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Mortality rates among young adults are rising in the U.S. due in part to “deaths of despair,” preventable deaths from suicide, drug overdoses and alcohol-related liver disease. An intensive childhood intervention program called Fast Track could help reduce these deaths by reducing risky behaviors in adolescence and young adulthood, finds new research from Duke University and the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group.
“To reduce deaths of despair, we must prevent the hopelessness and destructive behaviors that often lead to these deaths,” says study co-author Kenneth A. Dodge, the William McDougall Distinguished Professor of Public Policy Studies at the Duke Sanford School of Public Policy. Dodge is a member of the Conduct Problems Prevention Research Group that created the Fast Track program.
“We knew that the Fast Track intervention was successful at reducing aggression in childhood and reducing criminal arrests in early adulthood,” Dodge said. “What this latest study demonstrates is that this early intervention also has positive impact in increasing hope and reducing behaviors of despair.”
Factors contributing to deaths of despair include hopelessness, cynicism, poor interpersonal skills and conflict and failure in social relationships. Many of these factors originate during childhood and are ripe for preventive intervention, Dodge said.
Stories | Sanford School of Public Policy
Public policy scholar Nicholas Carnes at the Sanford School receives National Science Foundation award for research on lack of working class people in public office.
sanford.duke.edu