Dr. Peters is a Professor of Psychology at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. He has been involved in the field of child development and children's mental health research for over 35 years. His major research interests concern the promotion of children's well-being and the prevention of children's mental health problems. As Research Director for the Better Beginnings, Better Futures Project, he heads a multidisciplinaryJanuary 24, 2008iversities, and local research teams in disadvantaged neighbourhoods across Ontario. The focus of this research is evaluating community-based programs which influence the development of young children and their families. Dr. Peters has been a Visiting Scientist at the Mental Health Division of the World Health Organization in Geneva, and the Social Learning Center in Eugene, OR. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the Banff International Conference on Behavioural Science since 1981, and chaired the March 2003 meetings on "Effective Progress for Early Childhood Development." He has also served as a member of the Expert Advisory Committee for the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, and is a member of the Directing Counsel for the Health Canada Centre of Excellence for Early Childhood Development.
Increasingly in the past few years, there has been much public concern about crime, in particular crimes of violence, and the increase in aggression and anti-social behaviour among adolescents... The theme of this book is prevention and early intervention. It will be of interest to a wide readership... the book provides an excellent review of current thinking and research on prevention. It is full of imaginative initiatives and does not ignore the problems' - The Psychologist Outcome studies have shown that treatment programmes for child and adolescent social and behavioural problems, such as violence and substance abuse, do not work if administered too late. This volume presents the newest research on the effectiveness of prevention and early intervention programmes with children from birth to adolescence. The contributors examine the theory and practice of leading innovative programmes which focus on social skills training, anger coping group work, parent training programmes and life skills training. All designed to intervene before the onset of disorders or to deal effectively with problems when they first appear, many of the programmes also emphasize strengthening family, school and community involvement for successful risk reduction.
