Publications

  • Elison, J. T., Wolff, J. J., Heimer, D. C., Paterson, S. J., Gu, H., Hazlett, H. C., Styner, M, Gerig, G., & Piven, J. (in press). Frontolimbic neural circuitry at 6 months predicts individual differences in joint attention at 9 months. Developmental Science.
  • Wassink, T. H., Vieland, V. J., Sheffield, V. C., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., Childress, D. & Piven, J. (2008). Posterior probability of linkage analysis of autism dataset identifies linkage to chromosome 16. Psychiatric Genetics,18(2),85-91.
  • Losh, M., Childress, D., Lam K. & Piven, J. (2008). Defining key features of the broad autism phenotype: A comparison across parents of multiple- and single-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 147B(4):424-33.
  • Wassink, T. H., Piven, J., Vieland, V. J., Jenkins, L., Frantz R., Bartlett, C. W., Goedken, R., … Sheffield, V.C. (2005). Evaluation of the chromosome 2q37.3 gene CENTG2 as an autism susceptibility gene. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 136, 36-44.
  • Barrett, S., Beck, J., Bernier, R., Bisson, E., Braun, T., Casavant, T., Childress, D., … Vieland, V. (1999). An autosomal genomic screen for autism. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 88, 609-615. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1096-8628(19991215)88:63.0.CO;2-L
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Landa, R., Santangelo, S., Jacobi, D. & Childress, D. (1997). Personality and language characteristics in parents from multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Medical Genetics (Neuropsychiatric Genetics), 74, 398-411.
  • Piven, J., Palmer, P., Jacobi, D., Childress, D. & Arndt, S. (1997). Broader autism phenotype: Evidence from a family history study of multiple-incidence autism families. American Journal of Psychiatry, 154, 185-190.