Prevention Science in School Settings


Book Description

This straightforward volume makes a strong, practical, research-based case for integrating prevention programs into middle and high schools. Written by experts in prevention science and education, it examines educational goals and prevention of risky behaviors as parallel and complementary processes and provides evidence for health-promoting schools as a critical forum for student development. Chapters show the benefits of this collaboration, as instructors engage with prevention content, prevention scientists study schools and create interventions, and counselors develop and implement activities, resulting in improved academic, social, and health outcomes. Examples of successful prevention strategies address personal and public health issues as varied as substance abuse, dating violence, dropping out, and suicide. Among the topics covered: Engaging school leaders in prevention Developing school-based prevention curricula Scaling up evidence-based prevention interventions and practices Conducting prevention research and evaluation in schools Promoting a positive school climate and culture Reducing disruptive behavior, violence, and bullying Child and school psychologists, administrators, teachers, school counselors, and prevention specialists will find significant common ground in Prevention Science in School Settings. The breadth and depth of coverage point to new, multidisciplinary directions in health education, school climate/culture, and positive youth development.




Defining Prevention Science


Book Description

Whoever coined the adage "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" could not have known how important this adage would become. The challenge of altering the health trajectories of poor lifestyle decisions for such behaviors as smoking, drinking and using illicit drugs, violence, dropping out of school, engagement in risky sexual behaviors and crime through prevention research has led to a new discipline, prevention science. Defining Prevention Science covers this emerging field of science: its goals, its conceptual and theoretical foundations, its methods and especially its utility. Not content to simply differentiate the field from its close allies: epidemiology, psychology, neuroscience, sociology, economics, the text explains how these many disciplines enhance each other at both research and intervention levels and how prevention science draws on these biological, behavioral and social sciences to create an innovative knowledge base that has provided cost-effective, evidence-based prevention interventions and policies. To this end, familiar developmental benchmarks are recast in prevention/health promotion context, from the crucial importance of adolescence in encountering and deterring high-risk behaviors to the risks and resiliencies of single-mother families. An international group of contributors offers current findings, up-to-date methods for effective evidence-based interventions and improvements in research technologies in these key areas: Physical, cognitive and emotional vulnerability across the life course. The roles of developmental influences in prevention. Intervention development, delivery and implementation. Bringing the intervention approach to research design. New directions in analytic methods. Cost analysis and policy implications. Advances in Prevention Science: Defining Prevention Science aims to inspire further refinements in the field and encourage communication among researchers in its own and related disciplines, including public health, epidemiology, psychology, and criminology. This is the first volume in the series, Advances in Prevention Science, that provides the framework for other volume that will focus on such issues as: Prevention Science in School Settings: Complex Relationships and Processes; Preventing Crime and Violence and The Prevention of Substance Use.




School Safety and Violence Prevention


Book Description

This timely book presents a data-driven approach to preventing and responding to school violence. As school violence receives increasing attention across the nation, the application of scientific knowledge is critical. For maximum effectiveness, transdisciplinary teams should use school data, logic models, and theories of change to design, implement, and evaluate interventions. Collaboration among key stakeholders is also necessary to address both structural and systemic barriers to success with violence prevention. With concrete methods for promoting safety in primary and secondary educational settings, this book will engage and enable school faculty, counselors, administrators, and other partners to better understand areas of common interest and learn how to work together more effectively.




The Cambridge Handbook of International Prevention Science


Book Description

"The Cambridge Handbook of International Prevention Science offers a comprehensive global overview on prevention science with the most up-to-date research from around the world. Over 100 scholars from 27 different countries (including Australia, Bhutan, Botswana, India, Israel, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Spain and Thailand) contributed to this volume, which covers a wide range of topics important to prevention science. It includes major sections on the foundations of prevention as well as examples of new initiatives in the field, detailing current prevention efforts across the five continents. A unique and innovative volume, The Cambridge Handbook of International Prevention Science is a valuable resource for established scholars, early professionals, students, practitioners and policy-makers"--




Handbook of Youth Prevention Science


Book Description

The Handbook of Youth Prevention Science describes current research and practice in mental health preventive interventions for youth. Traditional prevention research focused on preventing specific disorders, e.g. substance abuse, conduct disorders, or criminality. This produced "silos" of isolated knowledge about the prevention of individual disorders without acknowledging the overlapping goals, strategies, and impacts of prevention programs. This Handbook reflects current research and practice by organizing prevention science around comprehensive systems that reach across all disorders and all institutions within a community. Throughout the book, preventive interventions are seen as complementary components of effective mental health programs, not as replacements for therapeutic interventions. This book is suitable for researchers, instructors and graduate students in the child and adolescent mental health professions: school psychology, school counseling, special education, school social work, child clinical psychology and the libraries serving them. It is also suitable for graduate course work in these fields.




Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions in Educational Settings


Book Description

Schools and school staff play a critical role in the cognitive, behavioral, emotional, social, and interpersonal development of children and adolescents. This second edition of Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions in Educational Settings teaches readers to think strategically about the individual and plan for effective and specific interventions based on the student’s age, developmental level, and presenting problems. It is written by forward-thinking, established professionals whose writing represents the state-of-the-art in cognitive behavioral interventions in educational settings, and presents evidence-based interventions for a variety of issues commonly seen in schools. Including both innovative and well-established approaches, they offer assessment methods and interventions for a variety of issues and concerns faced by school-aged youth. The use of case studies and session outlines, as well as the balance of theoretical and clinical concerns, enhances this book’s value as a reference for both clinicians and students. New to this edition are topics on cyber-bullying, parent and school consultation, school-wide positive behavioral support, and bipolar disorder. This is the ideal reference for those who wish to select and utilize precise interventions in school settings.




Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development in Children and Youth


Book Description

Healthy mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) development is a critical foundation for a productive adulthood. Much is known about strategies to support families and communities in strengthening the MEB development of children and youth, by promoting healthy development and also by preventing and mitigating disorder, so that young people reach adulthood ready to thrive and contribute to society. Over the last decade, a growing body of research has significantly strengthened understanding of healthy MEB development and the factors that influence it, as well as how it can be fostered. Yet, the United States has not taken full advantage of this growing knowledge base. Ten years later, the nation still is not effectively mitigating risks for poor MEB health outcomes; these risks remain prevalent, and available data show no significant reductions in their prevalence. Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development in Children and Youth: A National Agenda examines the gap between current research and achievable national goals for the next ten years. This report identifies the complexities of childhood influences and highlights the need for a tailored approach when implementing new policies and practices. This report provides a framework for a cohesive, multidisciplinary national approach to improving MEB health.




Handbook of Prevention Science


Book Description

"Prevention research has traditionally focused on preventive interventions tied to specific disorders, e.g., substance abuse, conduct disorders, or criminality. This produced "silos" of isolated knowledge about the prevention of individual disorders but not about interventions that work across disorders. This handbook is the first to comprehensively describe current research and practice in mental health prevention programs that is organized around comprehensive prevention systems that reach across all disorders and all institutions within a community. Throughout the book preventive interventions are seen as a necessary component of effective mental health programs, not as a replacement for therapeutic interventions"--Provided by publisher.




Prevention of Substance Use


Book Description

This volume provides a serious examination of substance use prevention research and practice as components of the continuum from health promotion through to prevention and health care in sub-groups and in the general population. Extensive background chapters provide portals into the evolution of the field and the cutting edge research being conducted on the etiology, epidemiology, and genetics of substance use and abuse. The global nature and health burden of substance use and abuse incorporates assessments of the serious problems related to the prevention of legal substance use (i.e., alcohol and tobacco) and how lessons learned in those arenas may apply to the prevention of illicit substance use. Research and practice chapters detail a range of effective evidence-based programs, policies and practices and emerging prevention interventions from the literatures on the family and school contexts in addition to innovations involving mindfulness and the social media. Continued advancements in substance use prevention research, practice, training, and policy are projected. Included among topics addressed are: Progression of substance use to abuse and substance use disorders The tobacco prevention experience: a model for substance use prevention? Policy interventions: intended and unintended influences on substance use Qualitative methods in the study of psychoactive substance use Use of media and social media in the prevention of substance use Supporting prevention science and prevention research internationally The array of research accomplishments and real-world methods presented in Prevention of Substance Use merits the attention of a variety of researchers and practitioners, including public health professionals, health psychologists, and epidemiologists.




Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice


Book Description

Bullying has long been tolerated as a rite of passage among children and adolescents. There is an implication that individuals who are bullied must have "asked for" this type of treatment, or deserved it. Sometimes, even the child who is bullied begins to internalize this idea. For many years, there has been a general acceptance and collective shrug when it comes to a child or adolescent with greater social capital or power pushing around a child perceived as subordinate. But bullying is not developmentally appropriate; it should not be considered a normal part of the typical social grouping that occurs throughout a child's life. Although bullying behavior endures through generations, the milieu is changing. Historically, bulling has occurred at school, the physical setting in which most of childhood is centered and the primary source for peer group formation. In recent years, however, the physical setting is not the only place bullying is occurring. Technology allows for an entirely new type of digital electronic aggression, cyberbullying, which takes place through chat rooms, instant messaging, social media, and other forms of digital electronic communication. Composition of peer groups, shifting demographics, changing societal norms, and modern technology are contextual factors that must be considered to understand and effectively react to bullying in the United States. Youth are embedded in multiple contexts and each of these contexts interacts with individual characteristics of youth in ways that either exacerbate or attenuate the association between these individual characteristics and bullying perpetration or victimization. Recognizing that bullying behavior is a major public health problem that demands the concerted and coordinated time and attention of parents, educators and school administrators, health care providers, policy makers, families, and others concerned with the care of children, this report evaluates the state of the science on biological and psychosocial consequences of peer victimization and the risk and protective factors that either increase or decrease peer victimization behavior and consequences.