The Centrality of Law for Prevention

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Kelli Komro, Emory University
• Language: English
• Date: 2020-08-17
• Publisher: Springer Verlag (Germany)
• Publication Version: Final Published Version
• Copyright Statement: © Society for Prevention Research 2020
• License: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11121-020-01155-x
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Prevention Science
• ISSN: 1389-4986
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 7
• Start Page: 1001
• End Page: 1006
• Grant/Funding Information: The research summarized in this commentary was supported in part by R01 MD010241 (Komro & Wagenaar, M-PIs) from the National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, and funding for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2019) report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Human Development and Disability; National Institutes of Health, National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health; National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse; and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Mental Health Services to the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Board on Child, Youth, and Families.
• Keywords: FRAMEWORK; Public, Environmental & Occupational Health; CHILD HEALTH; INJURY; FATALITIES; MEDICAL MARIJUANA LAWS; INCOME; BOOSTER SEAT LAWS; MINIMUM-WAGES; LEGISLATION; Science & Technology; ALCOHOL; Life Sciences & Biomedicine
• Research Categories: Health Sciences, Public Health

Abstract

The field of prevention science has been instrumental in the development and testing of strategies to promote mental, emotional, and behavioral (MEB) health among children and youth. Yet, despite an abundance of scientific evidence of effective programs, little progress has been made in scaling up and creating structural change to support healthy development for all children (Fagan et al. 2019; National Academies 2019). The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s (the National Academies) Board on Child, Youth, and Families consensus study report entitled Fostering Healthy Mental, Emotional, and Behavioral Development in Children and Youth (National Academies 2019) concludes that a national agenda including institutional and policy change is central to achieve improved and lasting outcomes at the population level. The 2019 report is the third in a series on MEB development published since 1994 that have synthesized evidence and provided recommendations for promotion of healthy development and prevention activities (Institute of Medicine 1994; National Research Council and Institute of Medicine 2009; National Academies 2019). The 2019 report includes a greater emphasis on achieving population-level effects through institutional and policy change. “This emphasis reflects the fact that despite the development of programs that are effective in supporting healthy MEB development in individuals and groups of children and youth, successful population-based efforts that can broadly counter adverse environments and experiences that threaten healthy MEB development for so many of the nation’s young people have not materialized.” (p. vii). Conclusions of the consensus study highlight broad societal factors, such as poverty, inequality, and discrimination, as key influences on MEB health, and recommend a coordinated national agenda to address healthy MEB development universally with particular attention to geographic areas of concentrated disadvantage.