Children, Youth and Environments Vol. 15 No. 1 (2005) ISSN: 1546-2250 Successful Prevention and Youth Development Programs: Across Borders Ferrer-Wreder, Laura and Stattin, Håkan and Lorente, Carolyn C. (2004). New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers; 320 pages. $69.95. ISBN 0306481766. Successful Prevention, a collaborative effort from Swedish and North American scholars, reviews interventions that have ameliorated youth problem behaviors and/or promoted youth development in Europe and the United States. The review, which was funded by the Swedish government, highlights exemplary programs whose positive outcomes have been measured through pre-post test or comparison group evaluations. The authors did not include ethnographic or other forms of qualitative research in their review. Whereas youth development in the U.S. is often associated with teenagers, this book examines programs serving minors of all ages. One strength of the book is its interdisciplinary scope. The authors present research from the broad range of fields concerned with youth development, including education, mental health, juvenile justice, and child care. Because of the specificity of program descriptions this information is useful not just for scholars but also for practitioners and policymakers who design or evaluate programs. The resource guide at the end, which provides detailed examples of intervention programs and a list of websites from around the world, is a valuable resource for those who wish to consult with others before designing a new program from scratch. 391 A second strength of the book is its effort to organize its presentation of findings within an ecological-developmental framework, which situates individual behaviors in a broader context of family, school, and community (Bronfenbrenner 1979). Each of these contexts comprises a separate section of the book. Depending on the reader’s particular goals, the book is set up so that it is easy to find the ecological context of interest. It is heartening to learn that across these different contexts the authors found programs that had made a positive impact on the life trajectories of children and youth. For example, home visitation programs for families with infants have shown positive results that endured several years after program completion in both the U.S. and Netherlands. Results included less use of social services (in the U.S.), fewer hospitalizations for children, and enduring positive changes in the child’s attachment style. In the school context, the authors describe exemplary peer-related interventions concerning alcohol abuse, in which peer-led discussions led to greater reductions in risk behavior than the teacher-led format. Finally, in the community context, the authors report promising results from communities where residents mobilized to provide recreation centers for youth and/or restrict access to alcohol and tobacco. A theme that runs throughout the review is evidence in support of programs that emphasize participant empowerment. In contrast to program models that treat participants as deficient in some way and rely on the expertise of professional care-givers, the authors highlight programs that adopt a respectful and collegial attitude toward youth and adults. This change mirrors youth development strategies in the United States, which have shifted to emphasize the strengths and assets that young people have as a basis for development and resiliency, rather than treating youth merely as problems in need of help (Eccles and Gootman 2003; Larson 2000). Similarly, the book effectively highlights programs that aim not just at eradicating a particular “problem behavior,” such as substance abuse or conduct disorder, but instead help participants develop wide-ranging competencies that enable them to thrive. 392 One minor criticism of the book pertains to its layout. Given the authors’ goals of reaching practitioners as well as scholars, it is unfortunate that the narrative does not include tables or executive summaries that clearly synthesize key findings. Although each chapter has a section describing “exemplary programs,” even these are at a level of detail that requires close reading. It would have been particularly helpful to pull out shared practices that distinguish such programs and place them in a table or summary statement. A second, more substantive criticism pertains to the broader “intervention” discourse of which this book is a part, which often treats individual behavior as the unit of change, with minimal attention to...