A review of validated youth prevention and positive youth development programs in Asia

Abstract

In view of the intensification of adolescent developmental issues in different Asian contexts, there is an urgent need for developing prevention and positive youth development programs in different Asian communities. In this paper, adolescent prevention and positive youth development programs in Asia which have been evaluated by studies adopting true experimental or quasi-experimental designs are reviewed. Several observations are highlighted from this review. First, compared with Western societies, the number of validated programs in different Asian communities was extremely low. Second, there were comparatively more programs addressing substance abuse than other mental health problems. Third, compared with evaluated prevention programs, there were very few positive youth development programs. Finally, there were very few rigorously designed evaluative studies of prevention and positive youth development programs over a long period of time.