Because these problem behaviors appear to be strongly
related, to demonstrate overlap in their developmental course
and to share many of the same ecological predictors, particularly
those related to parent–child relationships and peer behavior,
Capaldi et al. (2002) suggested that family-based
prevention programs targeting antisocial behavior in childhood
may also show effects on other risk behaviors, such as HRSB.
The first goal of our study, then, was to test whether one such
intervention, the Family Check-Up (FCU), a family-based
prevention program originally designed to disrupt growth in
adolescent antisocial behavior and substance use, would also
reduce rates of HRSB in a community sample of young adults.
A second goal was to examine potential mechanisms underlying
a possible intervention effect. Our research helps address a
critical need in intervention research: despite increasing numbers
of longitudinal randomized prevention trials demonstrating
the efficacy of prevention programs for various problem
behaviors, there is a dearth of research on the mechanisms that
account for program effects (Liddle 2004; Sandler et al. 2011).
Finally, our third goal was to determine whether gender and
race (i.e., European American vs. African American) moderate
these effects, given gender and racial differences in mean levels
and etiology of HRSB (Doljanac and Zimmerman 1998;
Huebner and Howell 2003; Rodgers 1999).