Preventing Youth Violence in a Multicultural Society

"Preventing Youth Violence in a Multicultural Society" highlights the importance of creating culturally compatible interventions to stop violence among the youngest members of diverse populations. Chapters explore how ethnicity and culture can increase or decrease risk for violence among youth depending on contextual factors such as a disadvantaged upbringing, exposure to trauma, and acculturation status. Authors focus on the interaction between environmental conditions and the individual risk factors that foster youth violence. They begin by examining risk factors common to all groups of youth, such as feeling alienated from mainstream culture and searching for self-identity, and then focus on risk, resilience, and distinguishing factors among particular racial and ethnic groups, including Latino, African American, Asian American, Pacific Islander, American Indian, and White youth. The authors recommend interventions tailored to each group as well as advice on how to incorporate cultural competence into more general youth violence prevention programs. The social-ecological approach taken in this volume emphasizes the learned nature of aggression and violence, and many of the recommended interventions involve changing the context in which violence is taught, therefore truly encouraging long-term violence prevention. This practical, empirically supported book serves as an important resource to all mental health practitioners working in the field of youth violence. This book begins with an introduction by Emilie Phillips Smith and Nancy G. Guerra. Part I, Understanding Youth Violence and Prevention in Context: The Role of Ethnicity and Culture, contains: (1) Ethnicity, Youth Violence, and the Ecology of Development (Nancy G. Guerra and Kirk R. Williams); (2) Ethnic Identity, Social Group Membership, and Youth Violence (Sabine E. French, Tia E. Kim, and Olivia Pillado); and (3) Youth Violence, Immigration, and Acculturation (Ioakim Boutakidis, Nancy G. Guerra, and Fernando Soriano). Part ii, Youth Violence and Prevention in Specific Ethnic Groups, contains: (4) Youth Violence Prevention Among Latino Youth (Brenda Mirabal-Colon and Carmen Noemi Velez); (5) Youth Violence Prevention Among Asian American and Pacific Islander Youth (Gregory Yee Mark, Linda A. Revilla, Thomas Tsutsumoto, and David T. Mayeda); (6) Understanding American Indian Youth Violence and Prevention (Samantha Hurst and Jack Laird); (7) Preventing Youth Violence Among African American Youth: The Sociocultural Context of Risk and Protective Factors (Emilie Phillips Smith and La Mar Hasbrouck); and (8) Youth Violence Prevention Among White Youth (Robert Nash Parker and Louis Tuthill). Part iii, Developing Culturally Competent Youth Violence Prevention Programs and Strategies, contains: (9) Culturally Sensitive Interventions to Prevent Youth Violence (Joan C. Wright and Marc A. Zimmerman); (10) What Is Cultural Competence and How Can It Be Incorporated Into Preventive Interventions? (Cynthia Hudley and April Taylor); and (11) Preventing Youth Violence in a Multicultural Society: Future Directions (Nancy G. Guerra and Emilie Phillips Smith). A glossary, an author index, and a subject index are included.