Research Foci 
The research foci for the Center will be broad enough to cover basic research and applied intervention research, paralleling the scope of the NIMH-funded prevention research centers. The foci will include research on: (1) risk factors, and factors which moderate risk-to-outcome relationships, (2) conceptually-important causal and mediating processes (e.g. social-cognitive and family system models; media and neighborhood influences) which can be hypothesized to influence changes in risk behaviors and in antisocial outcomes, (3) intervention trial efficacy research, using randomized, longitudinal designs with control groups, and examining the outcome effects, mediating processes and moderating variables which are relevant for treatment and prevention programs in this area, and (4) perhaps most importantly, research on the effectiveness and dissemination of preventive intervention programs in community settings, examining factors within agencies and schools and within the training process itself which determine whether programs are successfully and effectively implemented and maintained over time. This latter research focus can allow the Center to take a national role in extending prevention science to the stage of rigorously understanding the processes which operate in the successful dissemination of programs. The first three research foci will lead to NIH and NSF research grant applications, and the final research foci will be funded through research grants and through contracts received for providing intervention training with rigorous built-in implementation evaluations.