Series: Research into Action

For coalitions, meetings provide the venue for strategic planning, collaboration, and overall preparation. Key stakeholders need to attend these meetings and leave feeling their time was well spent. Dissatisfaction could result in losing the participation of partners necessary to carry out a coalition’s strategic plan. The current research on organizational meetings is in some ways applicable to the meeting structure of coalitions. Given this, those in charge of calling and organizing coalition meetings should learn the key design issues that promote meeting effectiveness. 

 Fatalities from operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol remain a significant problem and community concern in the United States. A study published in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research provides further support that enacting and enforcing state minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) laws and impaired-driving policies reduces alcohol-related fatal crashes among young drivers. The findings in this research highlight the need for all states to implement such laws. The research underscores the continued need for community coalitions to focus efforts on advocating and enforcing state MLDA laws, to enact local related policy and to strengthen existing state laws.

New research published in the Journal of Immigrant Minority Health supports the theory that acculturation discrepancies exist and may impact Hispanic adolescents’ substance use behaviors. Acculturation refers to a process where individuals from a particular culture adopt the norms, values, attitudes and behaviors of individuals from another culture. Typically acculturation occurs when a person’s culture of origin gradually changes to become more similar to that of the host society or dominant culture, but the process can go both ways.

Community-based coalitions rely heavily on the participation of their diverse members. Given this, researchers have identified factors that influence initial decision to participate in coalition activities such as group identification, a drive to lead and organize, direct or indirect monetary benefits, and the desire to improve community well-being. Knowledge is important in developing a member base, what becomes more critical is the level at which those members participate. A study recently published in the American Journal of Community Psychology sought to answer this question, and provide insight on how to increase member participation within coalitions.