Department of Health Promotion and Education

Karol Kumpfer, Ph.D.

Karol KumpferFaculty Position

Professor

Contact Information

Phone: (801) 581-7718
e mail  karol.kumpfer@health.utah.edu

Areas of Interest 

  • Delinquency Prevention
  • Alcohol and Drug Prevention Education

Classes I teach

  • HEDU 6100 (3) Program Evaluation (fall semester)
  • HEDU 6500 (3) Grant Writing (spring semester)
  • HEDU 7060 (3) Prevention Research: (On-line class for fall semester reviewing evidence-based interventions for health promotion)
  • HEDU 7070 (3) Family Strengthening Research (On-line class for spring semester)
  • HEDU 7071 (3) Strengthening Families Program (on-line class for those implementing SFP) Taught both semesters.

For all on-line classes go to UOnline for the welcome pages and syllabi.

Research Interests

  • Adolescent substance abuse prevention with an emphasis on family strengthening approaches to health interventions is my major research focus. I am the developer and researcher for the Strengthening Families Program (www.strengtheningfamiliesprogram.org)that has been found to be the most effective substance abuse prevention program by the International Cochrane Collaboration Review in Public Health and Medicine (Foxcroft et al., 2004). The junior high version of SFP 10-14 years has also been found in research by Dr. Richard Spoth at Iowa State University to be effective in reducing mental health problems and delinquency by about half based on a 10 year follow-up (Spoth, et al., 2005).
  • Family-based Health Promotion. Approaches to also include obesity, eating disorders, and diabetes. With other researchers (Susie Nanney, Tim Behrens, Justin Reel (sports psychology), Beverly Webber (nutrition), Julia Gossett) we have submitted a grant to NIDA to study the impact of adding a nutrition and physical activity component to the Strengthening Families Program.
  • Cultural and Gender Adapations of Evidence-based Health Promotion Programs. We have published research on cultural adaptations of my Strengthening Families Program across five research studies (Kumpfer, Alvarado, Smith, & Bellamy, 2003) and find 40% better retention of families but not better outcomes. For this reason we believe all health promotion programs should be culturally adapted. We have developed culturally adaptations for American Indians, Hispanics, African Americans, Asian and Pacific Islanders, and for different other European cultures-Swedish, Spanish, Dutch, British, Canadian, and Australians. We are now working on age adaptations for Preschoolers. We just finished research on an SFP 13-17 Years for high-risk American Indian youth for Raindancer Youth Services in New Mexico and Utah on a Center for Substance Abuse Treatment grant.
  • Community Coalition Approaches to Substance Abuse Prevention. I wrote the grants for the Mayor's Office Drug-free Communities Program and the grant for the Indian Walk-in Center. I am on their Steering Committees, Conference Planning Committees, etc. I published for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA, 1997) the PREVENT Model for Community Readiness. With graduate students, we have published on the importance of empowering leaders for the effectiveness of community coalitions (Kumpfer, et al. 1997).

Education

INSTITUTION AND LOCATION DEGREE (if applicable) YEAR(s) FIELD OF STUDY
Colorado Women's College B.A. 1966 Liberal Arts
University of Utah M.A. 1970 Psychology (Counseling)
University of Utah Ph.D. 1972 Psychology (Experimental)
University of Minnesota - Institute of Child Development Post-Ph.D. 1976 Child Development

Sample of publications

  • Kumpfer, K.L. (2002). Additional tools for measuring vulnerability to substance abuse. Contemporary Psychology, APA Review of Books, 47 (1), 82-85.
  • Kumpfer, K. L (2002). Prevention of alcohol and drug abuse: What works? Journal of Substance Abuse, 23 (3), 25-44 .
  • Kumpfer, K.L. (2002). A Health Practitioner's Guide to Evidence-based Substance Abuse Prevention. Health Research Services Administration (HRSA). Rockville, MD. 95 pages.
  • Kumpfer, K. L., Alvarado, R., Smith, P. & Bellamy, N. (2002). Cultural sensitivity in universal family-based prevention interventions. Prevention Science, 3 (3), 241-244.
  • Kumpfer, K.L., Alvarado, R, Tait, C., & Turner, C. (2002). Effectiveness of school-based family and children's skills training for substance abuse prevention among 6-8 year old rural children. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 16 (4), 65-71.
  • Kumpfer, K.L. &, Alder, S. (2003). Dissemination of research-based family interventions for the prevention of substance abuse. In Sloboda, Z., & Bukoski, W. (Eds.) Handbook for Drug Abuse Prevention. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.
  • Kumpfer, K.L, & Alvarado, R. (2003). Family strengthening approaches for the prevention of youth problem behaviors, American Psychologist, 58,(6/7), 457-465.
  • Kumpfer, K. L., & Weissberg R. (2003). Introduction to effective prevention approaches for positive youth development. American Psychologist, (special issue on prevention). Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
  • Nation, M., Kumpfer, K.L., Crusto, C.A., Wandersman, A., Seybolt, D. Morrissey-Kane, E. & Davino, K. (2003). What works in prevention: Principles of effective prevention programs., American Psychologist, 58(6/7), 449-456.
  • Weissberg R. & Kumpfer, K.L., & Seligman, M. (2003). Prevention that works for children and youth: An introduction. American Psychologist, 58 (6/7), 425-432.
  • Kumpfer, K.L. Alvarado, R., & Whiteside, H.O. (2003). Family-based interventions for substance abuse prevention. Substance Use and Misuse, 38 (11-13): 1759-1789.
  • Kumpfer, K.L. & Collings, S.J. (2003). Effectiveness of family-focused interventions for school-based prevention. In Robinson, K. (Ed.) Advances in School-Based Mental Health: Best Practices and Program Models. New Jersey: Civic Research Institute, Inc.
  • Kumpfer, K.L & Bluth, B. (2004). Parent/child transactional processes predictive of resilience or vulnerability to substance

Interesting personal information

Born and raised in New Jersey and California. Moved to Utah during high school by my family who came here for the skiing and mountains. I am skier, hiker, writer, spouse, and adoptive mother. I love to travel and good thing with my Strengthening Families Program now being implemented in all states in USA and a number of foreign countries.

I am asked to come to speak at conferences frequently. I have state and federal substance abuse administrative experience as I was the Utah State Deputy Director and from 1997 to 2000 the Director of the federal agency responsible for drug prevention-the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP).