Long-Term Effects of Early Childhood Programs on Social Outcomes and Delinquency
Abstract
The search for ways to prevent juvenile crime in the United States has become a matter of national urgency, as the incidence of serious offenses continues to rise. Most prevention initiatives focus on late childhood or adolescence. Such initiatives may be missing an important additional opportunity to intervene earlier in children's lives. This review of literature from criminology, psychology, and education shows that there exist key early childhood factors which are associated with later antisocial or delinquent behavior and that early childhood programs which seek to ameliorate the effects of those factors can prevent later antisocial or delinquent behavior. In particular, the review focuses on programs which have demonstrated long-term effects on antisocial behavior or delinquency. These programs have in common a combination of intensive family support and early education services, and effects on a broad range of child and family risk factors for delinquency. Moreover, there is promising evidence of their cost-effectiveness. As one element in a comprehensive plan to address poverty and other environmental causes of crime, programs combining family support with early education show promise in lessening the current devastating impact of delinquency on America's children and families.
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Multimodal preventing programs combining preschool intervention and family support have been associated with the most enduring beneficial effects on social outcomes, including better overall academic performances and lower delinquency and antisocial behavior rates.
“multimodal preventing programs combining preschool intervention and family support have been associated to the most enduring beneficial effects on a number of social outcomes, including significant better overall academic performances and lower delinquency and antisocial behavior rates [49]”
From Prevention and early intervention in youth mental health: is it time for a multidisciplinary and trans-diagnostic model for care? (2020) · cites this paper as [49]
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- Authors
- Yoshikawa, H.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Yoshikawa, Hirokazu
- ORCID
- Yoshikawa, Hirokazu
- Venue
- The Future of Children
- Publisher
- JSTOR
- Published
- 1995
- Volume
- 5
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 51
- ISSN
- 1054-8289 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1972118613
- Cited by
- 451
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 17 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 17
- FWCI
- 44.41
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The Future of Children (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
- Social Sciences › Safety Research › Youth Development and Social Support
- Keywords
- early childhood programs, juvenile delinquency, antisocial behavior, juvenile delinquency prevention, family support, early childhood education, long-term effects, cost-effectiveness, poverty and crime, social outcomes
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Child, Child, Preschool, Crime, Family Therapy, Female, Forecasting, Humans, Infant, Juvenile Delinquency, Male, Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care, Personality Development, Social Adjustment, United States, Early Intervention, Educational
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