Toward a New Paradigm in Substance Abuse and other Problem Behavior Prevention for Youth: Youth Development and Empowerment Approach

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to 1) address a paradigm shift taking place in the field of substance abuse prevention directed for youth and 2) to introduce an innovative approach to substance abuse and other problem behavior prevention that reflects this shift in prevention paradigm. The new path introduced is youth development and empowerment (YD&E) approach. In order to establish a conceptual foundation for this approach, this article 3) reviews the theoretical advances made in the field of substance abuse prevention during the last three decades. This is followed by a conceptualization of the processes of implementing the YD&E program by 4) specifying the mechanism used for the empowering processes and by 5) identifying the structural components of the youth empowerment model that serve the empowering processes. It is hoped that this article serves as a conduit for an improved approach to adolescent substance abuse prevention and youth development that goes beyond, rather than against, the traditional risk-factor approach. In this new approach, youths are viewed as assets and resources to our community rather than social problems or community liabilities. The organizing concept of this new paradigm is: social, economic, and public opportunity denied to youth is equal to social problems imposed on youth by adults.

Measuring the Intrapersonal Component of Psychological Empowerment: Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Sociopolitical Control Scale

“…Although other conceptual frameworks and operational definitions of empowerment exist (Becker, Israel, Schulz, Parker, & Klem, 2002;Frymier, Shulman, & Houser, 1996;Hardiman & Segal, 2003;Israel, Checkoway, Schulz, & Zimmerman, 1994;Kim, Crutchfield, Williams, & Hepler, 1998;Matthews, Diaz, & Cole, 2003;Segal, Silverman, & Temkin, 1995;Spreitzer, 1995;Wallerstein, 1992Wallerstein, , 2002, the Sociopolitical Control Scale (SPCS) (Zimmerman & Zahniser, 1991) has been widely used in studies of the construct (e.g., Carballo-Dieguez et al, 2005;Hamilton & Fauri, 2001;Holden, Crankshaw, Nimsch, Hinnant, & Hund, 2004;Holden et al, 2005;Itzhaky, 2003;Itzhaky & York, 2000Peterson & Hughey, 2004;Peterson & Reid, 2003;Speer, 2000;Speer, Jackson, & Peterson, 2001;Speer & Peterson, 2000;Smith & Propst, 2001, Zimmerman, Ramirez-Valles, Suarez, de la Rosa, & Castro, 1997. Itzhaky and York (2003), for instance, translated the SPCS into Hebrew to study PE among immigrants participating in community development activities in Israel.…”

The Skills Milieu of India: Pathway to Social Inclusion and Decent Work

“…Most empirical research on empowerment has focused on the intrapersonal component of psychological empowerment, which refers to self-perceptions of efficacy and control within the socio-political domain. Most studies of youth empowerment focus on "at-risk" populations (Einspruch and Wunrow, 2002;Kim et al, 1998). Positive youth development frameworks employed by Chinman and Linney (1998) offer a model designed as a prevention/intervention strategy for youth risk behaviours.…”

The effects of Positive Youth Development interventions on substance use, violence and inequalities: systematic review of theories of change, processes and outcomes

“…50,86,[113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126] One report was led by Canadian authors 117 and one by authors from Hong Kong. 122 All other reports were led by authors from the USA.…”

“…122 All other reports were led by authors from the USA. 50,86,[113][114][115][116][118][119][120][121][123][124][125][126] One report which described theory of change was also included in our review of process and outcome evaluations, 86 but all other theory reports did not report on empirical evaluations of PYD interventions. Four reports were led by Benson [113][114][115][116] and two by Lerner and Lerner.…”