Linking the Interests of Families and Teachers (LIFT)

COUNTRY: UNITED STATES

REGION: AMERICAS

Implementer: The Oregon Social Learning Center 

Partners: The National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH), Springfield Public School districts 

Program Overview: LIFT is an intervention launched in 2004, which was designed for elementary school students and their families living in neighborhoods with high rates of juvenile delinquency¹. The program seeks to reduce delinquency by targeting certain child and parent behaviors, namely child oppositional, defiant, and antisocial behavior and parent discipline monitoring². 

Program Design: LIFT is composed of three components²:

1. Classroom-based child social and problem skills training
2. Playground-based behavior modification (recess monitoring)
3. Group-delivered parent training

Evaluation³: LIFT was evaluated using a randomized controlled, clinical trial in which 361 students and their parents from six elementary schools participated. The study followed students into middle school and assessed various aspects of their behavior, specifically the age of onset for police arrest and substance use. This was accomplished using survival analyses, which were conducted using logistic regression for substance use and Cox regression for police arrest.

Key findings3: The evaluation demonstrated that middle school students who had participated in LIFT while in elementary school demonstrated lower levels of alcohol use and a higher average age for police arrest in comparison with the control group. No differences were observed for the onset of tobacco or marijuana use.

Program Website: http://www.oslc.org/projects/linking-interests-families-teachers/

References:

1. Reid, J. B., Eddy, J. M., Fetrow, R. A., & Stoolmiller, M. (1999). Description and immediate impacts of a preventive intervention for conduct problems.American Journal of Community Psychology, 27(4), 483-518.
2. Eddy, J. M., Reid, J. B., & Fetrow, R. A. (2000). An Elementary school-based prevention program targeting modifiable antecedents of youth delinquency and violence linking the interests of families and teachers (LIFT). Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 8(3),165-176.
3. Eddy, J. M., Reid, J. B., Stoolmiller, M., & Fetrow, R. A. (2003). Outcomes during middle school for an elementary school-based preventive intervention for conduct problems: Follow-up results from a randomized trial. Behavior Therapy, 34(4), 535-552.

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