A recent National Institute of Mental Health workshop examined several prominent conceptual models as guides to high-quality preventive intervention research. The conceptual models were compared in terms of four methodological issues, i.e., specifying outcomes to be measured, specifying risk factors or change mechanisms, identifying intervention participants, and designing interventions. This article highlights answers to the methodological linkage questions from the point of view of various models and their implications for preventive intervention research.
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) recently convened a workshop to discuss how alternative conceptual models might inform research on interventions to prevent mental disorders or promote mental health. Particular attention was paid to the processes and mechanisms that mediate these outcomes and to measures of related emotional and behavioral problems. The workshop opened with a discussion of the utility of the contemporary public health model in preventive intervention research. (The NIMH is part of the United States Public Health Service.) This was followed by an examination of two conceptual models aimed at individual-level changecompetence building through interpersonal cogntive problem solving and a stressful life events conceptualization. The third part of the workshop focused on community-level conceptual modelsincluding a potential application of the Stanford Five City Project to the prevention of anxiety disorders, a transactional model emphasizing social regularities as the optimal point of intervention, and an empowerment model. The final segment of the workshop focused on new directions for prevention models, including genetic contributions to mental disorder or mental health outcomes, knowledge of psychological vulnerability gained from animal research, and developmental psychopathology.
The models presented at the workshop vary widely in their level of development and hence the degree to which they inform current reseach. Some are in the early stages of conceptualization and articulation (e.g., a developmental psychopathology model, Cicchetti, 1990, and a social regularities model, Seidman, 1990), whereas several already drive ongoing experimental preventive intervention research (e.g . , an interpersonal competencies model, Shure, 1990).