Youth Violence Prevention Interventions

Council Date: February 7, 2023

Objective

This initiative will support research to develop and test multilevel youth violence prevention interventions for populations that experience health disparities, which include strategies that address structural discrimination and other social determinants of health.

Download the full concept paper

Description of Initiative

This initiative will support research to develop and test multilevel youth violence prevention interventions that include strategies which address structural discrimination and other social determinants of health. Interventions will focus on youth populations that experience health disparities between the ages of 10 to 21 years.

Interventions may involve:

• The combination of existing violence prevention and discrimination prevention interventions.
• The addition of newly developed discrimination prevention elements into existing violence prevention interventions.
• The development of new, fully integrated violence/discrimination prevention interventions.

Discrimination prevention components should address structural discrimination. Discrimination may be related to race and ethnicity and/or other statuses among youth that experience health disparities, such as gender, sexual and gender minority status, disability status, social class, religion, national origin, immigration status, limited English proficiency, or physical characteristics.

Projects are expected to have the following features:

• Use an approach that encompasses multiple domains (e.g., biological, behavioral, sociocultural, environmental, physical environment, or health system) and multiple levels (e.g., individual, interpersonal, community, societal) to address youth violence (see the NIMHD Research Framework).
• Involve collaborations from a variety of relevant organizations or groups, including but not limited to academic institutions, health service providers and systems, state and local public health agencies, school systems, school-based student or parent associations, community-based organizations, and faith-based organizations.
• Be delivered in any variety of settings, such as schools, hospitals, community organizations, faith-based organizations, or juvenile justice settings.
• Have potential for sustainability in the intervention setting after the project is over, as well as scalability to be implemented in other settings.

Page updated April 24, 2023