Evidence-Based Preventive Interventions – Are they Inclusive of Diverse Populations and Do they Build a More Equitable Future for ALL Youth, Families and Communities?

Pamela Buckley, PhD
University of Colorado Boulder

Velma McBride Murry, PhD
Vanderbilt University

ABSTRACT:
Historically, marginalized groups face persistent health and social inequities, underscoring the need for preventive interventions that are both effective and inclusive. This presentation synthesizes findings from two systematic reviews while situating them within a broader effort to modernize how prevention science defines, generates, and uses evidence. The first review (Buckley et al., 2023) examined evaluations of 885 youth preventive programs published from 2010–2021 and found incomplete reporting: 77% of studies reported race (with samples predominantly White or Black/African American), 64% reported ethnicity (in which roughly one-third of participants were Hispanic/Latino), and 31% of studies collapsed across race or categorized race with ethnicity. Fewer than one-third of studies (29%) reported participants’ income background. The second review (Buckley et al., 2025) analyzed 292 rigorous experimental evaluations published from 2010–2023 and found few culturally grounded programs (31%) and limited subgroup testing by race, ethnicity, economic disadvantage, geographic context, gender, sexual orientation, or nativity. Taken together, these findings highlight persistent gaps in the prevention science intervention literature – gaps that reflect constraints within existing evidence standards and the evidence ecosystems shaping grantmaking and scaling decisions. The presentation highlights opportunities to expand evidence definitions beyond internal validity to include external validity, cultural relevance, and health equity. It also outlines how employing responsible AI can support living reviews, expand reporting, automate data extraction, and enhance transparency. Advancing equity in prevention science will require modernized evidence infrastructures. The session concludes with a discussion on ideas for how to accelerate these changes.

Implementation Lessons Learned in Scaling Up a Network-Enhancement Suicide Prevention Model

Peter Wyman, PhD
University of Rochester

Bryan Yates, BA
University of Rochester

WIlliam Bevens, PhD
University of California San Diego

Gregory Aarons, PhD
University of California San Diego

Nicole Stadnick, PhD, MPH
University of California San Diego

ABSTRACT:
Suicide rates among US military members have steadily increased since 2010, and suicide is now the first- or second-leading manner of death across branches. The US Air Force and university-based prevention scientists launched a research-practice partnership (2014) to develop and test an ecologically-valid, unit-level program: Wingman-Guardian Connect (WGC). Prior to this partnership, no RCT-validated programs shown to reduce suicide risk across broad military populations were in wide use, and most training models were adapted from programs developed in other contexts.

This presentation will briefly review WGC’s interactive network enhancement training model and RCT results (N= 1500) showing WGC reduces suicide risk, depression symptoms and work problems. The primary focus will be on lessons being learned through ongoing force-wide expansion of WGC to 68 bases as the new Air Force Resilience Program. This presentation will summarize the design of an ongoing hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial (NIMH funded) testing WGC delivered by USAF personnel on 9 early-adopter bases (20,000 personnel exposed to WGC) along with findings from implementer feedback and performance assessments being used to refine the implementation package. We will also describe challenges and facilitators to implementation of this new program in the evolving USAF landscape impacting resources and personnel to deliver preventive interventions on installations.