PLENARY SESSION I: PROMOTING HEALTH EQUITY AMONG POPULATIONS AT RISK: Prevention Needs for Vulnerable Youth Populations

One of the overriding missions of the Society for Prevention Research is to strengthen the link between prevention and intervention research, policy, and practice, particularly among populations who are vulnerable due to race/ethnicity, SES, geographic location, sexual and gender minority status, and other factors. This symposium will examine the epidemiology of risk behaviors among three vulnerable populations of adolescents and emerging adults: LGBT youth, youth aging out of the child welfare system, and youth with parents who are incarcerated. The speakers will also describe examples of successful policy and practice strategies for ensuring that these youth have the tools to thrive in adulthood.

The first speaker will be Dr. Leslie Leve, who will discuss prevention needs of youth who are aging out of the child welfare system. Dr. Leve has conducted intervention studies with youth in foster care aimed at preventing risk behaviors and improving public health outcomes. She has conducted a series of randomized controlled trials of the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care program, which has shown to be successful at lowering pregnancy rates and improving adjustment outcomes among girls in community-based out-of-home care.

The second speaker will be Dr. Julie Poehlmann-Tynan. In her work, Dr. Poehlmann-Tynan seeks to understand the development and relationships of youth who experience social risk (e.g., parental incarceration) to understand how to promote resilience processes and optimize individual and family well-being. She will describe her research on children with incarcerated parents and present recommendations for policy and prevention.

The third speaker will be Dr. Caitlin Ryan, who has extensively studied the rejecting behaviors that LGBT youth experience in their families. She will discuss her award-winning program, the Family Acceptance Project, which is a research, intervention, education and policy initiative focused on preventing health and mental health risk among LGBT youth. Her team has been putting research into practice by developing an evidence-based family model of wellness, prevention and care to strengthen families and promote positive development and healthy futures for LGBT children and youth.