In the Eye of the Reformer: Higher Education Personnel Perspectives on Campus Sexual Assault Policy Implementation

ABSTRACT

Despite recent attention to campus sexual assault (CSA), we know little about how institutions of higher education (IHE) have approached policy reform. Using anonymous web-based survey responses of 190 staff, faculty, and administrators from IHEs, we examined priorities that guided CSA policy implementation, as well as characteristics that explain attitudes toward CSA policy reforms. Respondents were significantly more likely to think policies had improved than to think that CSA is exaggerated or feel frustrated by the process of implementing CSA reforms. Respondents were also more likely to name due process and fairness as a high priority on their campus than creating a victim-centered response or managing the campus’ public image, suggesting that IHEs have carefully considered due process protections as they have implemented policies.     

The Impact of Increased State Regulation of Campus Sexual Assault Practices: Perspectives of Campus Personnel

ABSTRACT

Seeking to improve university accountability and compliance with federal mandates, states are considering new reforms including mandating reporting of campus sexual assault allegations. These new policies remain an empirical “black box.” To address these gaps, the current exploratory study draws upon a recent survey that examines the extent of awareness, perceptions, concerns, and policy practices of victim advocates and other personnel concerning new legislation. Virginia is chosen as the state for this case study given its recent implementation of a controversial mandated reporting law, as well as other initiatives, across institutions of higher education. Findings suggest that campus personnel are aware and largely supportive of the new reforms, but they also share concerns. Implications for research and policy development are discussed.     

High Schools Respond to Crises

Abstract

Schools across the nation have increasingly coordinated crisis intervention programs to minimize the impact felt by students as the result of a crisis, such as national events and school violence. Through the development of response plans and crisis teams, as well as the instrumental work of school counselors in promoting intervention plans and prevention programs, school systems have taken steps toward assisting students in recovery from crises. Theories of crisis intervention emerge from direct practice; however, minimal research has been conducted to examine how schools plan to respond to crises versus their actual response. This research investigated what high schools in one Massachusetts county have learned from actual response to crises. The study was conducted via written surveys of administrators and qualitative interviews with school counselors.     

An Assessment of the Relationship Between the Quality of School-Based Tobacco Prevention Programs and Youth Tobacco Use

SUMMARY

This study presents data from an assessment of substance use prevention programs in 23 elementary and middle schools in northern and central Illinois. The quality of prevention programming was assessed based on program intensity, focus on tobacco, staff resources designated for prevention programs, and implementation of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations for tobacco prevention. Data from these four dimensions were used to calculate a Quality Index Score. Multilevel logistic regression analysis was used to assess the relationship between individual level variables, school level variables and the outcomes of reported current tobacco use, intent to use tobacco in the coming year, and perceived efficacy of substance use prevention programs. No significant effects were found, indicating that exclusive use of even high quality school-based prevention programs may not be sufficient in changing youth behavior. However, school-based prevention programs may be an important component of a broader ecological approach that uses multiple, community-wide strategies to promote normative change.     

Introduction

Summary

Rapid population growth in the Third World has been accompanied by the creation of national family planning programs, which attempt to slow growth rates through programs aimed at the prevention of births. These programs represent large scale, modern bureaucratic health delivery systems that are transplanted from the industrialized world. They raise the problem of whether such modern organizations can have an impact on reproductive behavior throughout the Third World. A large scale research program on Asian family planning programs provides some of the answers to these critical questions. First, pooled cross-national time series data indicate that as family planning programs grew and their inputs of staff and funds increased, both contraceptive and birth prevention increased. Further, multiple regression analyses indicate a positive impact of program inputs on both contraceptive use rates and birth prevention, even when levels of social and economic development are controlled. There is also, however, much variance among countries in their patterns of both program performance and birth prevention. Four country cases are examined-the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea, and Indonesia-to show that the character of political organization has an impact on the performance of these modern bureaucratic birth prevention organizations.     

Welcome baby programs

SUMMARY

Several successful prevention programs are recognized as exemplars of implementation. Complicated multidimensional interventions with different goals and directed at different target populations have been conducted with a high degree of fidelity using a common set of strategies. Future research priorities involve identifying the specific factors that promote implementation and determining what levels of implementation are necessary to achieve maximum program impact.     

Identifying Common Practices in Community-Based Rape Prevention Programs

Community-based rape prevention programs have received little attention in the research literature. In this study qualitative methods were used to describe such programs and to assess the degree of homogeneity in their practices. In-depth interviews were conducted with representatives of 10 community-based prevention programs in a single state. Findings suggest that two typologies exist: short programs and extended programs. Homogeneity across programs was common as most programs emphasized secondary and tertiary prevention and relied on short curricula that are implemented with mixed-gender groups of students. A comparison to practices found in the research literature indicate that they are mostly using the same practices and these practices have not been demonstrated to have sustained behavioral effects that would reduce the incidence of sexual violence. Implications for future practice are discussed.     

Teachers' Attitudes and Beliefs About Bullying

Abstract

Two exploratory studies were conducted to investigate U.S. teachers' attitudes and beliefs about bullying. Although most teachers believed they were doing a good job at preventing bullying, results indicate that some teachers hold beliefs that are at odds with current best practices in bullying prevention and intervention. First-year teachers would like more training in bullying despite reported confidence in their abilities to handle bullying, and report they did not receive such training either in teacher preparation programs or in-service training.     

The School-Based Violence Prevention Planning Program

Abstract

Despite a growing research literature identifying evidence-based prevention strategies, schools often adopt programs lacking evidentiary support (Gottfredson and Gottfredson, 2002; Ringwalt et al., 2002). Further, when evidence-based programs are adopted they often suffer from poor implementation (Gottfredson and Gottfredson, 2002). This gap between research and practice defines a need for efforts to further the dissemination and effective implementation of evidence-based prevention strategies. The School-Based Violence Prevention Planning Program (SBV3P) is designed to improve the dissemination of evidence-based prevention strategies by building the capacity of school personnel to identify and effectively implement violence prevention strategies that have substantial empirical support. In this program, prevention planning teams from schools create violence prevention plans by progressing through a structured planning framework emphasizing data-driven decision making and the use of empirically validated violence prevention strategies. To build capacity, participating teams are provided with training, technical assistance, and online resources. Here we present the SBV3P and review a pilot test of this program.     

Adolescent Parents and Their Children: A Multifaceted Approach to Prevention of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE)

Childhood experiences can have long-term effects. Research shows that children who undergo adverse childhood experiences (ACE) often have negative health and mental health outcomes later in life. Children of adolescent parents with high ACE Scores are at greater risk of ACE. As such, an intergenerational approach to preventing ACE is proposed in this article, addressing the needs of both the adolescent parent and their children. A review of the literature indicates that a public health perspective can guide the development of a prevention model aimed at reducing the effects of ACE. The current article proposes a universal, multifaceted, and interdisciplinary prevention science model that has two targets: adolescent parents and their children. Schools and early childhood programs can be mobilized to offer community prevention strategies across realms to include the individual, community, provider, coalitions/networks, organizational practices, and policy/legislation.     

Overview of Michigan Prevention Programming

Abstract

The Michigan Department of Mental Health's prevention programming has centered around the development of community service models through pilot demonstration projects. A systems approach has resulted in the formulation of departmental guidelines and policies. Pilot demonstration projects have been directed primarily at enhancing coping skills of high risk populations. Collaborative interagency efforts have provided an additional dimension to Michigan prevention programming.     

Chapter 9: The Use of Law for Prevention in the Public Interest

Summary

One of the most important functions of law and the legal system is to prevent harm by regulating conduct prospectively. Almost all law—whether in the form of a statute enacted by a legislative body or a judgment decreed by a court—is designed, at least in part, to avoid some socially undesirable future state of affairs. This chapter explores some of the more significant ways in which lawmaking (both legislative and judicial) may be regarded as a form of prevention and the legal system may be used for prevention in the public interest. Although the chapter focuses on litigation and legislation of particular interest to those in the fields of mental health and mental retardation, the legal processes and principles described extend to many other areas of law with implications for promoting health and preventing harm.     

School Violence Interventions in the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative

Abstract

The Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative was designed to encourage collaboration among school districts and local community service providers in the provision of behavioral health prevention and early intervention efforts. These efforts would address the physical safety of students as well as provide mental health, violence prevention, and social skills services. One local SS/HS Initiative brought together community and school collaborators in an ambitious agenda that included 14 distinct programs that addressed the needs of over 110,000 students in a large school district. The purpose of the current paper is to report the results of the evaluation of two of the programs designed to reduce violent and disruptive behavior in schools. The programs include a school-based anger management program and a community-based, alternative-to-suspension program. Working in cooperation with program staff and the school district, quasi-experimental designs were used to measure change over time for students. The two studies demonstrate the application of multiple methodologies in evaluating the effectiveness of prevention and early intervention efforts with the aim of providing data to support program improvement and sustainability.     

The Status of Preventive Care for the Aged

Abstract

One response to the growing needs of the elderly is to expand the scope of preventive care from the younger and middle aged cohorts to include an emphasis on preventive care for older people. In the past it has been difficult to consider prevention and aging as concepts which could co-exist because we can neither cure nor prevent aging. The potential of preventive care to improve, maintain, or lessen decline in the quality of life of the elderly has not been included in the definition or mainstream of prevention activities. This study identifies and reviews research and programmatic activities which have been reported in the literature over the last ten years in the area of prevention and aging. Topical areas and methodological approaches are explored to define what has been considered appropriate preventive care for the elderly. An evaluation process, meta-analysis, is used to assess the therapeutic effect and overall effectiveness of techniques in prevention and aging. These findings can be used in formulating future initiatives related to aging and prevention.     

Identifying High-Risk Students During School Transition

Summary

A preventive, community-based program was designed to facilitate high school transition and reduce dropout. Participants in the study were ninth grade, predominantly Hispanic inner-city students. School absence was used as a variable to identify students who were at high risk for failure. Compared with low- and middle-absence groups, the high-absence groups' failures and class rankings deteriorated consistently across time points. In addition, over time, high-absence group students experienced more pronounced increases in school absence and decreases in academic achievement relative to low- and middle-absence counterparts. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for dropout prevention programming.     

Design and Implementation of Parent Programs for a Community-Wide Adolescent Alcohol Use Prevention Program

SUMMARY

Project Northland is a comprehensive community trial designed to evaluate programs for the primary prevention of alcohol-related problems during adolescence. It uses a community-wide model, that includes both demand and supply reduction techniques. The first phase of Project Northland (grades 6-8) was completed with the effective implementation of multiple, complementary programs including a multi-year social behavioral curriculum, intensive parental involvement components, peer leadership opportunities, and community-level changes through the formation of local task forces. This article describes the process used for developing and implementing the comprehensive parent interventions used during the first phase of the research, highlighting the elements that led to the successful implementation of the programs with very high participation rates by parents, their young adolescents, teachers, and community members.     

Residual Effects of Repeated Bully Victimization Before the Age of 12 on Adolescent Functioning

Abstract

In this study, data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY 97) were used to examine early adolescent functioning as a result of being bullied. The NLSY 97 asked 4807 youths from age 12 to 14 whether they had been the victims of repeated bullying before the age of 12. In this study, 19.1% of the youths responded that they had experienced this repeated violence. It was found that the youth who have been bullied are exhibiting behaviors that are very different than their non-bullied peers. In every instance those individuals that admit to being repeatedly bullied before the age of 12 were less successful in negotiating various aspects of their life as a teenager. This underscores the need for programs that address bully prevention. Some programmatic initiatives aimed at reducing this victimized population are discussed.     

Concealed Guns on College Campuses: Examining Support for Campus Carry Among Faculty,Staff, and Students

ABSTRACT

This study examined the factors that influence support for campus carry laws among a sample of approximately 2,700 faculty/administrators, staff, and students at a large, public university in Georgia. Although previous research suggests that support for campus carry may differ across groups on campus, there have been no studies that have examined why these differences may exist. In order to shed light on this understudied issue, this study estimated the extent of support for campus carry and examined if the predictors of support varied across campus populations. Results indicated that there were differences in the proportion of each group that supported campus carry with students (57%) reporting a higher level of support than staff (39%) and faculty/administrators (19%). Further, results from multivariate analyses indicated that there are some differences in the factors that predict support for campus carry for faculty/administrators compared to staff and students.