PROCESS EVALUATION OF COMMUNITY COALITIONS FOR ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUG-ABUSE PREVENTION - A CASE-STUDY COMPARISON OF RESEARCHER-INITIATED AND COMMUNITY-INITIATED MODELS
G. Mansergh et al., PROCESS EVALUATION OF COMMUNITY COALITIONS FOR ALCOHOL AND OTHER DRUG-ABUSE PREVENTION - A CASE-STUDY COMPARISON OF RESEARCHER-INITIATED AND COMMUNITY-INITIATED MODELS, Journal of community psychology, 24(2), 1996, pp. 118-135
During the past decade, coalitions have been assumed to be central to
the structure and functioning of community health promotion and diseas
e prevention projects. However, there has been little empirical evalua
tion of community coalitions. The present paper presents case studies
of two different coalition models, one a coalition developed to suppor
t a community-based drug abuse prevention trial, and the other, a CSAP
Community Partnership Demonstration Program site. Comparison of the t
wo coalitions on key characteristics indicated that they were similar
except for their impetus for initiation (researcher- versus community-
initiated) and primary purpose (to support experimental program compon
ents versus to coordinate prevention programming and develop new preve
ntion services). Members of the two coalitions (n = 51 in the research
er-initiated, and n = 49 in the community-initiated coalition) respond
ed to a written survey that assessed immediate coalition process and a
ctivity outcomes, including perceptions of coalition efficiency, outco
me efficacy, interagency coordination, and benefits of involvement. Af
ter controlling for demographic differences, the two groups of coaliti
on members were similar, overall, on the measures of immediate outcome
s. Univariate analyses indicated only one difference: members of the r
esearcher-initiated coalition had higher ratings of perceived action c
ommittee effectiveness than did members of the community-initiated coa
lition. The results suggest that the impetus for initiation and primar
y purpose of a coalition may not be as important as other factors in i
nfluencing immediate process and activity outcomes.