A prestigious national award was recently dedicated to an Iowa State professor who lends a hand in strengthening families.

Richard Spoth, a researcher for the Institute of Social and Behavioral Research, is the recipient of the MERIT award.

Spoth is in charge of the Capable Families and Youth (CaFaY) project, which evaluates family and youth strengthening programs for families in northeast Iowa.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) honored Spoth with a MERIT award, which will extend his research another five years. NIDA also provided part of the study’s initial funding of $5.3 million to be applied over five years.

The study focuses on the comparison of three groups of seventh-grade students.

The first group will receive life-skills training at school through a program developed by Cornell University Medical Center. These students and their families will also participate in the Strengthening Families Program, which was designed by ISU’s Institute for Social and Behavioral Research.

“The life-skills training will teach the students problem-solving skills, communication skills, drug resistance skills and effective ways of resisting peer pressure,” Spoth said. “The Strengthening Families Program involves both the parents and the students and focuses on clarifying family values and building a stronger family.”

The second group of students will receive only the life-skills training. The parents of the students in the third group will receive reading material developed by ISU’s extension service, which will teach the parents effective ways of preventing behavioral problems in youth.

Spoth said the award will be instrumental to further study.

“An award like this one is very important because it will allow us to follow these students over a period of 10 years. In general, we will look for significant differences which can be directly attributed to the intervention,” Spoth said.