Program Profile: Fast Track

Study 1

Conduct Problems

The evaluation by the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group (2002) found that at the end of grade 3, participants in the treatment group were significantly less likely than control group participants to exhibit evidence of serious conduct problems. Five of the eight variables for child conduct yielded significant main effects. Teacher and parent ratings on child conduct revealed significantly lower conduct problems for the intervention group, compared with the control group. Peer nominations of aggressive-disruptive behavior and one parent measure (the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children) yielded no significant differences between the two groups.

Social Cognition

At the end of grade 3, the proportion of competent responses on a social problem-solving measure was marginally higher for intervention children than for the control group. In addition, intervention children generated marginally fewer hostile attributions about peer intentions than the control group children.

Academic Progress

At the end of grade 3, there were no significant differences between the groups on reading or on grades for language arts or mathematics.

Child Social Competence

At the end of grade 3, there were no significant effects of intervention on the sociometric measures of peer social preference and prosocial behavior.

Parenting Behavior

At the end of grade 3, there was less parental endorsement of physical punishment for children’s problem behaviors and greater self-reported improvement in parenting behavior, compared with reports of the control group.

Study 1

The Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group (2002) evaluated the comprehensive Fast Track program during its first 3 years. Subjects attended 54 schools in four geographic sites serving neighborhoods identified as high risk on the basis of crime and poverty statistics. The schools at each geographic site were divided into two sets, matched on size, ethnic composition, achievement scores, and percentage of free lunch recipients. Half of the schools were randomly assigned to an intervention group; the other half served as the control group. A multistaged screening included all kindergarten children in three successive cohorts at all four schools. The screening included teacher ratings of disruptive behavior followed by parent ratings of child behavior at home. More than 9,000 kindergarteners were screened, and those who scored in the top 40 percent on a teacher scale of conduct problems were screened further, using parent-reported behavior scores.

Children with the highest composite screen scores were selected to form a sample size of 891 (intervention=445; control=446). The sample was 51 percent African American, 47 percent European American, and 2 percent other ethnicities. Only 32 percent of the participants were from middle-class families. Analysis of demographic and behavioral variables at baseline indicated no significant differences between the two groups. A normative sample of 387 children was also followed to serve as a basis of comparison with the high-risk sample.

A curriculum in social and emotional development revised from the Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies (PATHS) curriculum was implemented in grades 1, 2, and 3 at the intervention schools. The Fast Track program also included parent training, home visiting, academic tutoring, and child social skills training along with additional parent and child group training that occurred weekly in grade 1, biweekly in grade 2, and monthly in grade 3. After grade 1, tutoring and other individualized support components of the program were offered if individual children and families met a risk-based criterion for each component. A Fast Track Educational Coordinator provided support and consultation for teachers and monitored implementation of the PATHS curriculum at intervention schools.

Data was collected from parents, teachers, and children each summer following grades 1, 2, and 3. Outcomes at grade 3 included conduct problems, social cognition, academic progress, child social competence, and parenting behavior.