Practice Title: Community-Based Positive Youth Development Interventions to Prevent Violence

Evidence Rating for Outcomes

Juvenile Problem Behaviors or At-Risk Behaviors | Other problem behaviors

This practice seeks to prevent violence in youth by helping them build positive assets, such as developmental skills, prosocial norms, positive social identities, strong connections with peers and adults, and caring for others. The practice is rated Ineffective for reducing violence in youth.

Practice Goals

Research has shown that youth violence is harmful for many reasons – both to individuals and society (Melendez-Torres et al., 2016). One method for preventing youth violence is to implement positive youth development interventions, which focus on building young people’s positive assets. These interventions emphasize cultivating developmental skills (e.g., self-regulation, bonding, and resilience), prosocial norms (e.g., academic achievement, acquisition of cognitive and vocational skills, and community involvement), positive social identities, strong connections with peers and adults, and caring for others. Through the promotion of youths’ assets, community-based positive youth development programs aim to prevent violence in youth.

Practice Components/Key Personnel

The programs included in this practice are Big Brothers Big Sisters, the National Guard Youth Challenge Program, and the Quantum Opportunity Program, also known as Eisenhower Quantum Opportunities (Melendez-Torres et al., 2016).

Big Brothers Big Sisters Community-Based Mentoring Program is a program primarily for youth ages 10–16 from single-parent households. Mentors are adults who are positive role models drawn from the community and are trained to recognize and report abuse. The mentor and mentee met several times a month. Research suggests that a youth who has an ongoing relationship with a trusted, caring adult is more likely to develop positive assets such as improved academic performance, self-esteem, coping skills, healthy relationships with family and friends, and cultural awareness (Tierney and Grossman, 1995).

The National Guard Youth Challenge Program is a military-style boot camp for youth ages 16–18 who have left school and are unemployed. The program, which features a mentoring component, helps youth develop the positive assets of job skills and life skills training, academic excellence, leadership and citizenship skills, community service, physical fitness, and good health and hygiene. Mentors included both program staff and community members nominated by participants (Millenky et al., 2010; Millenky et al., 2011).

The Quantum Opportunity Program serves youth in schools with high dropout rates and youth who were in the bottom two thirds of their grade. Participating youth are 14 years old on average. The intervention is delivered in a school context, by staff from community-based organizations. The staff provide case management and mentoring; academic assessment, planning, and tutoring; community services and leisure activities; and support over summer vacations (when necessary). Like other positive youth development interventions, the Quantum Opportunity Project seeks to build positive assets such as cultural awareness, community service, academic achievement, and good health and hygiene (Schirm et al., 2003).

Meta-Analysis Snapshot
	Literature Coverage Dates	Number of Studies	Number of Study Participants
Meta Analysis	1985-2013	3	3224

Meta Analysis

Melendez-Torres and colleagues (2016) conducted a meta-analysis to examine the effectiveness of positive youth development interventions on violence in young people. To be included in the meta-analysis, studies had to have been conducted between 1985 and 2013 (the literature search began in 2013), be written in English, employ an experimental or quasi-experimental design, focus on youth ages 11–18, focus on prevention of violence or substance use, focus on positive youth development, and include an outcome measurement of violence. Violence was defined as perpetration or victimization of physical violence including violent crime. Positive youth development was defined as voluntary education, occurring outside of school hours, that sought to promote generalized and positive development of youth assets such as the following: healthy bonding; resilience; social, emotional, cognitive, behavioral, or moral competence; self-determination; spirituality; self-efficacy; clear and positive identity; belief in a positive future; receipt of recognition for positive behavior; and opportunities for prosocial involvement and/or prosocial norms. The authors judged that interventions were focused on positive youth development if they promoted an asset characteristic of positive youth development in multiple domains (e.g. family, school, or community), or multiple assets applied to one domain. Interventions were included if they were delivered in the community (not clinical or judicial settings), outside normal school hours. Given that prevention was the overall goal, the meta-analysis excluded studies if they sought to address predefined physical and mental health conditions or if they included the young people’s parents/caregivers.

The literature search was conducted between October 2013 and January 2014. Researchers searched 21 databases, electronic websites, and journals. Bibliographies and full-text studies of identified articles were also examined to identify relevant studies. This search strategy yielded 32,394 abstracts; of these, 689 were selected for full-text review, and three randomized controlled trials met criteria for inclusion. The randomized controlled trials were evaluations of Big Brothers Big Sisters, the National Guard Youth Challenge Program, and the Quantum Opportunity Program.

For each of the three included evaluations, the comparison group was a no-treated group. The evaluations occurred in multiple sites across the United States. Across the three studies, there were 7 effect sizes, and 3,224 participants (1,812 in the intervention group and 1,412 in the comparison group). None of the included studies reported outcomes

relating to violence victimization. Effect sizes were converted to standardized mean differences (Cohen’s d), adjusting the direction of the effect size so that positive direction was in favor of the intervention. A two-level multilevel meta-analysis method was used with random effects at both the between-study (i.e., program) level and within-study (i.e., outcome) level. This method produced a pooled effect size that corrected for nonindependence between observations.

Date Created: August 27, 2025

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Practice Snapshot

Gender: Male, Female

Setting (Delivery): Other Community Setting

Practice Type: Academic Skills Enhancement, Conflict Resolution/Interpersonal Skills, Mentoring, Wraparound/Case Management

Unit of Analysis: Persons

Practice Title: Community-Based Positive Youth Development Interventions to Prevent Violence

Notice

Practice Summary

Practice Description

Practice Goals

Practice Components/Key Personnel

Meta-Analysis Outcomes

Meta-Analysis Methodology

Cost

Evidence-Base (Meta-Analyses Reviewed)

Additional References

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