This article describes the theoretical foundation, development, and feasibility testing of an online, evidence-based intervention for teen dating violence prevention designed for dissemination. Teen Choices, a program for healthy, nonviolent relationships, relies on the transtheoretical model of behavior change and expert system technology to deliver assessments and feedback matched to stage of change for using healthy relationship skills. The program also tailors feedback to dating status, risk level, and other key characteristics. Ninety-nine students from high schools in Tennessee and Rhode Island completed a Teen Choices session and 97 completed an 11-item acceptability evaluation. Of participants, 100% completed the intervention session as intended. Evaluations of the program were favorable: 88.7% agreed the program feedback was easy to understand, and 86.7% agreed that the program could help people develop healthier relationships. Findings provide encouraging evidence of the acceptability and feasibility of this approach to dating violence prevention.

OBJECTIVETeen dating violence is a serious public health problem. A cluster-randomized trial was conducted to assess the efficacy of Teen Choices, a 3-session online program that delivers assessments and individualized guidance matched to dating history, dating violence experiences, and stage of readiness for using healthy relationship skills. For high risk victims of dating violence, the program addresses readiness to keep oneself safe in relationships.METHODTwenty high schools were randomly assigned to the Teen Choices condition (n=2,000) or a Comparison condition (n=1,901). Emotional and physical dating violence victimization and perpetration were assessed at 6 and 12 months in the subset of participants (total n=2,605) who reported a past-year history of dating violence at baseline, and/or who dated during the study.RESULTSThe Teen Choices program was associated with significantly reduced odds of all four types of dating violence (adjusted ORs ranging from .45 to .63 at 12 months follow-up). For three of the four violence outcomes, participants with a past-year history of that type of violence benefited significantly more from the intervention than students without a past-year history.CONCLUSIONSThe Teen Choices program provides an effective and practicable strategy for intervention for teen dating violence prevention.

Empirical research on charitable behaviors of individuals continues to expand and has growing implications for nonprofit leaders, policymakers, and fundraising professionals. In this exploratory analysis, we examine individual charitable giving and volunteering using primary survey data across a range of demographic and socioeconomic factors to analyze the interaction between giving and volunteering. What is different about the giving patterns of volunteers versus nonvolunteers? What is different about the volunteering pattern of givers versus nongivers? Do individuals give to the same causes to which they volunteer? Our findings provide important evidence about the links between giving and volunteering behaviors, and we offer substantive recommendations about resource development strategies that can be used to attract and expand charitable gifts of time and money. Each is an important resource for nonprofit organizations and critical to their effective performance.

Introduction. Multimedia computer-tailored (Expert System; ES) interventions represent a low cost, easily disseminated method of changing behaviors in a general population. Effectiveness has been established. However, these interventions have produced only small effect sizes, partially due to low participant engagement. Relational Agents (RA), computer-based virtual characters who can establish a personal relationship, have the potential to increase engagement. This paper reports the Month 12 outcomes for a RCT involving Relational Agents. Method. The design was 3 groups (Control, ES, RA) by 3 Occasions (Months 0, 12, 24). A representative USA sample (N = 1639) of individuals at risk for both exercise and UV protection was recruited. Results. Month 12 data demonstrated that the RA Intervention increased participant engagement. The average number of sessions viewed/week was 0.048 (ES) compared to 0.142 (RA). The RA also increased satisfaction and was viewed as more helpful. Proportion at criteria for exercise was: Control (13.6%), ES (15.7%) and RA (16.6%). Conclusions. The Relational Agent Intervention has the potential to outperform the previous best practice for computer-based interventions.

Using cluster analysis, 717 students who reported that they had never smoked and the nondrinking 292 students who reported that they had never drank alcohol were classified into four profile groups based on their Pros and Cons of not using and temptation to use. Profiles were labeled Most Protected, Least Positive, Most Negative, and Most Tempted. Profile groups differed significantly on peer pressure, family communication, and use of 11 Transtheoretical Model (TTM) processes of prevention, and applied experiential and behavioral strategies to prevent the onset of smoking and alcohol use. The largest and most consistent differences were on the processes with the Most Protected using more than the Least Positive and Most Tempted groups. Being more actively engaged with the processes of prevention helps to explain why the Most Protected group has had the least amount of substance use over time while the Most Tempted and Least Positive groups had the highest rates of substance use. The consistency and size of differences on the processes support the hypothesis that Most Protected youth may be those who proactively protect themselves from substance use initiation.

This study provides a demonstration of how published intervention outcomes can be used to create benchmarks for wellness programs for comparison of a case study. Case study results can then be applied by decision makers to adopt and evaluate the relative effectiveness of wellness programs. This case study assessed outcomes from Transtheoretical Model (TTM) computer-tailored interventions (CTIs) on 6 behaviors over a 5-year period. Results were compared with outcomes from a series of TTM randomized controlled trials and a representative review of workplace wellness interventions. The case study included 6544 employees, their spouses, and adult dependents who participated in a multicomponent CTI that assessed health risks and provided tailored feedback. Case study results were compared with 26 outcomes from 14 randomized controlled TTM-based CTIs, and with results from a published review of worksite-based wellness programs. The outcomes of the dissemination study were comparable to the average results of the TTM-based randomized controlled trials on stress and depression but exceeded the averages on smoking, healthy eating, fruit and vegetable consumption, and exercise by 16.4% to 44.8%. The dissemination study also exceeded by 89.3% to 7 times the average results of the workplace wellness interventions. The comparisons applied in this project represent a demanding test of the effectiveness of case studies. Length of treatment and choice of treatments are factors that may have contributed to above-average outcomes.

BACKGROUND:Early use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs threatens the physical and mental well-being of students and continued use negatively affects many areas of development. An internet-based, tailored intervention based on the Transtheoretical Model of Behavior Change was delivered to middle school students to reduce alcohol, tobacco, and other drug use. This internet-based approach requires very little faculty and staff time, which is efficient given curricular demands.METHODS:Twenty-two middle schools in the United States were matched and randomly assigned to either the intervention or control conditions (N=1590 students who had ever used substances). Participants received one pre-test assessment, three thirty-minute intervention sessions over three months, and two post-test assessments (3 and 14 months after pre-test, respectively).RESULTS:Random effects logistic models showed significant treatment effects for the intervention group when compared to the control group at the 3-month post-test.CONCLUSIONS:This program has the potential to be applied as stand-alone practice or as part of more intensive interventions to promote substance use cessation.

Tailored behavior change programs have proven effective at decreasing health risk factors, but the impact of such programs on participant well-being has not been tested. This randomized trial evaluated the impact of tailored telephone coaching and Internet interventions on health risk behaviors and individual well-being. Exercise and stress management were the primary health risks of interest; improvements in other health risk behaviors were secondary outcomes. A sample of 3391 individuals who reported health risk in the areas of exercise and stress management were randomly assigned to 3 groups: telephonic coaching that applied Transtheoretical Model (TTM) tailoring for exercise and minimal tailoring (stage of change) for stress management; an Internet program that applied TTM tailoring for stress management and minimal tailoring for exercise; or a control group that received an assessment only. Participants were administered the Well-Being Assessment and, at baseline, had relatively low well-being scores (mean, 60.9 out of 100 across all groups). At 6 months, a significantly higher percentage of both treatment groups progressed to the Action stage for exercise, stress management, healthy diet, and total number of health risks, compared to the control group. Both treatment groups also demonstrated significantly greater improvements on overall well-being and the domains of emotional health, physical health, life evaluation, and healthy behaviors. There were no differences between the groups for 2 well-being domains: basic access to needs and work environment. These results indicate that scalable, tailored behavior change programs can effectively reduce health risk and accrue to improved well-being for participants.

Studies assessing the efficacy of juvenile justice interventions show small effects on recidivism and other outcomes. This article describes the development of a prototype of a multimedia computer-tailored intervention (Rise Above Your Situation) that relies on an evidence-based model of behavior change, the transtheoretical model, and expert system technology to deliver assessments, feedback, printed reports, and counselor reports with intervention ideas. In a feasibility test involving 60 system-involved youths and their counselors, evaluations of the program were favorable: 91.7% of youths agreed that the program could help them make positive changes, and 86.7% agreed that the program could give their counselor helpful information about them.

Background This study describes the development and validation of an individual-level well-being assessment and scoring method (IWBS) adapted from the population-based Gallup-Healthways Well-being Index across six domains (physical health, emotional health, healthy behaviors, work environment, basic access and overall life-evaluation). Methods Exploratory analyses were conducted on half the sample (n = 2036) using principal component analyses (PCA) with varimax rotation and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the second half of the sample (n = 2100) using structural equation modeling to validate the measurement model found by the PCA. Results Optimal results in the exploratory sample were achieved for a seven-factor solution, accounting for 52.0% of the variance. All domains displayed adequate reliability, ranging from .42 to .79. Conclusions The IWBS met each of the criteria that were established for measurement development. Findings indicated that there was initial support for using the IWBS to assess well-being at the individual level. The IWBS has acceptable psychometrics of reliability, internal and external validity.

OBJECTIVE:To develop a presenteeism assessment, the Well-Being Assessment for Productivity (WBA-P), that provides an informative evaluation of job performance loss due to well-being related barriers. METHOD:The WBA-P was developed using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis using survey data from 1827 employed individuals. Evidence of criterion-related validity was established using multivariate analysis of variance across measures of health and well-being. RESULTS:A hierarchical, two-factor model demonstrated good fit and included factors capturing productivity loss from personal reasons (WBA-PP) and work environment (WBA-PW). Significant interactions existed between these and previously validated presenteeism measures with respect to physical and emotional health, risk factors, and life evaluation. CONCLUSIONS:This initial psychometric evidence suggests that the WBA-P and its subscales are valid measures of presenteeism that capture actionable well-being-related performance barriers.

Background-This study reports on effectiveness trial outcomes of Health in Motion, a computer tailored multiple behavior intervention for adolescents.Methods-Using school as level of assignment, students (n=1800) from eight high schools in four states (RI, TN, MA, and NY) were stratified and randomly assigned to no treatment or a multi-media intervention for physical activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, and limited TV viewing between 2006 and 2007.Results-Intervention effects on continuous outcomes, on movement to action and maintenance stages, and on stability within action and maintenance stages were evaluated using random effects modeling.Effects were most pronounced for fruit and vegetable consumption and for total risks across all time points and for each behavior immediately post intervention.Co-variation of behavior change occurred within the treatment group, where individuals progressing to action or maintenance for one behavior were 1.4-4.2times more likely to make similar progress on another behavior. Conclusion-Health inMotion is an innovative, multiple behavior obesity prevention intervention relevant for all adolescents that relies solely on interactive technology to deliver tailored feedback.The outcomes of the effectiveness trial demonstrate both an ability to initiate behavior change across multiple energy balance behaviors simultaneously and feasibility for ease of dissemination.