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In this thought leader commentary, the author makes observations about the findings and recommendations noted in this special issue. The broad scope of these reports from bullying; mental, emotional, and behavioral health; English language and dual language learners; optimal development; the promise of adolescence; optimal health; and shaping summertime experiences enhances our perspective on the important developmental time of childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. Two broad perspectives—positive youth development and distinctive risky behaviors—are highlighted among other important themes. The author observes that the Board on Children, Youth, and Families of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine could add value in synthesizing the implications of these studies for federal, state, and local agencies; communities; and the youth population itself, identifying both commonalities and research gaps across these reports. Such a synthesis could provide a roadmap including common and unique predictors, evidence-based interventions to address these predictors, and perspectives on integrative and complementary aspects of community, state, and federal systems. Advocacy is needed to take evidence summarized in these reports to scale. In this context, evidence-based practices from promotion to treatment backed by new implementation research in scale-up are likely to return immense benefits to society.

Objectives: Given the high rates at which adolescents engage in violence, the strong link between adolescent and adult violence, and the financial and social costs of violence, the prevention of violent behavior is a national priority. Methods: The authors conducted a comprehensive review of evaluations utilizing quasi-experimental or experimental research designs to assess violence reduction. Results: Seventeen interventions were identified as producing a significant reduction in youth-perpetrated physical or sexual violence. The interventions were varied in terms of targeted age groups, content, strategies, and length of programming, and included programs focusing on individual, peer, school, family, and community factors. Conclusions: Widespread use of effective interventions such as these, across settings and development, and implemented with fidelity, is likely to substantially reduce youth violence. Continued evaluation of violence prevention programming is also needed to increase the number of options available for replication and establish effects on diverse populations.

Comprehensive community interventions pose several challenges to rigorous evaluation design. This article summarizes the recommendations for a feasible and rigorous design that were formulated by a 1991 conference on the evaluation of comprehensive community interventions. One such comprehensive intervention strategy for drug risk reduction called Communities That Care illustrates the points discussed. Conference participants recommended a multisite experimental trial of matched community pairs randomized into intervention and comparison conditions. In this design, randomization occurs at the community level. The implications of this design for community selection, sample size, and power are discussed

Overview of the communities that care system : theoretical basis, development, evaluation, and comparison to other community-based preventive interventions -- Community-based prevention of youth behavioral health problems -- Theoretical perspectives guiding the development and evaluation of CTC -- The development and evaluation of CTC -- Implementing CTC and similar community-based preventive interventions -- The importance of readiness and high-functioning coalitions in community-based prevention -- Improving community capacity to conduct comprehensive prevention needs assessments -- Increasing the use of evidence-based interventions to reduce youth behavioral health problems -- Ensuring high quality implementation and sustainability of evidence-based interventions and coalitions -- Evaluating CTC -- Findings from the community youth development study -- A state-wide effectiveness trial of CTC in Pennsylvania -- Moving forward: what is needed to successfully implement CTC and other community-based prevention systems -- The future of CTC and community-based prevention

The goal of this study was to examine and cross‐nationally compare the peer group patterns of alcohol‐drinking behaviors among cohorts of early adolescents (ages 11–14 years) in Victoria, Australia, and Washington State, United States. Latent transition analysis revealed that after 1 year, transitions congruent with peer influence (whereby non‐drinking adolescents initiated alcohol use in the presence of drinking peers) and reverse peer influence were observed in both states; however, transitions congruent with peer selection (whereby drinking adolescents self‐selected into drinking peer groups) were only observed among Victorian early adolescents. Findings were interpreted to suggest that Australian family and cultural norms that more commonly allow early adolescent alcohol use lead to a higher rate of peer selection.

The development of preventive interventions targeting adolescent problem behaviors requires a thorough understanding of risk and protective factors for such behaviors. However, few studies examine whether different cultural and ethnic groups share these factors. This study is an attempt to fill a gap in research by examining similarities and differences in risk factors across racial and ethnic groups. The social development model has shown promise in organizing predictors of problem behaviors. This article investigates whether a version of that model can be generalized to youth in different racial and ethnic groups (N=2,055, age range from 11 to 15), including African American (n=478), Asian Pacific Islander (API) American (n=491), multiracial (n=442), and European American (n=644) youth. The results demonstrate that common risk factors can be applied to adolescents, regardless of their race and ethnicity. The findings also demonstrate that there are racial and ethnic differences in the magnitudes of relationships among factors that affect problem behaviors. Further study is warranted to develop a better understanding of these differential magnitudes.

A test was conducted of a cognitive-behavioral skills training program with 141 incarcerated juvenile delinquents. Subjects were randomly assigned to an experimental skills training or normal institutional treatment control group after blocking on county of origin, race, and sex to ensure group equivalence. A behavioral role-play inventory, the Adolescent Problem Situation Inventory, was used to assess subjects' skill levels before and immediately following the intervention. Data were examined for evidence of skill differences at posttest and generalization of skills to untrained role-play situations. Experimental subjects had significantly higher posttest scores than did control subjects in situations involving avoidance of drug use, self-control, and social interaction and interpersonal problem solving. Generalization of skills to untrained role-play situations was found among experimental subjects. No evidence of interactive effects of gender, race, offense type, or pretreatment drug use on posttest skill level was found