Reflection - Chapter 12: Prevention, Early Intervention, Treatment Framework, and Other Environmental Considerations

In this chapter, titled, “Prevention, Early Intervention, Treatment Framework, and Other Environmental Considerations,” topics discussed include prevention and treatment of problematic behaviors that run the risk of turning the adolescent in question into an at-risk individual. A history of prevention programs is brought to light, as well as something called the Risk Continuum. As it states, the continuum introduced in the first chapter is included at the top, or outer rim, of the diagram, containing the scale from minimal risk going all the way to imminent risk and in crisis. Following this is the Approach Continuum, regarding strategies for intervention and treatment of both universally accommodating groups and specific groups of adolescents, such as ethnic groups. Finally, in the very inner circle there is the Prevention-Treatment Continuum, detailing specific treatment methods, such as certain educational programs targeted at demographic factors (social class, economic conditions, family, community, and school stressors) and environmental factors (personalities, attitudes, behaviors, and biological dispositions). This portion of the chapter does a respectable job of bringing the unacquainted up to speed with current methods of referencing at-risk factors and prevention methods as well as treatment methods.

Deeper in the chapter, bullying and cyber-bullying are raised to observation. This is a hot topic in the United States and has been for a number of years. Bullying has always been prevalent but it’s the induction of cyber-bullying in recent years, what with the booming economy of the internet, that has aroused much more investigation into just what causes so many adolescents to fall prey to physical and emotional harassment. At the heart of the issue, bullies are products of their environment as well as certain biological dispositions they may have passed onto them, which takes a great deal of time and effort to treat and even more so in prevention. It