Cognitive-behavioural interventions for preventing youth gang involvement for children and young people (7-16).

BACKGROUND: Many studies document a robust and consistent relationship between gang membership and elevated delinquency, with gang members disproportionately involved in crime compared to non-gang peers. Research also indicates that both delinquent youth and youth who join gangs often show a wide range of deficient or distorted social-cognitive processes compared to non-delinquent peers. Cognitive-behavioural interventions are designed to address cognitive deficits in order to reduce maladaptive or dysfunctional behaviour, and studies have documented their positive impact on a number of behavioural and psychological disorders among children and youth. OBJECTIVES: To determine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural interventions for preventing youth gang involvement for children and young people (ages 7-16). SEARCH STRATEGY: Electronic searches of ASSIA, CINAHL, CJA, Cochrane Library, Dissertations Abstracts A, EMBASE, ERIC, IBSS, LILACs, LexisNexis Butterworths, MEDLINE, NCJR Service Abstracts Database, PsycINFO, and Sociological Abstracts, to April 2007. Reviewers contacted relevant organisations, individuals, and list-servs and searched pertinent websites and reference lists. SELECTION CRITERIA: All randomised controlled trials or quasi-randomised controlled trials of interventions with a cognitive-behavioural intervention as the majority component, delivered to youth and children aged 7-16 not involved in a gang. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Searching yielded 2,284 unduplicated citations, 2,271 of which were excluded as irrelevant based on title and abstract. One was excluded following personal communication with investigators. One citation, of a large randomised prevention trial, awaits assessment; personal communication with study authors yielded unpublished reports addressing gang outcomes, but insufficient detail precluded determining inclusion status. Seven remaining reports were excluded as irrelevant because they were narrative reviews or descriptions of programs without evaluations, did not address a gang prevention programme, or did not address a gang prevention program that included a cognitive-behavioural intervention. The remaining four full-text reports excluded because of study design, leading to 0 included studies. MAIN RESULTS: No randomised controlled trials or quasi-randomised controlled trials were identified. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: No evidence from randomised controlled trials or quasi-randomised controlled trials exists regarding the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural interventions for gang prevention. Four evaluations of Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) have been conducted, two of which were part of a US national evaluation, but all were excluded based on study design. Reviewers conclude there is an urgent need for rigorous primary evaluations of cognitive-behavioural interventions for gang prevention to develop this research field and guide future gang prevention programmes and policies

Evidence-Based Interventions for Violent Behavior in Children and Adolescents

There are very few evidence-based interventions specifically for violent behavior in children and adolescents. However, interventions for antisocial behavior problems have shown some efficacy in violence reduction and are reviewed in detail in this chapter. Effective interventions attempt to target established risk factors and a number of these are outlined, including early onset of antisocial behavior, callous-unemotional traits, poor regulation of anger, family factors and peer influences. The implications of these risk factors for intervention approaches is explored and basic principles of intervention described. The chapter then describes specific interventions, for both children and adolescents, and reviews the evidence on their efficacy. It provides detailed descriptions of some of the most promising interventions using different approaches, in particular those for adolescents, and identifies interventions that have been shown not to work. The chapter concludes with a review of the current evidence base for interventions with children and adolescents with callous-unemotional traits

Role of the ubiquitin–proteasome system in nervous system function and disease : using C. elegans as a dissecting tool

In addition to its central roles in protein quality control, regulation of cell cycle, intracellular signaling, DNA damage response and transcription regulation, the ubiquitin– proteasome system (UPS) plays specific roles in the nervous system, where it contributes to precise connectivity through development, and later assures functionality by regulating a wide spectrum of neuron-specific cellular processes. Aberrations in this system have been implicated in the etiology of neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative diseases. In this review, we provide an updated view on the UPS and highlight recent findings concerning its role in normal and diseased nervous systems. We discuss the advantages of the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans as a tool to unravel the major unsolved questions concerning this biochemical pathway and its involvement in nervous system function and dysfunction, and expose the new possibilities, using state-ofthe- art techniques, to assess UPS function using this model system.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - PTDC/SAU-GMG/ 101572/2008, PTDC/SAU-NMC/120144/2010, SFRH/BD/47963/200