Publisher's Synopsis
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. The 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.
