PBPYD Lecture: Community-based Prevention of Youth Antisocial Behaviors: An International Perspective

Eric C. Brown

Title: Community-based Prevention of Youth Antisocial Behaviors: An International Perspective

There is a growing emphasis on community-based initiatives to prevent antisocial behaviors such as alcohol and drug use, juvenile delinquency and violence, and other high-risk behaviors, among youth. But this emphasis has had mixed results. This lecture presents the reasons for failure and success of community-based prevention, and takes an international perspective in illustrating how different countries have used these initiatives as a mechanism to embrace prevention science and implement interventions for the health and well-being of their youth populations.

Bio: Dr. Eric C. Brown, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor with the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, Department of Public Health Sciences, where he directs the Department’s Master of Science Program in Prevention Science and Community Health. Prior to coming to the University of Miami, Dr. Brown was a faculty member with the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington’s School of Social Work where he worked on school- and community-based preventive interventions, most notably the Community Youth Development Study, which is a longitudinal community-randomized trial of the Communities That Care prevention system, developed at the University of Washington.

Dr. Brown works on the development, implementation, and testing of community-based preventive interventions in the United States and in Latin America. He currently is the Principal Investigator of a project to design and implement a Communities That Care-based prevention system for reducing youth alcohol use in Zacatecas, Mexico; and is a Co-Investigator on the Evidence2Success prevention system in Miami, Florida.

Additional projects of Dr. Brown’s include: the adaption and implementation of Communities That Care for use in Chile, Colombia, Panama, and Brazil; the evaluation of the Steps To Respect bullying prevention program; and the evaluation of the Raising Healthy Children program.

Dr. Brown’s research interests center around the application of advanced research methods to evaluate the effectiveness of prevention programs and implementation systems. He currently teaches Implementation Science, Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, and Advanced Quantitative Research Methods in Prevention Science. He is a member of the Society for Prevention Research International Committee and was the recipient of the 2013 International Collaboration Award from the Society for Prevention Research.