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

NCT04075019 | Completed

• 2 other identifiers: STUDY 22-355R01DA003721
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 808
• Locations: 0 countries
• Sites: N/A

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.

Conditions

Adolescent Health; Adolescent Problem Behavior

Keywords

Proactive classroom management; Interactive teaching; Cooperative learning; Interpersonal problem solving skills; Refusal skills; Behavior management skills; Academic support skills; Skills to reduce risks for drug use

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (5)

• substance use

  Youth substance use was assessed by having all study participants complete standardized survey instruments from the University of Michigan Monitoring the Future survey annually from ages 10 to 16 and again at age 18, designed to assess children's substance use. Items from surveys were combined into scales assessing youth self-reported onset and use of specific substances in the year and 30 day period prior to each survey administration.

  annually at ages 10 through 16 and again at age 18 (1985 through 1991 and in 1993)

• delinquency

  Youth delinquency was assessed by having all study participants complete standardized survey instruments from the University of Colorado National Youth Survey annually from ages 10 to 16 and again at age 18, designed to assess children's delinquent behavior. Items from surveys were combined into scales assessing youth onset of delinquency and number of different delinquent acts self-reported by youth for the year prior to each survey administration..

  annually at ages 10 through 16 and again at age 18 (1985 through 1991 and in 1993)

• school misbehavior

  Youth school misbehavior was assessed by having all study participants complete standardized survey instruments annually from ages 10 to 16 and again at age 18, designed to assess children's behavioral outcomes. Teachers completed the Teacher Report Form of the Child Behavior Checklist, a standardized instrument developed to measure children's behaviors, annually from ages 11 to 14. Items from surveys were combined into scales assessing youths' self-reported onset and involvement in misbehavior at school and teacher reported involvement of the participant in misbehavior at school in the year prior to each survey administration.

  annually at ages 10 through 16 and again at age 18 (1985 through 1991 and in 1993)

• aggression and violence

  Youth aggression and violence was assessed by having all study participants complete standardized survey instruments annually from ages 10 to 16 and again at age 18, designed to assess children's behavioral outcomes. Teachers completed the Teacher Report Form of the Child Behavior Checklist, a standardized instrument developed to measure children's behaviors, annually from ages 11 to 14. Items from surveys were combined into scales assessing youths' self-reported onset and involvement in aggressive and violent behavior and teacher reported involvement of the participant in aggressive and violent behavior in the year prior to each survey administration.

  annually at ages 10 through 16 and again at age 18 (1985 through 1991 and in 1993)

• school achievement

  Youth school achievement was assessed by having all study participants complete standardized survey instruments annually from ages 10 to 16 and again at age 18, designed to assess children's behavioral outcomes. Teachers completed the Teacher Report Form of the Child Behavior Checklist, a standardized instrument developed to measure children's behaviors, annually from ages 11 to 14. Items from surveys were combined into scales assessing youths' self-reported level of achievement at school and teacher reported level of participant achievement in the year prior to each survey administration.

  annually at ages 10 through 16 and again at age 18 (1985 through 1991 and in 1993)

Study Arms (4)

full intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

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

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

late intervention

EXPERIMENTAL

students in intervention classrooms in grades 5 and 6 only

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

parent-training only

EXPERIMENTAL

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

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

control

NO INTERVENTION

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

Interventions

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

Also known as: Seattle Social Development Project

full intervention; late intervention; parent-training only

Eligibility Criteria

• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• 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

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Washington: lead
• National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): collaborator

Related Publications (8)

• 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.

  PMID: 2016224 RESULT

• 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.

  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.

  PMID: 7733220 RESULT

• 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.

  PMID: 9809114 RESULT

• 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 Nov;26(7):1033-1044. doi: 10.1007/s11121-025-01834-7. Epub 2025 Oct 18.

  PMID: 41108509 DERIVED

• 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.

  PMID: 37973659 DERIVED

• 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.

  PMID: 37733189 DERIVED

• 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.

  PMID: 32511669 DERIVED

Study Officials

• J. David Hawkins, PhD

  University of Washington

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: PREVENTION
• Intervention Model: FACTORIAL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Professor, School of Social Work, and Director, Social Development Research Group

Model Details: This study examined four separate groups, a "full intervention group" exposed to the interventions in grades 1 through 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.

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: August 27, 2019
• First Posted: August 30, 2019
• Study Start: September 1, 1981
• Primary Completion: June 13, 1987
• Study Completion: June 30, 1993
• Last Updated: September 3, 2019

Record last verified: 2019-08

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL
• Time Frame: Data first became available in 1986 and are available on an ongoing basis.
• Access Criteria: Selected, de-identified data are shared with collaborating colleagues at other institutions after obtaining signed "fair use" and confidentiality agreements from the collaborator wherein they agree to work with the study PIs and abide by study-related human subjects and consent agreements, and data security procedures. Shared datasets are to be used for analyses planned for developing papers for publication. The PI is responsible for obtaining signed agreements and reviewing and approving data sharing requests.