A US economist makes the case for putting statistical effect sizes and the rudiments of cost benefit analysis into the same equation, and proposes a new interim “law” of prevention: that an intervention should be adopted only if there is no other way to create the same scale of improvement more cheaply.

Data analysis by the UK National Heart Forum suggests that projections of child obesity levels in the UK can be scaled down, but the findings also highlight the pitfalls of attributing highly sought-after effects to the success of a public health campaign.

Randomly allocating children to care in order to test its effectiveness continues to be a contentious proposition, particularly in the US; Oregon researchers have been able to remedy the scarcity of impact evidence by using randomized methods to test the value of giving foster parents expert support.

Research in both countries finds that the British and Japanese juvenile justice systems have emerged with some credit from the moral crises that followed the killings of children by children.

A systematic review of all the reading progams on the market has concluded that co-operative learning - where students work together in small groups to help each other master their uncertainties – offers adolescents the best chance of escaping the long-term setbacks associated with reading difficulties.

A new study by a member of the UK Dartington Social Research Unit team tries to bring light to the argument about how to improve the well-being of all Europe's children – by offering a definition of well-being that synthesizes insights into needs, rights, poverty and social exclusion.

Studies in five Australian high schools have persuaded researchers to float the concept of “academic buoyancy” as a useful measure of everyday resilience to classroom setbacks.

Prevention and early intervention are often spoken of in the same breath as if they were interchangeable terms, but a rare attempt to compare them in action has uncovered marked differences in impact.

An Ontario study strengthens the evidence that a safe school environment has the power to mitigate the usually highly damaging effects on young people of parental neglect or maltreatment in childhood.

The tantalizing and under-researched possibility that there is a connection between genetic make-up and susceptibility to accidents has been discounted by a UK twin study.

Microtargeting, nicheing – even the average neighborhood supermarket is cleverly aware of the demands of the “splintering” society. So should prevention programs be more like shopping carts when it comes to adapting standard models to meet consumer needs?

A three-year trial of a 'culturally-grounded' prevention program in 12 Chicago schools has highlighted the value of emotional education as a key to reducing violence and delinquency.

Good parenting is almost certainly key to tackling child abuse but we know little about what works with these families. A new US study offers some possibilities.

The basic tenets of evidence-based practice are not new in social work in the USA, but calls to make the profession more scientific have had less impact than proponents desired. And while social work teachers have spent decades trying to address this, some of the resistance comes from within.

Good intentions paired with ignorance can cause more harm than good as a recent study looking at after-school projects shows.

Dame Gillian Pugh's influential career as one of the shapers of UK parenting and early years policy has been based on the simplest of intentions: "I just want to make things better for children".

Trials have shown how well community coalitions can deal with substance abuse, but researchers in Cincinnati remind the Washington developers that in the most deprived neighborhoods where children are at highest risk, community action is hardest to marshal.