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Raising Healthy Children

Public Health & Prevention: School-based
  Literature review updated June 2016.

Raising Healthy Children is a long-term school-based prevention program designed to increase students' bonds to school and prevent problem behaviors. The intervention begins in grade 1 and continues through grade 7. Teachers in those grades attend workshops in classroom management, cooperative learning methods and strategies to promote student reading, participation and interpersonal skills. In grades 4-6, the program provides after-school tutoring and includes family participation workshops, after-school homework clubs, summer camp, and retreats for students. This study followed students who began the program in 1st and 2nd grade and measured until grade 10. The program is based on the model used for the Seattle Social Development Project, which is a shorter intervention.
 
ALL
META-ANALYSIS
CITATIONS

Meta-analysis is a statistical method to combine the results from separate studies on a program, policy, or topic to estimate its effect on an outcome. WSIPP systematically evaluates all credible evaluations we can locate on each topic. The outcomes measured are the program impacts measured in the research literature (for example, impacts on crime or educational attainment). Treatment N represents the total number of individuals or units in the treatment group across the included studies.

An effect size (ES) is a standard metric that summarizes the degree to which a program or policy affects a measured outcome. If the effect size is positive, the outcome increases. If the effect size is negative, the outcome decreases. See Estimating Program Effects Using Effect Sizes for additional information on how we estimate effect sizes.

The effect size may be adjusted from the unadjusted effect size estimated in the meta-analysis. Historically, WSIPP adjusted effect sizes to some programs based on the methodological characteristics of the study. For programs reviewed in 2024 or later, we do not make additional adjustments, and we use the unadjusted effect size whenever we run a benefit-cost analysis.

Research shows the magnitude of effects may change over time. For those effect sizes, we estimate outcome-based adjustments, which we apply between the first time ES is estimated and the second time ES is estimated. More details about these adjustments can be found in our Technical Documentation.

Meta-Analysis of Program Effects
Outcomes measured No. of effect sizes Treatment N Effect sizes (ES) and standard errors (SE) Unadjusted effect size (random effects model)
ES SE Age ES p-value
Alcohol use before end of high school
Any use of alcohol by the end of high school, typically between ages 14 and 18.
8 1 480 -0.018 0.078 15 -0.049 0.535
Smoking before end of high school
Any smoking of tobacco by the end of high school, typically between ages 14 and 18.
 8 1 480 -0.017 0.105 15 -0.044 0.677
Cannabis use before end of high school
Any use of cannabis by the end of high school, typically between ages 14 and 18.
8 1 480 -0.035 0.088 15 -0.093 0.293
Disruptive behavior disorder symptoms
Clinical diagnosis of a disruptive behavior disorder (e.g., conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder) or symptoms measured on a validated scale.
 8 1 497 -0.018 0.065 9 -0.047 0.476
Traffic accident
An event in which a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, or other stationary obstruction, such as a tree.
 8 1 283 0.013 0.116 17 0.035 0.785

Citations Used in the Meta-Analysis

Brown, E.C., Catalano, R.F., Fleming, C.B., Haggerty, K.P., & Abbott, R.D. (2005). Adolescent substance use outcomes in the Raising Healthy Children project: a two-part latent growth curve analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73(4), 699-710.

Catalano, R.F., J.J. Mazza, T.W. Harachi, R.D. Abbott, K.P. Haggerty, and C.B. Fleming. (2003). Raising healthy children through enhancing social development in elementary school: Results after 1.5 years. Journal of School Psychology, 41(2), 143-164.

Haggerty, K., Fleming, C., Catalano, R., Harachi, T., & Abbott, R. (2006). Raising healthy children: Examining the impact of promoting healthy driving behavior within a social development intervention. Prevention Science, 7(3), 257-267.