The Fast Track Project: The prevention of severe conduct problems in school-age youth.

Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group. (2010). The Fast Track Project: The prevention of severe conduct problems in school-age youth. In R. C. Murrihy, A. D. Kidman, & T. H. Ollendick (Eds.), Handbook of clinical assessment and treatment of conduct problems in youth (pp. 407-433). Springer.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-6297-3_16

Abstract: In this chapter, we provide an overview of the Fast Track project as an illustration of one new direction in prevention science. In 1993, Coie et al. described prevention science as a new research discipline being formed at the interface of a number of professional emphases and disciplines, including psychopathology, criminology, psychiatric epidemiology, human development, and education. Prevention science represents an effort to examine risk factors, change processes and intervention effects, using rigorous methodology, thus providing an empirical basis for early prevention efforts. Coie et al. suggested five principles integral to prevention science. Preventive interventions should: (1) address fundamental causal processes; (2) address risk factors before they become stabilized; (3) target those children who are at high risk for the negative outcome to be prevented; (4) optimally involve coordinated activities in multiple domains; and (5) incorporate developmental research. This chapter is adapted and expanded from material in CPPRG (2006) and Slough, McMahon, and CPPRG (2008).