SDRG Projects

Current Projects Past Projects

Research projects at SDRG seek to harness prevention science to improve lives among diverse populations. We do this by conducting research in multiple, coordinated areas, including:

Seeking to understand the underlying causes of behavior, health, and social problems
Developing and testing interventions designed to prevent behavior, health, and social problems
Understanding how to take effective interventions out of the research setting and into the real world
Studying service systems and working to improve them

Current Projects

Suicide and overdose Harm Impact Evaluation using Linked Data (SHIELD) (2024)

The SHIELD project is a cooperative agreement between Johns Hopkins University (with PI Holly Wilcox) and SDRG (with Co-PI Marina Epstein), with the potential for reducing rising suicide and overdose rates in the United States. SHIELD harmonizes data from 29 existing prevention trials and studies—including 42,509 participants—to explore the impact of interventions on suicidal thoughts...

Northwest Center for Family Support: Building Statewide Capacity to Implement Evidence-Based Interventions in Families with Opioid Use Disorder (2022)

Many children across Washington State have parents or caregivers suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD). These children are at increased risk for trauma and poor developmental outcomes. Although caregivers with OUD love their children, their addiction, often accompanied by health problems and a history of trauma, can make it difficult to consistently respond to children’s...

SSDP – Health and Functioning in New Midlife Adults (2021)

This study seeks to better understand significant life transitions among those now in midlife, about ages 40 to 60. Age-related changes in family, work, and community life can be positive for some, but many experience emotional challenges, physical health declines, and high stress in adapting to new social roles. Little is known, however, about how...

Culture, Longitudinal Patterns, and Safety Promotion of Handgun Carrying Among Rural Adolescents: Implications for Injury Prevention (2020)

This project aims to identify the contexts, antecedents, and consequences of handgun carrying among adolescents who live in rural communities in order to inform culturally appropriate and community-specific interventions. The study will focus on communities where high levels of firearm access and mortality, cultural influences, attitudes, and risks associated with youth handgun carrying are understudied...

The Young Adult Study (2020)

This project will examine the impact of a 12.5-year-long, relationship-based, professional mentoring program, Friends of the Children (FOTC), within the context of an existing multisite randomized controlled trial (RCT; FOTC versus control). The research trial (The Child Study) was funded by the National Institutes of Health through the National Institute of Child Health and Human...

Assessing the Needs of Parents Who Use Marijuana in Order to Ensure That Current Parenting Interventions are Effective for Children of Marijuana Users (2019)

This study will build on previous research that shows that parents in legalized marijuana contexts are unsure how to discuss marijuana use with their children. Effective communication is a key element of successful parenting strategies to prevent youth substance use, including marijuana. Children of marijuana-using parents are at especially high risk and effective prevention programs...

Northwest Prevention Technology Transfer Center (NWPTTC) (2018)

This is an important collaboration between SDRG; the Prevention Science Graduate Program in the Washington State University Department of Human Development; and the University of Nevada, Reno, Center for the Application of Substance Abuse Technologies, to specialize in community-activated prevention and advance the ability of the region’s substance abuse prevention workforce to apply prevention science...

A Randomized Trial of Letting Go and Staying Connected, an Interactive Parenting Intervention to Reduce Risky Behaviors Among Students (2017)

SDRG is working with Washington State University on a five-year grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) to examine how parents can best support their children while in college. The study will assess the effects of a handbook WSU will give to parents, Letting Go and Staying Connected with your WSU Student, which...

A Pragmatic Trial of Parent-focused Prevention in Pediatric Primary Care (2017)

This UG3-UH3 application tests the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing Guiding Good Choices, a universal, evidence-based anticipatory guidance curriculum for parents of early adolescents, in three large, integrated healthcare systems serving socioeconomically diverse families. This intervention reduced adolescent alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use; depression; and delinquent behavior in two previous randomized controlled trials. It also...

SSDP-TIP – Cannabis Legalization: Youth Substance Use, Conduct Problems, and HIV Risk Behavior (2015)

This study used the SSDP-TIP sample (see separate description) to examine links between the legalization of marijuana for adults age 21 or over in Washington State and patterns of marijuana use and related risk behaviors among youth. It also examined links between marijuana legalization for adults and changes in risk factors for youth marijuana use,...

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