Abstract
The Massachusetts State Needs Assessment Project (MassSNAP) developed and assessed social indicator-based measures of substance abuse consequences, risk, and protection at the town level. Structural equation models using longitudinal data showed that higher levels of the risk index were associated with subsequent increases in the index of substance abuse consequences, when autocorrelation and reciprocal and contemporaneous associations of these indexes were controlled for. Similar models indicated that (1) higher levels of the diversity of non-profit, community-based organizational activities were associated with subsequent declines in the risk index; and (2) an increase in the diversity of these activities for two successive years was also associated with subsequent declines in the risk index. The theoretical and planning implications of these measures are discussed.