Rural Educational Achievement Project

Prevention research postulates that interventions must be delivered early in life to disrupt the developmental pathways leading to adverse adolescent and adult outcomes, such as substance use and poor mental health status. Following on this theory, the Rural Educational Achievement Project (REAP) is a comprehensive, multilevel approach to prevention that involves a universal prevention program (All Stars, Jr.), a selective program delivered in the summer (Camp GUTS: Gearing Up To Success), and a family program (Duke Family Coping Power). REAP targets fourth grade students enrolled in elementary school.

The goal of this program is to promote healthy mental and social development and academic success.

Program efficacy was measured through the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention's four predictor variables: 1) academic achievement, 2) self-regulation, 3) social competence, and 4) parental investment. Findings for academic achievement indicated that the family and summer conditions made greater gains than the All Stars, Jr.-only and control conditions in scores on a test of mathematics. Subjects in the family and summer programs also showed significantly higher levels of school bonding than their counterparts did. Findings for self-regulation indicated that the summer and All Stars, Jr., program had significant effects in decreasing externalizing behaviors. However, the results for social competence indicated that the family condition had lower baseline levels of social competence than the other conditions had. The results for the parenting program suggested that the family condition had significant increases in the number of activities between parents and children.