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.     

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 primary mental health project: Thirty years after

Summary

This article summarizes the 30‐year history of the Primary Mental Health Project (PMHP), a school‐based program for early detection and prevention of young children's school adjustment problems. The article first describes PMHP's rationale and basic practices, gives examples of how the project has grown and evolved over the years, and summarizes some of its important research findings. The report also reviews several more recent PMHP emphases including its systematic work in program dissemination and its active efforts to develop effective primary prevention program modules. PMHP's approach offers a bona fide alternative to mental health's established, after the fact, restorative ways.     

Environmental approaches and prevention: The dangers of imprecision

Abstract

This paper urges environmental psychologists to adopt an “empiricist stance” as they focus their field's expertise on issues related to prevention in mental health. Criteria for such a stance are presented which presume that preventive interventions evolve sequentially from a program of research which clarifies the nature, epidemiology, etiological mechanisms and natural history of the mental illness or psychological dysfunction to be prevented. The rationale for this stance is based on empirical, political and ethical grounds. The applicability of this stance to the current status of the emerging field of environmental approaches to prevention in mental health is reviewed specifically in relation to the contributions to the special issue of Prevention in Human Services.     

Linking Academics and Social Learning

Abstract

This article examines how school staff conceptualize their work with youths in an alternative school for weapon policy offenders after having undergone at least one year of a whole-school violence prevention program conducted by the Syracuse University Violence Prevention Project. The article examines the intent of school staff, their ideas, perspectives, and language about youths, violence, and schooling, and provides insights into the challenges and benefits of a whole-school approach to violence prevention. Their insights highlight what is needed for a violence prevention program to be successful. A major issue raised in the article is the importance of linking social learning and academics in violence prevention strategies, and of sustaining collaborative efforts that connect conflict resolution to acts of justice and support for youths' intellectual and emotional lives.     

Stress Management Training for Low-Income Women

Abstract

The stress management training model (SMT) was developed as a multi-dimensional program for low-income women. The program provided an introduction to life coping skills as well as a means of helping women feel better about themselves, take more control, accept responsibility, and learn about ways of handling stress. Two studies were conducted in Michigan: one as a prevention model and one as a treatment alternative. Findings from these two projects indicated that trained women were in better mood states and reported a greater perception of control than did women who did not receive such training. Services for SMT participants were also found to be nearly half as expensive as traditional one-on-one outpatient therapy.     

Successful Program Development Using Implementation Evaluation

SUMMARY

Four methods used to enhance implementation of a resiliency-based early childhood substance abuse and violence prevention initiative are described. Project staff drew up formal agreements with participating programs to ensure administrative support for the intervention, provided high quality training for program implemcnt-ers, used a participatory evaluation approach, and monitored implementation both directly and through practitioners' self-report. The contribution of each of these methods to fidelity of implementation is discussed, and implementation challenges are identified. The growth and success of the project demonstrates the utility of implementation evaluation data for ongoing program development and improvement.     

Socioeconomic Status and Behavior Problems

Abstract

Violence in the schools is a fundamental concern for students, educators and communities as they collectively address issues that make schools safer. A longitudinal analysis of disciplinary referrals was conducted with a large countywide school district to measure differences across socioeconomic status and school level. These variables proved to be critical in identifying and targeting schools that may need to be the focus of prevention and intervention efforts. Other suggestions related to the effects of school violence on academic instruction and methods for the targeting of services are discussed along with implications for educators and mental health professionals in school based settings.     

Promoting Methodological Pluralism,Theoretical Diversity and Interdisciplinarity Through a Multi-Leveled Violence Prevention Initiative in South Africa

SUMMARY

Violence prevention within low-income, under-resourced communities presents significant challenges to community development researcher-practitioners seeking to maximize partnerships, resource utilization and overall program effectiveness. This article highlights a South African research and service delivery organization's efforts to develop a violence prevention matrix, premised upon an adaptation of the public health approach and the infusion of a critical, community development praxis. It presents preliminary outcomes of a multi-level pilot application of this matrix in a low-income neighborhood in South Africa, specifically focusing on evaluating its capacity to foster methodological pluralism, theoretical diversity and interdisciplinarity, together with promoting community empowerment and coalition-building strategies.     

Alcohol Abuse Prevention Among High-Risk Youth

Abstract

This study examined the feasibility of a CD-ROM intervention to prevent alcohol abuse among high-risk youths. Youths from 41 community-based agencies in greater New York City participated in a randomized trial of a skills-based interactive CD-ROM. Outcome data were collected on 489 early adolescents in these agencies before and after a randomized subset of youths interacted with a 10-session alcohol abuse prevention program on CD-ROM. Compared to control participants, youths in the intervention arm had a positive increase in perceived harm of alcohol use and increased assertiveness skills. At posttest, drinking rates for control and intervention participants were equal and unchanged from pretest. These findings suggest that CD-ROM technology offers a new and promising medium for engaging high-risk youth in an alcohol abuse prevention program. Study implications and future applications of the present approach are discussed.     

A Community Model for Prevention Services

Abstract

Experience in Ionia county and Newaygo county in developing prevention services is described. These efforts, starting with needs assessment, illuminate principles underlying a community model for prevention services.     

Context Matters: Reactive and Proactive Bystander Action to Prevent Sexual and Dating Violence in High Schools

ABSTRACT

Given high rates of relationship violence among adolescents, there is a need to understand variables that influence adolescents’ helping behaviors to reduce risk for dating and sexual violence (reactive) and promote prevention before violence happens or risk factors are evident (proactive). The current paper examined individual and school variables related to greater actionism in a large sample of high school students. Baseline, cross-sectional data used in the current analyses were gathered before intervention as part of a prevention program evaluation across 25 high schools in New England from students in grades 9–12 (N= 3,404). Students who self-reported a greater number of proactive actions taken were students who identified as sexual minorities, had a history of victimization, and were in schools with supportive peer norms. The current findings suggest a model for prevention that might include training individuals and attending to school level variables.     

Preparing Child Welfare Practitioners: Implications for Title IV-E Education and Training Partnerships

ABSTRACT

High rates of child welfare practitioner turnover remain a national problem with significant consequences. Title IV-E education and training programs prepare child welfare practitioners for this line of work with the intent that they will create long term careers. This study analyzed qualitative data from a 2016 statewide electronic survey launched to obtain frontline child welfare practitioner feedback about workforce turnover and assist the agency in retention efforts.

Practitioner insight resulted in 189 responses specifically related to improving the state’s Title IV-E supported education and training program–the “Academy.” A qualitative thematic analysis identified three main themes: making it more realistic and hands on (n = 104), needing additional training and specific content (n = 45), and feeling overwhelmed with the experience (n = 40). Practitioner feedback illustrated the existing tensions with using a blended model to educate and train the workforce. Implications for Title IV-E education and training partnerships are discussed.     

Principal Perceptions of School Safety

Abstract

In a climate of continued national concern over school safety, school personnel are faced with a flood of statistics and advice about the prevalence of youth violence, and recommended responses. In the spring of 2000, a school safety survey (Sprague, Colvin, & Irvin, 1995) was sent to all public school principals in Oregon to assess their perceptions of risk and protective factors affecting school safety. We also asked questions about school safety concerns and intervention programs. We compared the results of the present survey with those found from administering the same survey in 1995. Results indicate that protective factors were rated higher than risk factors in 1995 and 2000. Bullying and harassment, poverty, and transiency were top rated risk factors in 2000 and these were different from results found in 1995. Principals rated response to conflict, suicide prevention, and staff training as top protective factors in 2000 and these also differed from the 1995 ratings. Regarding priorities for change, principals rated improvement of the academic program as their highest priority, followed by school safety and discipline improvement. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for local and state-level policy planning in education and government. We also address limitations of the current study and directions for future research.     

Role of School Psychologists in Violence Prevention and Intervention

Abstract

Kansas school psychologists were extremely accurate in their estimates of violence in their own schools and viewed school violence prevention as an important part of their job, regardless of the rates of violence in their districts. Most had at least some involvement in their own school's violence prevention program, although many reported that they had little or no training. Despite the fact that the majority of respondents work in districts with relatively low rates of violence, over half reported that fighting, bullying, and substance abuse, early warning signs of school violence, occur a lot or a fair amount in their districts.     

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.     

Responding to Gendered Violence Among College Students: The Impact of Participant Characteristics on Direct Bystander Intervention Behavior

ABSTRACT

Bystander intervention has been an effective strategy for crime prevention and has been successful in the context of campus sexual assault. Less is known about the extent to which individual-level factors correlate with intervention behavior in situations of intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual harassment. The present study used a sample of 377 undergraduate student surveys on a campus without a bystander intervention program to examine the impact of individual-level participant factors on direct intervention across sexual assault, IPV, and sexual harassment scenarios. Findings demonstrated statistically significant differences where positive bystander attitudes and violence prevention efficacy correlated with direct intervention for sexual assault; positive bystander attitudes, personality extroversion, and exposure to a victim increased intervention behavior in an IPV scenario, and positive bystander attitudes and violence prevention efficacy increased direct intervention and lifetime experience of IPV decreased direct intervention in a sexual harassment scenario. Research and policy implications are discussed.     

Stress containment through meditation

Summary

After demonstrating the effectiveness of meditation training for stress reduction in an occupational setting, the Medical Department at New York Telephone adopted a semi‐automated training program in this technique as part of the company's regular Employee Health Maintenance Program. The meditation training program has been implemented in all company branches throughout the state of New York and is presently available to all employees within the company who, in the opinion of the medical staff, are suffering from stress and are suitable candidates for meditation training. Over 3,500 individuals have been through the program.     

School Violence in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

This article reviews school violence prevention programs that were published between the years of 1990 and 1999. All the interventions fitting inclusion criteria involved being implemented in a school setting, using a control group, and including a quantitative methodology. Effect sizes were calculated for the final sixteen articles that were reviewed in the meta-analysis. A process of inspection was used in order to come up with treatment characteristics most common to each prevention program. Each study was thus described according to six categories: theoretical base, setting, age group, leader training, duration, and random assignment. Four studies resulted with strong effect sizes; however, a regression analysis was not conducted due to inadequate sample size. A review of the literature suggested that program impact could be significantly affected by the use of cognitive-behavioral strategies, multi-setting atmosphere, and primary (elementary school) prevention. In addition, intuitive support (common knowledge in the social science field) indicated that a qualified program leader and longer length of program could also contribute to the influence of a program. Future researchers are encouraged to use a more comprehensive literature review (e.g., past 20 years) in terms of conducting meta-anal-yses in order to provide a larger sample size adequate enough to see the true effects of different intervention components on outcomes (regression analysis; i.e., additive component effects).