J. David Hawkins

University of Washington | UW · School of Social Work

This study tested whether effects of a preventive intervention delivered in elementary school showed benefits for the young adult offspring of intervention recipients over 20 years later. The Raising Healthy Children (RHC) intervention, trialed in 18 public schools in Seattle, Washington, from 1980–1986 (grades 1–6), sought to build strong bonds to...

Importance: There is little information on upstream community-based interventions that reduce the prevalence of handgun carrying among adolescents, especially those growing up in rural areas. Objective: To test whether Communities That Care (CTC), a community-based prevention system focusing on risk and protective factors for behavioral problems...

Introduction Many adult smokers have tried electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) as a less harmful alternative to combustible cigarettes. There is limited evidence, however, for the extent to which switching to e-cigarettes is associated with better health and functioning among nicotine users approaching their 40 s—the beginning of midlife—when many...

Evidence-based parenting interventions play a crucial role in the sustained reduction of adolescent behavioral health concerns. Guiding Good Choices (GGC) is a 5-session universal anticipatory guidance curriculum for parents of early adolescents that has been shown to reduce substance use, depression symptoms, and delinquent behavior. Although prio...

With changes to drug-related policies and increased availability of many drugs, we currently face a public health crisis related to substance use and associated health consequences. Substance use and substance use disorders (SU/SUDs) are complex developmental disorders with etiologies that emerge through the intergenerational transmission of biolog...

Background Evidence for use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) as a potential aid in quitting or reducing combustible cigarette (c-cig) use is mixed. This study examined the extent to which e-cig initiation among smokers in their 30 s predicted quitting or reducing smoking or nicotine dependence symptoms by age 39, and whether the role of e-cigs in...

This study estimated sustained impacts and long-term benefits and costs of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system, implemented and evaluated in a longitudinal cluster-randomized trial involving 24 communities in seven states. Analyses utilized reports from a longitudinal panel of 4407 participants, followed since the study’s baseline in...

There are stable between-person differences in an internalizing “trait,” or the propensity to experience symptoms of internalizing disorders, such as social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, and depression. Trait internalizing may serve as a marker of heightened risk for problem alcohol outcomes (such as heavier drinking, binge drinking or alc...

Purpose This paper describes the origins and application of a theory, the social development model (SDM), that seeks to explain causal processes that lead to the development of prosocial and problem behaviors. The SDM was used to guide the development of a multicomponent intervention in middle childhood called Raising Healthy Children (RHC) that se...

There is growing critical commentary and debate about the relative effectiveness of individual program and generic practice approaches to identifying evidence‐based interventions and their impact on the operation of the juvenile justice system. The central issue is whether both of these approaches to identifying evidence‐based interventions provide...

Importance Trials of preventive interventions for children that were implemented in the 1980s have reported sustained positive outcomes on behavioral and health outcomes into adulthood, years after the end of the intervention. This present study examines whether intervention in childhood may show sustained benefits across generations. Objective To...

Few longitudinal studies are capable of identifying criminal career profiles using both self‐report and official court data beyond the 30s. The current study aims to identify criminal career profiles across three developmental periods using self‐report data, validate these profiles with official court records and determine early childhood predictor...

There are stable between-person differences in an internalizing "trait," or the propensity to experience symptoms of internalizing disorders, such as social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, and depression. Trait internalizing may serve as a marker of heightened risk for problem alcohol outcomes (such as heavier drinking, binge drinking, or al...

Introduction: Reducing cigarette use is a major public health goal in the United States. Questions remain, however, about the potential for the social environment in the adult years-particularly in the 30s and beyond-to influence cigarette use. This study tested pathways hypothesized by the social development model (SDM) to understand the extent t...

This study examined associations of neighborhood structural factors (census-based measures socioeconomic disadvantage and residential stability), self-reported measures of general and substance use-specific risk factors across neighborhood, school, peer, and family domains, and sociodemographic factors with substance use among 9th grade students. D...

Elementary schools can be effective sites for universal preventive interventions. Less is known about how long effects of intervention in elementary grades last. Can they improve outcomes in adulthood? To test effects of a social developmental intervention in the elementary grades on adult life through the 30s, the Seattle Social Development Projec...

Assessments of youth risk and protective factors (RPFs) for substance use, delinquency, and violence have been used by communities to identify priorities and target them with prevention interventions. These same RPFs may also predict other youth problems. This study examined the strength and consistency of relationships of 41 ecological risk and pr...

The current study examines the continuity in comorbidity between substance use and internalizing mental health problems from adolescence to adulthood and investigates the general and specific predictors of comorbidity across development. Participants were drawn from the Seattle Social Development Project (N = 808), a gender-balanced, ethnically div...

Background. Lower socioeconomic status (SES) has been associated with higher rates of smoking. Few longitudinal studies have examined indicators of SES at both the neighborhood- and individual-level over time in conjunction with proximal risk factors of cigarette smoking. Purpose. To examine associations of time-varying measures of SES, demographic...

Cambridge Core - Educational Psychology - Violence in American Schools - edited by Delbert S. Elliott

Purpose: The present study examined whether risk factors during adolescence, including substance use, depression, overweight status, and young adult educational attainment, mediated the association between low childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and higher body mass index (BMI) in adulthood. We also evaluated whether the hypothesized pathways dif...

Objectives: To evaluate whether the effects of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system, implemented in early adolescence to promote positive youth development and reduce health-risking behavior, endured through age 21 years. Methods: We analyzed 9 waves of prospective data collected between 2004 and 2014 from a panel of 4407 participan...

Permissive attitudes and norms about marijuana use and perceptions of low harm from use are considered risk factors for adolescent marijuana use. However, the relationship between risk and use may be reciprocal and vary across development and socializing domains. We examined the bidirectional relationships between marijuana-specific risk factors in...

Earlier intention-to-treat (ITT) findings from a community-randomized trial demonstrated effects of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system on reducing problem behaviors among youth. In ITT analyses, youth were analyzed according to their original study community’s randomized condition even if they moved away from the community over the c...

There is broad agreement that neighborhood contexts are important for adolescent development, but there is less consensus about their association with adolescent smoking and alcohol use. Few studies have examined associations between neighborhood socioeconomic contexts and smoking and alcohol use while also accounting for differences in family and...

This chapter presents an overview of the social development model (SDM)—a general theory of human behavior that integrates research on risk and protective factors into a coherent model. The goal of this synthesis is to provide more explanatory power than its component theories. This chapter first specifies the model constructs and their hypothesize...

Highlights Neighborhood disorganization predicted increased severity of Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) symptoms. Neighborhood disorganization predicted increased likelihood of experiencing psychological distress. Psychological distress partially mediated the association of neighborhood disorganization and AUD. Associations persisted net of important ri...

Purpose: This study’s goal was to examine academic and behavioral paths to obtaining a high school diploma. Methods: Data were drawn from a gender-balanced, ethnically diverse longitudinal sample of 808 youth from 18 Seattle public elementary schools serving high crime neighborhoods. Structural equation modeling was used to simultaneously estimate...

This article presents a framework for evolving a society that nurtures the health and well-being of its population. We review evidence that adverse social conditions, including poverty, conflict, discrimination, and other forms of social rejection, contribute immensely to our most ubiquitous psychological, behavioral, and health problems. We then e...

Purpose: Concern that asking about a specific behavior could elicit that behavior is often cited as a reason that communities and schools should not administer surveys about youth drug use. In this study, we investigated if this question-behavior effect exists related to substance use. We examined if simply asking a student about their current dru...

Objective The present study is a prospective examination of the relationship between regular marijuana use from adolescence through young adulthood and mental health outcomes at age 33. Methods Data came from a gender-balanced, ethnically diverse longitudinal panel of 808 participants from Seattle, Washington. Outcomes included symptom counts for...

As a result of nearly 40 years of research using a risk and protective factor approach, much is known about the predictors of gang onset. Little theoretical work, however, has been done to situate this approach to studying gang membership within a more comprehensive developmental model. Using structural equation modeling techniques, the current stu...

Background: This study constitutes a building block in the cultural adaptation of Communities That Care (CTC), a community-based prevention system that has been found to be effective in reducing youth problem behaviors. Methods: Using the data from the CTC normative survey dataset that consists of more than quarter million youth nationwide, this...

Due to an oversight, the middle initial of author Tiffany M. Jones was written incorrectly as A rather than M. The original article has been corrected. The authors regret the oversight.

Longitudinal analyses investigated (a) the co-occurrence of marijuana use and conventional cigarette smoking within time and (b) bidirectional associations between marijuana and conventional cigarette use in three developmental periods: adolescence, young adulthood, and adulthood. A cross-lag model was used to examine the bidirectional model of mar...

Background: This study examined whether duration of unemployment from ages 21 to 33 was associated with symptoms of alcohol use disorder, nicotine dependence disorder, and cannabis use disorder at age 39, after accounting for childhood and early adult involvement in substance use and other indicators of psychopathology. Analyses also investigated...

This study examined whether parental alcohol use in adolescence, adulthood, and for mothers, during pregnancy, was related to their young children's functioning in terms of their on‐time development as indicated by the number of developmental areas in which children experienced delay. Observed parenting practices and family socioeconomic status wer...

Abstract This study presents results from a collaboration across five longitudinal studies seeking to test and replicate models of gene–environment interplay in the development of substance use and externalizing disorders (SUDs, EXT). We describe an overview of our conceptual models, plan for gene–environment interplay analyses, and present main ef...

This study examines the interplay between individual and social–developmental factors in the development of positive functioning, substance use problems, and mental health problems. This interplay is nested within positive and negative developmental cascades that span childhood, adolescence, the transition to adulthood, and adulthood. Data are draw...

Family-focused prevention programs have been shown to effectively reduce a range of negative behavioral health outcomes but have had limited reach. Three key barriers must be overcome to expand the reach of family-focused prevention programs and thereby achieve a significant public health impact. These barriers are (1) current social norms and perc...

Purpose: The recent legalization of nonmedical marijuana use in several U.S. states has unknown implications for those who are actively parenting. This study examined parents' reactions to marijuana legalization and changes in attitudes and behaviors over time. Methods: Data were from a gender-balanced, ethnically diverse sample of 395 parents i...

Objectives: This study examined three competing mechanisms in the link between educational attainment and health among young adults: (a) a health behaviour mechanism; (b) a psychosocial stressor mechanism; and (c) a health insurance mechanism. The central research question was the pervasiveness and specificity of these mechanisms in the link betwe...

This study examined relationships between interpersonal violence victimization and smoking from childhood to adulthood. Data were from a community-based longitudinal study (N = 808) spanning ages 10 to 33. Cross-lag path analysis was used to model concurrent, directional, and reciprocal effects. Results indicate that childhood physical abuse predic...

For community-level approaches to preventing depression, measures of depression that are brief as well as valid are needed, particularly given competing demands in surveys for assessment of other outcomes including substance use, delinquency, and their associated risk factors. This study examined the validity of a 4-item adolescent depression measu...

In this article, we draw on the theoretical and empirical literature to name what appear to be core dimensions of successful young adult development. We also describe some possible indicators and measures of those dimensions and sketch the kinds of developmental relationships and opportunities young people need in adolescence to effectively transit...

The Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system has shown effects on reducing incidence and prevalence of problem behaviors among a panel of youth followed from 5th through 12th grade. The present report examines whether similar intervention effects could be observed using a repeated cross-sectional design in the same study. Data were from a comm...

Preventive interventions are often designed and tested with the immediate program period in mind, and little thought that the intervention sample might be followed up for years or even decades beyond the initial trial. However, depending on the type of intervention and the nature of the outcomes, long-term follow-up may well be appropriate. The adv...

Objective: The Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system seeks to build community capacity for a science-based approach to the promotion of healthy youth development. Prior research shows the positive effects of CTC on youth protective factors during CTC implementation. This research tests sustained effects of CTC on youth protective factors 1...

This study sought to identify trajectories of marijuana use in the Seattle Social Development Project (n = 808) sample from age 14 through 30, and to examine the extent to which individuals in these trajectories differed in their substance use problems, mental health, problem behavior, economic outcomes, and positive functioning at age 33. In addit...

Unlabelled: This study tested sustained effects of the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system on health-risking behaviors 9 years after baseline in a community-randomized trial involving 24 towns in seven states. Earlier analyses found sustained effects on abstinence from drug use and delinquency through Grade 12 in a panel of fifth graders...

School administrators and teachers face difficult decisions about how best to use school resources to meet academic achievement goals. Many are hesitant to adopt prevention curricula that are not focused directly on academic achievement. Yet, some have hypothesized that prevention curricula can remove barriers to learning and, thus, promote achieve...

Every day across America, behavioral health problems in childhood and adolescence, from anxiety to violence, take a heavy toll on millions of lives. For decades the approach to these problems has been to treat them only after they’ve been identified—at a high and ongoing cost to young people, families, entire communities, and our nation. Now we hav...

Statement of purpose Texting while driving (TWD) is a critical problem for teen drivers, increasing risk for crashes. The purpose of this analysis was to describe how teen drivers’ control their TWD. Methods We collected quantitative and qualitative data from 30 teens, ages 16–18, licensed for ≤1 year in Pennsylvania. Frequencies from quantitative...

To determine whether the Communities That Care (CTC) prevention system is a cost-beneficial intervention. Data were from a longitudinal panel of 4,407 youth participating in a randomized controlled trial including 24 towns in 7 states, matched in pairs within state and randomly assigned to condition. Significant differences favoring intervention yo...

The widespread adoption of science-based prevention requires local infrastructures for prevention service delivery. Communities That Care (CTC) is a tested prevention service delivery system that enables a local coalition of community stakeholders to use a science-based approach to prevention and improve the behavioral health of young people. This...

To examine the long-term consequences of juvenile incarceration on functioning in adulthood (ages 27-33). Propensity score analysis was used to compare incarcerated youth with those who were never incarcerated in a subsample of individuals who had experienced at least one police contact in adolescence. Data were drawn from the Seattle Social Develo...

This chapter reviews tested and effective school- and community-based prevention programs that target risk and protective factors to prevent the development of violence, delinquency, and substance use among youth. Further, we introduce the collective impact approach that calls for a wider collaboration across multiple environmental domains and serv...

Many interventions seeking to reduce problem behaviors and promote healthy youth development target both risk and protective factors, yet few studies have examined the effect of preventive interventions on overall levels of protection community wide. In a community-randomized controlled trial, this study tested the effect of Communities That Care (...

Coalition-based efforts that use a science-based approach to prevention can improve the wellbeing of community youth. This study measured several coalition capacities that are hypothesized to facilitate the adoption of a science-based approach to prevention in communities. Using data from 12 coalitions participating in a community-randomized trial...

Research has consistently documented the role of environmental risk factors in the onset of delinquent behavior among youth. Less is known about the processes through which these contextual risks are translated to individual youth behavior. The aim of the current study is to examine the role of family risk factors in the transmission of community r...

Background There has been very little research examining criminal careers in adulthood using both self-report data and official records.AimsThe aims of this paper are to use self-reports and official criminal records to explore (1) the prevalences and frequencies of offending behaviour in adulthood; (2) continuity in offending behaviour across the...

Objective: Guided by a domain-specific cumulative risk model and an emerging notion of general and alcohol-specific influences, this study examined whether general and alcohol-specific influences from family, peer, and school contexts in childhood and adolescence differentially predict heavy episodic drinking and alcohol use disorder at two develo...

Both externalizing and internalizing psychopathology increase throughout adolescence and a similar set of risk and protective factors may underlie depressive symptoms, antisocial behavior, and alcohol use. Analyses test how risk and protective factors for externalizing behavior in community, school, family, peer, and individual domains are related...

Introduction: Adolescent substance use and delinquency are major public health problems. Although community-based prevention strategies have been recommended to produce population-level reductions in rates of substance use and delinquency, few models show evidence of effectiveness. Purpose: To test the efficacy of a community-based prevention syste...