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Prevention Science

Official Journal of the Society for Prevention Research

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Prevention Science - Call for Papers: "Structural Approaches to Youth Violence Prevention: Addressing Racism and Discrimination"

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May 31, 2024

Call for Papers for a Supplemental Issue of Prevention Science

Structural Approaches to Youth Violence Prevention:

Addressing Racism and Discrimination

Co-Editors:

Crystal L. Barksdale, PhD, MPH (National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health)

Jennifer Alvidrez, Ph.D. (National Institutes of Health, Office of Disease Prevention) &

Krista Mehari, PhD (Vanderbilt University)

For the past several years, the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) at the NIH has recognized the need to support research that specifically addresses structural factors known to be associated with youth violence. For example, in 2017, NIMHD issued a funding opportunity, RFA-MD-18-005, to support research to develop and test youth violence prevention interventions that incorporates racism/discrimination prevention strategies. Research. However, evidence-based interventions to prevent youth violence by addressing structural inequities remain scarce in the published literature.

The goal of this Supplemental issue of the journal Prevention Science is to advance work in this area by highlighting the latest advances in the conceptualization, development, testing, and dissemination of community engaged, multilevel youth violence prevention interventions that address racism/discrimination and other structural and social determinants. This Supplement aims to bring together both scholars funded by the NIMHD initiative on youth violence prevention (i.e., RFA-MD-18-005) as well as other key scholars in the field of youth violence prevention to describe their work on preventive intervention development, implementation, and dissemination through an equity lens. Of particular interest is original empirical research that describes the impact of interventions on individual, community, social, and structural factors, especially structural racism and discrimination, on youth violence prevention. Manuscripts may describe prospective intervention studies as well as natural policy experiments at local, state, regional, or national levels. Also welcome in this Supplement are conceptual papers that describe current challenges and viable solutions to implementing sustainable multilevel, multisectoral interventions that address social and structural factors that place youth at highest risk for violence and address extant disparities in youth violence.

Authors interested in contributing a manuscript for this Supplement of Prevention Science are asked to submit a letter of intent by September 30, 2024, which includes the following: (1) tentative title; (2) brief description of 500 words or less; (3) brief justification of 100 words or less of how the proposed submission contributes to the goal of the Supplement; and (4) list of proposed authors with their  affiliations, including contact information for the Corresponding Author. The Guest Co-Editors will review the letters of intent for fit with the Supplemental Issue and will work to provide an inclusive set of papers that best advances theoretical and empirical knowledge regarding the innovations in structural approaches to addressing youth violence prevention. Letters of intent should be sent electronically as a PDF or Word file to Crystal Barksdale (crystal.barksdale@nih.gov), Krista Mehari (krista.mehari@Vanderbilt.edu), and Jennifer Alvidrez (jennifer.alvidrez@nih.gov) with the subject line noted as "Supplemental Issue of Prevention Science: Youth Violence Prevention." All letters of intent will be reviewed by November 15, 2024, and invited contributors will be asked to submit a full manuscript through the online review system by March 15, 2025. Manuscripts will be sent out for full peer review in accordance with the standard Prevention Science review guidelines.

Questions concerning letters of intent can be directed to Drs. Crystal Barksdale, Krista Mehari, and Jennifer Alvidrez. Manuscript formats can include original empirical submissions, conceptual papers, meta-analyses, brief reports etc. For additional information on the journal and author guidelines, see http://link.springer.com/journal/11121.

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