Purpose This paper examined proximal and distal effects of protective factors specified in the social development model (SDM) on youth violence among high-risk youth. Methods Data come from the Seattle Social Development Project, a longitudinal study of development from childhood into adulthood. A community sample of 808 participants from the Seattle Public School District was surveyed from the 5th grade through adulthood. This paper uses data from participants’ adolescent years, ages 10–18. Results Higher levels of protective factors in early and middle adolescence reduced the odds of violence during late adolescence in the full sample and in two different risk groups (high cumulative risk and low SES). Although risk exposure increased the odds of violence, protective factors in middle adolescence predicted lower odds of violence during late adolescence. Importantly, protective factors had a greater effect in reducing violence among youth exposed to high levels of cumulative risk than among youth exposed to lower levels of cumulative risk. This difference was not observed between youth from higher and lower SES families. Conclusion Protective factors specified in the SDM appear to reduce violence in late adolescence even among youth from low SES families and youth exposed to high levels of cumulative risk.

Understanding the developmental changes in protective factors that lead to healthy youth development provides important information on the appropriate timing and targets for community-based prevention. This study used a control sample of 2,002 individuals from 7 states to examine the normative development of protective factors. Data come from the Community Youth Development Study, a community-randomized trial of Communities That Care. Multilevel models estimated the change in protective factors from 5th to 12th grade, controlling for individual characteristics. Gender difference and school transitions were examined. Findings suggest that most protective factors decline through middle school but start increasing during high school, with some declining at slower rates than in middle school. Although females reported higher levels of protective factors than males, the transitional point did not differ by gender. Community initiatives that seek to bolster protective factors should start early and continue through high school.

Many interventions seeking to reduce problem behaviors and promote healthy youth development target both risk and protective factors, yet few studies have examined the effect of preventive interventions on overall levels of protection community wide. In a community-randomized controlled trial, this study tested the effect of Communities That Care (CTC) on protective factors in 24 communities across 7 states. Data on protective factors were collected from a panel of 4,407 youths in CTC and control communities followed from Grade 5 through Grade 8. Hierarchical linear modeling compared mean levels of 15 protective factors derived from the social development model in CTC and control communities in Grade 8, adjusted for individual and community characteristics and baseline levels of protective factors in Grade 5. Global test statistics were calculated to examine effects on protection overall and by domain. Analyses across all protective factors found significantly higher levels of overall protection in CTC compared to control communities. Analyses by domain found significantly higher levels of protection in CTC than control communities in the community, school, and peer/individual domains, but not in the family domain. Significantly higher levels of opportunities for prosocial involvement in the community, recognition for prosocial involvement in school, interaction with prosocial peers, and social skills among CTC compared to control youth contributed to the overall and domain specific results. This is consistent with CTC’s theory of change, which posits that strengthening protective factors is a mechanism through which CTC prevents behavior problems.

Purpose: Crime, depression, and substance abuse, often co-occur. This study examined competing models considering each problem domain individually as a driving mechanism for the other problems to better understand etiology and inform prevention efforts. Gender differences were also examined.Methods: Data were drawn from the Seattle Social Development Project, a multiethnic and gender-balanced urban panel of 808 participants constituted in 1985. Cross-lagged models examined prospective assessments of early (grades 7 & 8) and late (grades 9-12) adolescent internalizing problems, substance use, and delinquency, as well as measures of depression, substance dependence, and crime at early adulthood (ages 21-24) and later adulthood (ages 27-30).Results: Comparisons of nested models by gender showed (a) continuity in internalizing behaviors/depression, substance use/dependence, and delinquency/crime for both women and men; (b) accounting for continuity, depression did not consistently drive other problems for either women or men; (c) among women, both substance abuse and crime appeared to be important driving mechanisms; and (d) among men, crime emerged as the most pertinent driving mechanism. Conclusion:Findings suggest that externalizing problems may be more important driving mechanisms for depression than vice versa. Preventing crime and substance abuse may have the important added benefit of reducing early adult depression.Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.

As commissioned by the Society for Prevention Research, this paper describes and illustrates strategic approaches for reducing health inequities and advancing health equity when adopting an equity-focused approach for applying prevention science evidence-based theory, methodologies, and practices. We introduce an ecosystemic framework as a guide for analyzing, designing, and planning innovative equity-focused evidence-based preventive interventions designed to attain intended health equity outcomes. To advance this process, we introduce a health equity statement for conducting integrative analyses of ecosystemic framework pathways, by describing the role of social determinants, mechanisms, and interventions as factors directly linked to specific health equity outcomes. As background, we present health equity constructs, theories, and research evidence which can inform the design and development of equity-focused intervention approaches. We also describe multi-level interventions that when coordinated can produce synergistic intervention effects across macro, meso, and micro ecological levels. Under this approach, we encourage prevention and implementation scientists to apply and extend these strategic directions in future research to increase our evidence-based knowledge and theory building. A general goal is to apply prevention science knowledge to design, widely disseminate, and implement culturally grounded interventions that incrementally attain specific HE outcomes and an intended HE goal. We conclude with recommendations for conducting equity-focused prevention science research, interventions, and training.