The Developmental Systems Framework for developmental prevention in disadvantaged communities: moving from small scale demonstrations to large scale practice
Ross Homel
Griffith Institute for Social and Behavioural Research
Contact Email:   r.homelgriffith.edu.au

Developmental prevention involves the organized provision of resources to individuals, families, schools or communities to forestall the later development of problems such as mental health disorders, crime, and child maltreatment. Within the developmental systems framework, development is understood as systematic and successive change in individuals or in other units of analysis that is associated with the dynamic relations over time among structures from multiple levels of organization. These levels of organization range from the individual or inner- psychological through the proximal social relational - especially within the context of the family - through local community levels to the sociocultural and social structural. Within this interdisciplinary perspective human agency and relative plasticity across the life course are central concepts, and family processes, social institutions and societal access routes that open up opportunities to take new directions are fundamental to the preventive enterprise. The basic unit of analysis is relations, connections or transactions between individuals and contexts and between levels of organization. This paper uses the Pathways to Prevention project in Brisbane as an example of a research-practice-policy partnership developed within the systems framework that aims to apply knowledge about human development to the design of programs that affect preschool and primary school children living in socially and economically disadvantaged communities. Reflective analyses highlight the importance of policies and practices that promote strong connections between the systems and social settings within which children develop, especially the family and the school. The paper discusses the prospects for generalising this approach across Australia in the light of experience with Pathways, Communities for Children, and similar programs in Australia and internationally.

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