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The aim of the study, upon which this article is based, was to investigate self-concept consistency and orientation towards the future in a sample of Swedish late adolescents (mean age 18.5). The introject part of structural analysis of social behaviour questionnaire, a future index, and an incomplete sentence task were administered to 132 participants. Quantitative and qualitative analyses indicated that participants with an inconsistent self-concept had a significantly more negative view of their future relative to those with a consistent self-concept. Qualitative analyses were consistent with quantitative findings but also revealed similarities among respondents in terms of 'what' they think about, when they think about their futures. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of theoretical models of self-concept consistency and successful developmental transitions to adulthood.

This text is about positive youth development (PYD) in Roma ethnic minority youth. Its main distinguishing features are (1) the focus on a large and underrepresented ethnic minority group and (2) a strength-based conception of adolescence (i.e., PYD) that sees all youth as having resources. The book stands apart from current edited books on PYD by focusing on the Roma ethnic minority (one of the most marginalized and oppressed minority groups in Europe) and on strengths and resources for optimal well-being. The international, multidisciplinary, and multisectorial expert contributors to this book address the complexities of Roma life in a variety of cultural settings and explore how key developmental processes and person-context interactions can contribute to optimal and successful adaptation.

Commentators interested in school‐based prevention programs point to the importance of economic issues for the future of prevention efforts. Many of the processes and aims of prevention science are dependent upon prevention resources. Although economic analysis is an essential tool for assessing resource use, the attention given economic analysis within school‐based prevention remains cursory. Largely, economic analyses of school‐based prevention efforts are undertaken as secondary research. This limits these efforts to data that have been collected previously as part of epidemiological and outcomes research. Therefore, economic analyses suffer from gaps in the knowledge generated by these studies. This chapter addresses the importance of economic analysis for the future of school‐based substance abuse prevention programs and highlights the role of prevention research in the development of knowledge that can be used for economic analysis.

The preschool edition of Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies (PATHS(®)) is a school-based, teacher implemented universal intervention developed in the United States designed to promote social emotional competence (SEC) in children as a foundation for improved mental health. PATHS is delivered as a curriculum and it is based on theories and research regarding SEC, brain development, and optimal school environments. A majority of children in Sweden attend preschool, which is government-subsidized and follows a national curriculum focusing on both academic and social emotional learning. However, there is not so much focus on formal instruction nor manual-based lessons. The purpose of this study was to assess the short-term (pre- to post-test) effects of PATHS in the Swedish preschool setting. Using a two-wave cluster randomized trial with multi-method and informant assessment (N = 285 4 and 5-year-old Swedish children; n = 145 wait-list control; n = 140 intervention; K = 26 preschools; k = 13 intervention; k = 13 control) we assessed changes in child emotional knowledge, emotional awareness, social problem solving, prosocial play, inhibitory control, and working memory using structural equation modeling (SEM). We included schools with at least one classroom of 4–5-year-old children from three municipalities. We excluded open preschools, parent cooperative preschools, and family day homes. After random assignment, schools were informed of condition assignment. Research team members were not blind to assignment. We hypothesized that relative to children in control schools, children in intervention schools would evidence improvements in social emotional competence as well as other outcomes. Children in PATHS, relative to children in the control, evidenced improvements in working memory and prosocial play, but also showed an increase in hyperactive behaviors. Girls in PATHS, relative to girls in the control, showed improvement in emotional knowledge and reduced anxiety. These results are considered in light of ...