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The Duke Transdisciplinary Prevention Research Center (TPRC) was established in 2003 with a $6 million, five-year award from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to conduct innovative research on new strategies to prevent adolescent drug abuse.
Under the leadership of Kenneth A. Dodge, director of the Duke Center for Child and Family Policy, and Philip R. Costanzo, a leading social psychologist of peer influences, a group of scholars from a variety of disciplines study factors related to the prevention of substance use in the TPRC. Susan Alexander, the former director of South Carolina 's Center for Safe Schools, provides direction to the three major programs of research and three supporting cores within the TPRC.
Mission:
The TPRC seeks to identify the peer influences associated with adolescent substance use and to change the way that substance abuse prevention messages are presented to young people. As part of this mission, the TPRC identifies and implements innovative and creative solutions to the pervasive problem of adolescent drug use.
Research Agenda
Within the TPRC, three cores of research investigate:
- Adolescent social cognition and self regulation
- Interpersonal processes of peer influence
- Institutional peer effects, such as those associated with school placement
Program 1
Program 1 addresses the need to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the role of social cognition and self-regulation in adolescents' use of alcohol, and other drugs. Investigators are examining situations that are most likely to trigger drug use among middle-school and high-school children, how individual differences in personal goals and styles of pursuing goals influence the likelihood that youth will experiment with drugs, and how to develop interventions to reduce risk through these psychological and social mechanisms.
Program 2
The goal of Program 2 is to translate psychological research on interpersonal peer influence processes into the creation and evaluation of interventions to shape young adolescents' attitudes toward drug use. Program 2 aims to characterize behavior styles that contribute to effective leadership within adolescent peer groups.
Program 3
Program 3 examines the influence social institutions can have on the composition of peer groups. Institutional design policies at the macro-level, such as school choice initiatives, the timing of transition to middle school, and neighborhood reinvestment incentives, may indirectly influence adolescent drug use by altering opportunities for drug-use diffusion.
Support Cores
Three support cores provide an enriching environment in which to study the research questions addressed by the TPRC.
Administrative Core
The Administrative Core creates an intellectual climate bringing together diverse scholars with practitioners and policy makers to translate basic science into prevention science. The core provides support for the executive committee as well as external scientific advisors and practice advisors who help shape the Center's direction.
Data Core
The Data Core supports and strengthens transdisciplinary work by providing resources and expertise that contribute to developing, executing, analyzing, and publishing prevention research. Members of the Data Core consult and, when appropriate, collaborate with Center investigators to ensure that TPRC will produce rigorous and innovative research.
Practice Core
The Practice Core supports research scientists as they translate basic scientific knowledge into creative interventions, curricula, practices, and policies by assisting research scientists with the logistics of research necessary to translate basic science into new prevention science.
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