ABSTRACT
Prevention refers to interventions taken to avoid the development of problems before they arise or to minimize the negative impact of problems early in their development (Roberts & Peterson, 1984b). Prevention is a simple concept captured in Benjamin Franklin's "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." However, the prevention concept becomes difficult to apply in practice. All too often, prevention of problems becomes lost in demands for rehabilitative or clinical services for those already experiencing problems. Merging prevention concepts, derived from child health psychology, pediatric psychology, and public health, with the concerns of a health psychology for families is the focus of this chapter. The domain of family health psychology should inherently involve both physical health and mental health of children and adults in the group defined as family. The ultimate goal of this field is the application of psychological knowledge and techniques to the limitation, reversal, or prevention of problems that limit the full enjoyment of physical and psychological health. Problems may range from obesity to injuries, smoking to substance abuse, and anxiety and pain to heart disease, for example.
