The Seattle Social Development Project: An Implementation of the Raising Healthy Children Intervention

NCT ID: NCT04075019

Last Updated: 2019-09-03

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 808 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 1981-09-01
• Study Completion Date: 1993-06-30

Brief Summary

The Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) included a three-part intervention for teachers, parents, and students in grades 1 to 6. It was a universal prevention program that was tested in elementary schools serving children from high crime urban areas. The intervention trained teachers in proactive classroom management, interactive teaching, and cooperative learning. SSDP also offered training to parents in child behavior management, academic support, and skills to reduce risks for drug use. It provided training to children designed to affect interpersonal problem solving and refusal skills. These interventions were designed to reduce risks and increase protection at the individual, peer, family and school levels. The package of interventions was guided theoretically by the social development model. We hypothesized that training teachers to teach and manage their classrooms in ways that promote bonding to school, training parents to manage their families in ways that promote bonding to family and to school, and providing children with training in skills for social interaction would positively affect children's attitudes toward school, behavior at school, and academic achievement. These methods further sought to reduce children's opportunities and rewards for antisocial involvement. We thought that these changes would, in turn, set children on a different developmental trajectory observable in higher school achievement and fewer health-risk behaviors later in adolescence.

Detailed Description

The study asked whether delivering the intervention package over the full course of elementary school from grades 1 through 6 ("full intervention") had effects on academic and behavioral health outcomes; whether delivering the intervention just prior to adolescence in grades 5 and 6 only ("late intervention") had effects on academic and behavioral health outcomes; and whether offering parenting interventions only when participants were in grades 5 and 6 ("parenting only intervention") had effects on academic and behavioral health outcomes when compared with outcomes for students who were not assigned to intervention classrooms. This study examined this question by comparing outcomes for four separate groups, a "full intervention group" exposed to the interventions through grades 1-6, a "late intervention group" exposed to the interventions only in grades 5 and 6, a minimal "parent-training only group" (grades 5 and 6), and a control group that received no special intervention. The intervention package consisted of the following components:

Teacher Training In Classroom Instruction and Management included training in (a) proactive classroom management (establish consistent classroom expectations and routines at the beginning of the year; give clear, explicit instructions for behavior; recognize and reward desirable student behavior and efforts to comply; use methods that keep minor classroom disruptions from interrupting instruction); (b) interactive teaching (assess and activate foundation knowledge before teaching; teach to explicit learning objectives; model skills to be learned; frequently monitor student comprehension as material is presented; re-teach material when necessary); and (c) cooperative learning (involve small teams of students of different ability levels and backgrounds as learning partners; provide recognition to teams for academic improvement of individual members over past performance). Teacher training was provided to teachers of participants in full intervention classrooms in grades 1 through 6 and to teachers of participants in late intervention classrooms in grades 5 and 6.

Child Social and Emotional Skill Development included instruction in (a) interpersonal problem solving skills (communication; decision making; negotiation; conflict resolution) provided by teachers in classrooms assigned to the full intervention condition in grades 1 and 2; and (b) refusal skills (recognize social influences to engage in problem behaviors; identify consequences of problem behaviors; generate and suggest alternatives; invite peer(s) to join in alternatives) provided to participants in both the full intervention condition and the late intervention condition in grades 5 and 6.

Parent Training offered to parents of participants in the full intervention condition included instruction in (a) behavior management skills (observe and pinpoint desirable and undesirable child behaviors; teach expectations for behaviors; provide consistent positive reinforcement for desired behavior; provide consistent and moderate consequences for undesired behaviors) when participants were in grades 1 and 2; (b) academic support skills (initiate conversation with teachers about children's learning; help children develop reading and math skills; create a home environment supporting of learning) when participants were in grades 2 and 3; and (c) skills to reduce risks for drug use (establish a family policy on drug use; practice refusal skills with children; use self-control skills to reduce family conflict; create new opportunities in the family for children to contribute and learn) when participants were in grades 5 and 6. Parent training in skills to reduce risks for drug use was also offered to parents of participants in the late intervention condition and the parenting only condition when participants were in grades 5 and 6.

This resulted in a nonrandomized controlled trial with 4 conditions. The full intervention group received the intervention package from grade 1 through grade 6. The late intervention group received the intervention package in grades 5 and 6 only. The parent intervention only condition included students in schools assigned to receive only parent training in skills to reduce risks for drug use when their children were in grades 5 and 6, and the control group received no special intervention. This design was created in 1985 by nesting an intervention initiated in 1981 at first-grade entry within the clinical trial. For the present study, schools were assigned nonrandomly to conditions in the fall of 1985, and from that point, all fifth-grade students in the full and late intervention conditions participated in the same interventions. New schools added for the clinical trial when students entered grade 5 were matched to the original intervention and control schools with respect to grades served and inclusion of students drawn from high-crime neighborhoods of Seattle. Schools added for the panel study were assigned to conditions to achieve balanced numbers across conditions. During this study the Seattle School District used mandatory busing to achieve racial equality in schools. As a result, all schools in this study served heterogeneous population of students drawn from at least 2 different neighborhoods of the city. This practice reduced the risk that outcomes observed in the trial reflected contextual or neighborhood differences in the populations attending different schools.

Conditions

Adolescent Health; Adolescent Problem Behavior

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NON_RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: FACTORIAL
• Primary Study Purpose: PREVENTION
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

full intervention

students assigned to intervention classrooms in grades 1 through 4 and who remained in schools assigned to the intervention condition in grades 5 or 6

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

The Raising Healthy Children intervention, including teacher training, child skill development, and parent training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

late intervention

students in intervention classrooms in grades 5 and 6 only

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

The Raising Healthy Children intervention, including teacher training, child skill development, and parent training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

parent-training only

students whose parents were offered parent training only when their children were in grades 5 and 6 and no other intervention

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

The Raising Healthy Children intervention, including teacher training, child skill development, and parent training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

control

students in schools assigned to receive no intervention in grades 5 and 6 and who were not in intervention classrooms in grades 1 through 4

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Interventions

The Raising Healthy Children intervention, including teacher training, child skill development, and parent training

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Other Intervention Names

Seattle Social Development Project

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• All students enrolled in the fifth grade in 1985 in one of 18 Seattle public elementary schools selected for the study were eligible
• Eligible schools had to serve children from neighborhoods with above average crime rates
• Parents of eligible participants consented to their longitudinal participation

Exclusion Criteria

-

• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

NIH

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Washington

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

J. David Hawkins

Professor, School of Social Work, and Director, Social Development Research Group

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

J. David Hawkins, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Washington

References

Hawkins JD, Von Cleve E, Catalano RF Jr. Reducing early childhood aggression: results of a primary prevention program. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 1991 Mar;30(2):208-17. doi: 10.1097/00004583-199103000-00008.

Reference Type: RESULT

PMID: 2016224 (View on PubMed)

Hawkins JD, Catalano RF, Morrison DM, O'Donnell J, Abbott RD, Day LE, McCord J, Tremblay RE. The Seattle Social Development Project: Effects of the first four years on protective factors and problem behaviors. In: McCord J, Tremblay, RE, editors. Preventing antisocial behavior: Interventions from birth through adolescence. New York: Guilford Press; 1992. 139-61.

Reference Type: RESULT

O'Donnell J, Hawkins JD, Catalano RF, Abbott RD, Day LE. Preventing school failure, drug use, and delinquency among low-income children: long-term intervention in elementary schools. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 1995 Jan;65(1):87-100. doi: 10.1037/h0079598.

Reference Type: RESULT

PMID: 7733220 (View on PubMed)

Abbott RD, O'Donnell J, Hawkins JD, Hill KG, Kosterman R, Catalano RF. Changing teaching practices to promote achievement and bonding to school. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 1998 Oct;68(4):542-52. doi: 10.1037/h0080363.

Reference Type: RESULT

PMID: 9809114 (View on PubMed)

Hill KG, Steeger CM, Epstein M, Bailey JA, Hawkins JD. Addressing Suicide and Mental Health Through Universal Childhood Intervention: Results from The Seattle Social Development Project. Prev Sci. 2025 Oct 18. doi: 10.1007/s11121-025-01834-7. Online ahead of print.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 41108509 (View on PubMed)

Le VT, Bailey JA, Pandika DM, Epstein M, Satchell K. Long-term Effects of the Raising Healthy Children Intervention on Family Functioning in Adulthood: A Nonrandomized Controlled Trial. J Prev (2022). 2024 Feb;45(1):17-25. doi: 10.1007/s10935-023-00753-z. Epub 2023 Nov 16.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 37973659 (View on PubMed)

Bailey JA, Pandika D, Le VT, Epstein M, Steeger CM, Hawkins JD. Testing Cross-Generational Effects of the Raising Healthy Children Intervention on Young Adult Offspring of Intervention Participants. Prev Sci. 2023 Oct;24(7):1376-1385. doi: 10.1007/s11121-023-01583-5. Epub 2023 Sep 21.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 37733189 (View on PubMed)

Hill KG, Bailey JA, Steeger CM, Hawkins JD, Catalano RF, Kosterman R, Epstein M, Abbott RD. Outcomes of Childhood Preventive Intervention Across 2 Generations: A Nonrandomized Controlled Trial. JAMA Pediatr. 2020 Aug 1;174(8):764-771. doi: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.1310.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 32511669 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

R01DA003721

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

STUDY 22-355

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id