How much do deprived youth follow the example set by role models? One study comes to a worrying conclusion: “bad” role models have a bigger effect on teens than “good” role models do.

A major US study looked at how the mental health of children worsened when they were taken into care, but offers pointers to how this can be avoided.

There are serious concerns about protecting babies in the UK but a new report shows how programs from both the UK and the USA offer a chance to make real strides in improving services.

When they start school, children from the most affluent backgrounds already have a head start over those from the poorest families. But new research warns that children from low-to-middle income families are also falling behind.

In a recent study, only a third of parents joined a “universal” parenting program – and only 13% reported using most of the techniques they learned. With participation lowest among disadvantaged families, do universal services risk widening the gap between the haves and the have-nots?

An intervention will more likely achieve its desired effects when implemented exactly as intended and without bias. But are researchers and practitioners doing everything they should to ensure adherence and quality in practice? The latest review suggests we may be concentrating on only parts of the picture.

Drug use by teenagers is one of the most intractable behaviors with therapies that work well with other problems seemingly ineffective. Even if success is forthcoming, it may not follow that this can be achieved across the board. An evaluation of brief strategic family therapy applied to an ethnically diverse group of adolescent drug abusers shows some encouraging results but the core behavior seems stubbornly fixed.

Does treatment always have a long-term effect? A program of multi-systemic therapy for persistent teenage offenders in the USA was compared with another type of treatment, and a follow up after 21 years showed considerable success in reducing criminal behavior.

A program of intensive foster care for persistent teenage offenders in England achieved considerable success in reducing criminal behavior, but these benefits dissipated once the young people left the project. But does this result tell us more about England than the intervention?

Findings of the previous evaluation studies of the Healthy Families America home visitation program have led to controversy over the program's effectiveness. New evidence from a recent Arizona study sheds some positive light on program effects.

Preventive interventions take many forms – education, mentoring, alternatives and limiting supply – but a study of gun carrying among young people suggests that these approaches should be complemented by changing the perceptions of young people on the extent of gun possessions and the availability of weapons.

Parenting is known to have long-term effects on children’s development, but are the contributions of mothers and fathers different, and is a poor performance by one compensated by competence in the other? A Dutch study of adolescent and adult offenders suggests so.

The two keys to school-based substance misuse prevention programs are problem solving skills training and social skills training, a new study finds. And the best outcomes happen when the two “active ingredients” are used together.

The mental health risks of homelessness are high – and they may get higher the longer a young person has been without stable housing. Youth who had been homeless longer than six months tended to have greater distress and lower resilience than those more recently homeless, a recent Canadian study found.

Contemplative practices for children have boomed in recent years. Advocates say they help kids improve attention and decrease stress. Critics say their popularity is driven more by marketing than solid evidence. Here, two Penn State researchers set out a program to build the evidence base.

Is the ability to report research clearly just as important as choosing the most rigorous research design? A recent review argues that criminologists can take inspiration from medical trials to give fellow academics and policy makers a clearer picture of how they found their results.

Living in close proximity to repeat offenders dramatically increases the risk that teenage boys who have committed a crime will re-offend. And this “peer contagion” can also encourage them to specialize in specific types of crime, a new study finds.

A new treatment offers tentative hope to families of depressed preschoolers, a pilot study has found. The tried-and-tested intervention Parent-Child Interaction Therapy has been adapted to treat preschool depression – with promising early results.