Promoting Promotion in the Development of Prevention Science

Abstract

The history of prevention science reflects a long-standing commitment to using scholarship to improve the quality of life of children, youth, and families. Research associated with applied developmental science involves a corresponding goal. However, different conceptions of youth are found prototypically in prevention research and in applied developmental science efforts aimed at promoting positive youth development. The former approach focuses on youth as having problems to be managed. The latter sees youth as resources to be developed and seeks to integrate individual and ecological assets in the service of positive youth development. As exemplified by the articles in this special issue, many programs that are labeled as prevention in orientation nevertheless involve actions or ideas consistent with the positive youth development promotion perspective. The integration of prevention and promotion approaches facilitates the design and delivery of policies and programs that may be effective in enhancing healthy youth development in directions that advance civil society.