Prevention programs seek to promote positive health and behavior outcomes and reduce negative health and behavior outcomes. Such outcomes can include substance abuse, violence, educational achievement, employment, and physical and mental health. These outcomes do not occur in a vacuum but instead are affected by many different individual and contextual factors, such as gender, personality, family structure, and community values. Prevention programs may be designed to target one or more factors, many of [Page 1730]which vary with age. Those creating prevention programs must consider a developmental perspective in both the design and timing of programs. This entry includes a discussion of the types of prevention programs, how prevention programs are developed and assessed using mediation analysis, as well as examples of prevention programs across the ...