Open AccessBeyond Prevention: Promoting Healthy Youth Development in Primary Care
Author(s) -
Lindsay A. Taliaferro,
Iris Wagman Borowsky
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
american journal of public health
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.284
H-Index - 264
eISSN - 1541-0048
pISSN - 0090-0036
DOI - 10.2105/ajph.2011.300559
Subject(s) - primary care , resilience (materials science) , psychological resilience , primary prevention , public health , medical education , positive youth development , psychology , medicine , nursing , family medicine , developmental psychology , disease , social psychology , physics , pathology , thermodynamics
Training primary care providers to incorporate a youth development approach during clinical encounters with young people represents an opportunity to integrate public health into primary care practice. We recommend that primary care providers shift their approach with adolescents from focusing on risks and problems to building strengths and assets. Focusing on strengths rather than problems can improve health by fostering resilience and enhancing protective factors among adolescents. A strength-based approach involves intentionally assessing and reinforcing adolescents' competencies, passions, and talents, as well as collaborating with others to strengthen protective networks of support for young people. Training programs should incorporate interactive strategies that allow clinicians to practice skills and provide tools clinicians can implement in their practice settings.