Research Project

• Dr. Brooke P. Randell (PI)
• Dr. Jerald R. Herting
• Dr. Leona L. Eggert
• Dr. Elaine A. Thompson

• Dr. Tatiana P. Tsarouk, Scientific Research Institute of Addictions (Moscow, Russia)
• Zoya Polack, UW Department of Slavic Languages and Literature

The goal of this project is to build on an ongoing project, PAYS—Parents And Youth with Schools, through an international collaboration with Dr. Tsarouk, a NIDA-supported International Fellow from Moscow, Russia. The parent project is testing a comprehensive prevention program for its effectiveness in enhancing self-esteem, life skills, and social support to improve youths’ school achievement and reduce drug involvement, suicide-risk behavior, aggression, and depression. A pilot test and feasibility study will be conducted with Russian-speaking youth attending high schools in Seattle and with high-risk Russian youth attending secondary schools in Moscow. Study materials, intervention modules, and procedures will be translated, validated and tested in this proposed expansion of the Reconnecting Youth preventive interventions program.