ABSTRACT
There is probably very little that prevention program designers and researchers all agree on. One point of agreement is that the first step in developing and evaluating a prevention program is to carefully and clearly define the goals. Thus, defining what problem behaviors or risk factors are to be prevented (or changed) and which protective factors or health enhancing behaviors are to be strengthened is the starting point. The prevention of problem behavior is typically a distal goal, whereas changing risk or protective factors may represent more proximal or immediate goals of prevention programs.
