UW News

David Hawkins


June 8, 2020

Early childhood intervention programs may reap benefits across generations

Young boy coloring at a classroom table

New research from a decades-long study by the University of Washington and the University of Colorado shows long-term benefits from a program to prevent problem behaviors in children.


July 25, 2019

Decades after a grade-school program to promote social development, adults report healthier, more successful lives

Photo of adult helping a boy in class with a paper.

University of Washington researchers have found that that “good life” in adulthood can start in grade school, by teaching parents and teachers to build stronger bonds with their children, and to help children form greater attachments to family and school.


April 26, 2018

Community efforts to prevent teen problems have lasting benefits

A University of Washington study finds that a community-based approach to substance-abuse prevention, which can include after-school activities, can affect young people into adulthood.

  Want to prevent kids from using drugs and make it stick into young adulthood? Get the community involved and intervene before they’re teens, say researchers from the University of Washington. A new, longitudinal study from the UW Social Development Research Group shows that young adults who grew up in communities that used a coordinated,…


July 30, 2015

UW-led group launches plan to reduce youth problems by 20 percent in a decade

Black and white image shot from the back of three boys walking.

A national coalition of experts that includes two University of Washington researchers has a bold plan to reduce behavioral health problems such as violence and depression among young people across the country by 20 percent in a decade. And their proposal rests on one simple principle: prevention. The group’s paper, recently published on the National…


March 13, 2014

Negative effects of joining a gang last long after gang membership ends

Bloods gang sign.

Joining a gang in adolescence has significant consequences in adulthood beyond criminal behavior, even after a person leaves the gang. Former gang members are more likely to be in poor health, receiving government assistance and struggling with drug abuse than someone who never joined a gang.


December 9, 2013

Communities across U.S. reduce teen smoking, drinking, violence and crime

Fewer high school students across the U.S. started drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, committing crimes and engaging in violence before graduation when their towns used a prevention system developed by UW’s Social Development Research Group.