ABSTRACT
The numerous available articles, chapters, and books concerning prevention program evaluation all agree on at least two core points. First, it is essential to outline a clear theoretical model of prevention prior to developing the program or designing the intervention (e.g., Hansen, 2002; Perry, 1999; Prevention Research Steering Committee, 1993). This model facilitates identification of the variables to be assessed in the evaluation. These will include not only the outcome variables but also the components of the program assumed to affect outcome and the mediating, “proximal” variables believed to link the program and the “distal” outcome. For example, several interrelated questions of interest in an evaluation might be whether critical thinking about culture (important from a theoretical perspective; see chapters 9 and 10) was indeed taught in an engaging way (program fidelity), whether this led to a change in attitudes about the slender beauty ideal (proximal, mediating variable) at posttest, and whether this in turn can be linked to a reduced incidence of eating disordered behavior at 1-year follow-up (distal, prevention outcome).
