Community sector and gender differences in the perception of community-based prevention

Community-based collaborative prevention often relies on the cooperation of individuals from different community sectors. The attitudes of those associates regarding certain domains of collaborative prevention may influence the degree to which this collaboration is successful. The current study is an analysis of the attitudes of 196 designated leaders (key) leaders) in 21 communities of the Pennsylvania Communities That Care (CTC) Project. Questions examined include whether key leaders differ by community sector and/or gender in their perceptions of prevention-related issues. ANOVAs were carried out to determine whether there were such group differences, and results demonstrate that collaborators do in fact vary by both community sector and gender with respect to their attitudes toward domains related to prevention. One implication is that differences in these attitudes should be recognized when establishing and constructing collaborative boards.