2018 · Book chapter · English
Community-Based Prevention of Youth Behavioral Health Problems
Fagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Farrington, D. P.
Fagan, A. A., Hawkins, J. D., Catalano, R. F., & Farrington, D. P. (2018). Community-Based Prevention of Youth Behavioral Health Problems. Oxford University Press. doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190299217.003.0001
Summary
Opening chapter of the 2018 Oxford University Press book Communities That Care: Building Community Engagement and Capacity to Prevent Youth Behavior Problems. It sets the frame in public-health terms: substance use, delinquency, violence, school dropout and mental-health problems in childhood and adolescence carry social and financial costs that prevention can reduce. Prevention scientists across disciplines have developed and tested interventions that lower risk factors and raise protective factors, and a growing number have been shown to prevent the onset or reduce the frequency of several problems at once. These evidence-based interventions are, however, rarely used by community organisations. The chapter asks how community prevention systems – CTC in particular – can build local capacity to implement them, describes CTC’s core components and the evidence for its effectiveness, and compares it with other community-based prevention systems. The best single introduction for a European decision-maker who wants the logic of the model before the detail of its five phases.