Each avenue of our future work in behavioral genetics is guided by a single unifying goal: to apply the findings from the EGDS to inform future preventive interventions aimed at improving child and family well-being. A growing number of preventive intervention programs have undergone rigorous outcome evaluations using randomized trial designs, and many of these have produced moderate-to-strong, enduring effects on child and adolescent well-being (e.g., Botvin et al. 1998; Greenberg et al. 1998; Kellam et al. 2008; Olds et al. 2004; Webster-Stratton and Taylor 2001). Efficacious, cost-effective programs range from those using a universal prevention approach to promote child well-being for all youth in a given setting to those using a selected or indicated prevention approach with youth at risk for problems. Many of these interventions aim to strengthen specific parenting processes to reduce immediate or proximal risks in families and/or in classrooms and to directly improve child well-being and life skills. However, even within the context of effective intervention programs, not all youth and families improve during or following the intervention services (Kellam et al. 2008). Thus, even highly efficacious, cost-effective interventions can be improved upon to offer all children and families the optimal preventive intervention services.
