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Introduction: A continuing increase in prevalence of non-specific back pain in children and adolescents has been observed. The paper presents the results of a literature review on prevalence of back pain, the factors associated with the occurrence of back pain including gender, age, anthropometric parameters, lifestyle risk factors, school-related risk factors, the role of psychological, social, and behavioural factors and the efficacy of prevention in the treatment of nonspecific back pain in youth with no identified specific structural reason or cause. Methods: The electronic search of the following academic databases was conducted: Medline, PubMed, Google Scholar, PEDro, Springer Link, Elseviewer and The Cochrane Library. Included in the analysis were the cross-sectional, longitudinal, prospective and correlational research studies published between 2001 and 2011 in the English, German and Slovenian languages discussing nonspecific chronic or acute backpain and/or low back pain in children and adolescents. Only 50 out of 97 hits were analysed in the study. Results: Results of the study indicate that the occurrence of back pain has been increasing. According to the results, the observed prevalence increase of non-specific back pain may be related to female gender, age, school furniture, physical inactivity, high intensity training, traumas, previous history of back pain, rapid body growth, mechanical load (principally schoolbag carriage), decreased flexibility of the anterior and posterior thigh muscles, conduct and emotional problems and loneliness. Discussion and conclusion: Numerous etiological studies have identified the factors associated with the occurrence of back pain. The interventional prevention programmes have so far focused mainly on health education of children on proper posture and spine care education, pinpointing the importance of regular daily physical activity or a combination of both.