SynthesisBMC public health2016
What is positive youth development and how might it reduce substance use and violence? A systematic review and synthesis of theoretical literature.
Synthesis in BMC public health, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 111 citations in OpenAlex.
- Risk factors for violence against women in high-prevalence settings: a mixed-methods systematic review and meta-synthesis.BMJ global health · 2022Pooled it
- Theories of change for e-health interventions targeting HIV/STIs and sexual risk, substance use and mental ill health amongst men who have sex with men: systematic review and synthesis.Systematic reviews · 2021Pooled it
- A systematic review and synthesis of theories of change of school-based interventions integrating health and academic education as a novel means of preventing violence and substance use among students.Systematic reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Parenting Programs for the Prevention of Child Physical Abuse Recurrence: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2017Pooled it
- Vaping Education in Australian High Schools: A Quality Improvement Project.The Journal of school nursing : the official publication of the National Association of School Nurses · 2026Article
- How does music contribute to well-being? Perspectives from homeless young adults with problematic psychoactive substance use.Psychology of music · 2026Article
- Prospective associations of subjective and objective neighborhood disadvantage with cannabis and nicotine vaping among Southern California adolescents.Health & place · 2025Article
- "This program is literally saving lives": A participatory qualitative study of youth outcomes in a community-based music program to interrupt violence.BMC public health · 2025Article
- Train-the-Educator: Boosting Knowledge and Confidence for Conducting Substance Use Prevention Education.The Journal of school health · 2025Article
- Empowering young people-the impact of camp experiences on personal resources, well-being, and community building.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- The 5Cs of Positive Youth Development and Risk Behaviors in a Sample of Spanish Emerging Adults: A Partial Mediation Analysis of Gender Differences.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2023Article
- Barriers and facilitators to address vaping in Massachusetts schools: a mixed-methods study of school-based stakeholders.Translational behavioral medicine · 2023Article
- Youth organizations, social mobility and health in middle age: evidence from a Scottish 1950s prospective cohort study.European journal of public health · 2023Article
- REDESIGNING JUVENILE PROBATION TO ALIGN WITH BEHAVIORAL HEALTH AND POSITIVE DEVELOPMENT PRINCIPLEs: A Quasi-Experimental study.Criminal justice and behavior · 2023Article
- Article
- School-based programs to prevent adolescent e-cigarette use: A report card.Current problems in pediatric and adolescent health care · 2022Article
- Children and adolescents' positive youth development qualities and internet addiction during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal study in China.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Program Quality and Developmental Outcomes Related to Youth Volleyball in Ethiopia: Assessing Relationships and Variations.European journal of investigation in health, psychology and education · 2021Article
- Gender-sexuality alliance membership and activities: associations with students' comfort, confidence and awareness regarding substance use resources.Health education research · 2021Article
- Dating Violence Victimization among Adolescents in Europe: Baseline Results from the Lights4Violence Project.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundPreventing adolescent substance use and youth violence are public health priorities. Positive youth development interventions are widely deployed often with the aim of preventing both. However, the theorised mechanisms by which PYD is intended to reduce substance use and violence are not clear and existing evaluated interventions are under-theorised. Using innovative methods, we systematically searched for and synthesised published theoretical literature describing what is meant by positive youth development and how it might reduce substance use and violence, as part of a broader systematic review examining process and outcomes of PYD interventions.
methodsWe searched 19 electronic databases, review topic websites, and contacted experts between October 2013 and January 2014. We included studies written in English, published since 1985 that reported a theory of change for positive youth development focused on prevention of smoking, alcohol consumption, drug use or violence in out-of-school settings. Studies were independently coded and quality-assessed by two reviewers.
resultsWe identified 16 studies that met our inclusion criteria. Our synthesis suggests that positive youth development aims to provide youth with affective relationships and diverse experiences which enable their development of intentional self-regulation and multiple positive assets. These in turn buffer against or compensate for involvement in substance use and violence. Existing literature is not clear on how intentional self-regulation is developed and which specific positive assets buffer against substance use or violence.
conclusionsOur synthesis provides: an example of a rigorous systematic synthesis of theory literature innovatively applying methods of qualitative synthesis to theoretical literature; a clearer understanding of how PYD might reduce substance use and violence to inform future interventions and empirical evaluations.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.