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NREPP Glossary

The following definitions have been drawn from numerous sources and are tailored specifically for content on the NREPP Web site. The terms defined here may have slightly different meanings in other settings.

Implementation

The use of a prevention or treatment intervention in a specific community-based or clinical practice setting with a particular target audience.

Implementation team

A core set of individuals charged with providing guidance through full implementation of the intervention. This team helps ensure engagement of the stakeholders, increases readiness for implementation, ensures fidelity to the intervention, monitors outcomes, and addresses barriers to implementation.

Indicated

One of the three categories (Universal, Selective, Indicated) developed by the Institute of Medicine to classify preventive interventions. Indicated prevention strategies focus on preventing the onset or development of problems in individuals who may be showing early signs but are not yet meeting diagnostic levels of a particular disorder.

Internal validity

The degree to which the intervention or experimental manipulation was the cause of any observed differences or changes in behavior.

Internalizing behaviors

Behaviors that reflect an individual's transfer of external social or situational stresses to emotional, psychological, or physical symptoms. One well-known internalizing behavior is a child's development of stomach cramps when the parents argue; another is insomnia during a high-stress situation at work. Reduction of internalizing behaviors is a frequently used measure of the success of treatment or intervention for mental or emotional disorders.

Intervention

A strategy or approach intended to prevent an undesirable outcome (preventive intervention), promote a desirable outcome (promotion intervention) or alter the course of an existing condition (treatment intervention).