Emerging Ecological Approaches to Prevention, Health Promotion, and Public Health in the School Context: Next Steps From a Community Psychology Perspective

In recent years, ecological perspectives have become more visible in prevention, health promotion, and public health within the school context. Individually based approaches to understanding and changing behavior have been increasingly challenged by these perspectives because of their appreciation for contextual influences on individual behavior. The ecological perspective from community psychology integrates community research and intervention and encourages intervention and analysis at multiple levels within the system. The purpose of this article is (a) to trace briefly and through examples the evolution of ecological thinking in prevention, health promotion, and public health, and (b) to illustrate how the ecological perspective from community psychology can extend ecological thinking and acting with respect to research and intervention in the school context.