The Impact of Culturally Relevant Violence Prevention Models on School-Age Youth

Is More Necessarily Better? School Security and Perceptions of Safety among Students and Parents in the United States

The use of security measures within schools has increased dramatically over the past few decades. These proliferations are often touted by teachers, school administrators, politicians, and the public as necessary for improving student safety. Though research in this area is growing, we know little about how increased use of school security measures relates to both student and parental perceptions of school safety. Using data from wave one of the 2002 Educational Longitudinal Study, the current study investigates the relationship between the use of security measures in schools and student and parent assessments of safety. Findings from multi-level models indicate that school security measures are, generally, related to decreased perceptions of safety by both parents and students. Implications of these findings are addressed.

Evaluating the psychometric quality of school connectedness measures: A systematic review

INTRODUCTION

There is a need to comprehensively examine and evaluate the quality of the psychometric properties of school connectedness measures to inform school based assessment and intervention planning.

OBJECTIVE

To systematically review the literature on the psychometric properties of self-report measures of school connectedness for students aged six to 14 years.

METHODS

A systematic search of five electronic databases and gray literature was conducted. The COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of heath Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) taxonomy of measurement properties was used to evaluate the quality of studies and a pre-set psychometric criterion was used to evaluate the overall quality of psychometric properties.

RESULTS

The measures with the strongest psychometric properties was the School Climate Measure and the 35-item version Student Engagement Instrument exploring eight and 12 (of 15) school connectedness components respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The overall quality of psychometric properties was limited suggesting school connectedness measures available require further development and evaluation.

Lessons Learned from 50 Years of Violence Prevention Activities in the African American Community

PURPOSE

This article covers violence prevention (homicide and suicide) activities in the African American community for nearly 50 years.

METHOD

Drawing on lived experience the works of early and recent efforts by African American physicians, the author illustrates we know a great deal about violence prevention in the African American community.

RESULTS

There remains challenges of implementation and political will. Further, most physicians, like the public, are confused about the realities of homicide and suicide because of the two different presentations both are given in the media and scientific literature.

CONCLUSIONS

Responses to homicide and suicides should be based on science not distorted media reports. There are violence prevention principles that, if widely implemented, could stem the tide of violence.

Understanding the Role of School Connectedness and Its Association With Violent Attitudes and Behaviors Among an Ethnically Diverse Sample of Youth

Interpersonal youth violence is a growing public health concern in the United States. Having a high sense of school connectedness has been found to be a protective factor for youth violence. A high school course that aims to enhance school connectedness was developed and evaluated to investigate the students' sense of school connectedness and its association with violent attitudes and behaviors. Survey data from 598 students from a predominately Asian and Pacific Islander student body were analyzed to assess their level of school connectedness and violent attitudes and behaviors. Analysis of Variance was used to identify differences in the school connectedness and violence scores related to students' demographic characteristics. The role of school connectedness in the relationship between student demographic characteristics and violent attitudes and behaviors was examined with structural equation modeling. Overall, students reported a moderately high sense of school connectedness. School connectedness was found to be negatively associated with violent attitudes but not self-reported violent behaviors. Multiple-group analyses were conducted across the ethnic groups, which found differential associations between the school connectedness and violence variables. These results highlight the value of disaggregating the Asian and Pacific Islander category and the need for future research to further contextualize and clarify the relationship between school connectedness and interpersonal youth violence. This will help inform the development of evidence-based strategies and prevention programming that focus on school connectedness to address disparities in interpersonal youth violence outcomes.

Celebrating the strengths of black youth: increasing self-esteem and implications for prevention

The purpose of this study was to test the impact of a preventive intervention program, celebrating the strengths of black youth (CSBY), on African American children's self-esteem, racial identity, and parental racial socialization messages. CSBY consisted of 10 in-person group sessions in which small groups of middle school students met two trained group leaders. Parents were invited to attend three of the 10 group sessions. African American children between the ages of 7 and 10 were randomly assigned to either a treatment (TX; n = 33) or waitlist control (WLC; n = 40) group. Pre- and post-measures were completed to capture treatment effects. Analyses revealed that treatment group participants had higher levels of self-esteem post intervention than WLC group participants. In addition, treatment group parents were more likely to communicate egalitarian messages to their children post intervention than WLC parents. The advantages of a cultural heritage, strengths-based preventive intervention for African American youth and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Developing a comprehensive school connectedness scale for program evaluation

BACKGROUND

Evidence show that school connectedness is important to youth wellness. However, considerable inconsistency in the concepts and measures of school connectedness exists across studies. In addition, many measures do not capture the multifaceted dimensions of the school connectedness construct. This study examined the psychometric properties of a school connectedness scale that aimed to measure comprehensively the key constructs of school connectedness.

METHODS

The scale was developed with teachers and tested with an ethnically diverse sample of 717 high school students enrolled in a school connectedness course using confirmatory factor analysis.

RESULTS

Confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated the association of the 15 items with the 5 factors identified in the literature-school involvement, academic motivation, school attachment, teacher support, and peer relations (χ(2) = 439.99, df = 83, p < .0001, Comparative Fit Index = 0.991, Tucker-Lewis index = 0.988, root mean square error of approximation = 0.077). Cronbach coefficient alphas for the factors ranged from 0.73 to 0.93.

CONCLUSIONS

Although further tests need to be conducted to assess its validity and reliability, this newly developed scale may provide researchers a tool to measure comprehensively school connectedness for program evaluation.

Are Risky Youth Less Protectable As They Age? The Dynamics of Protection During Adolescence and Young Adulthood

Research on recidivism in criminal justice and desistance in criminology are not integrated. Yet, both fields seem to be moving towards models that look at how positive elements in a person's environment can impact a person's behavior, conditional on different levels of risk. This study builds on this observation by applying interactional theory and the concept of Risk-Needs-Responsivity to theorize that both Needs and Responsivity will change over time in predictable ways. We then use a novel empirical approach with the Rochester Youth Development Study to show that even in late adolescence, individuals who are at risk for violence can be protected from future violence and risky behavior like gun carrying with positive events in their environment and personal life. In young adulthood, fewer people are still at risk for violence, and those who are at risk are harder to protect from future violence and gun carrying.

Family process and peer deviance influences on adolescent aggression: longitudinal effects across early and middle adolescence

Beginning in sixth grade at an average age of 11.9 years, 416 adolescents and their parents participated in 4 waves of data collection involving family observations and multiple-reporter assessments. Ecological theory and the process-person-context-time (PPCT) model guided the hypotheses and analyses. Lagged, growth curve models revealed that family hostility and peer deviance affiliation predicted adolescent aggression in the subsequent year. Family warmth played only a minor role in protecting against adolescent aggression. In hostile or low-warmth families, peer deviance affiliation linked to a declining aggression trajectory consistent with the arena of comfort hypothesis. The longitudinal findings suggest a nonadditive, synergistic interplay between family and peer contexts across time in adding nuance to understanding the adolescent aggression.

Culturally sensitive interventions and health and behavioral health youth outcomes: a meta-analytic review

Despite Census Bureau projections that youth from minority cultures will comprise the majority of the nation's youth in approximately a decade, little research has been conducted on culturally sensitive interventions (CSIs). Accordingly, this study sought to determine: (1) the effectiveness of CSIs designed to address health and behavioral health outcomes, (2) whether effectiveness varies depending on the class or type of outcome, and (3) whether race/ethnicity moderates effectiveness. The results suggest that CSIs (n = 21) are modestly effective (Hedges' g = .239, 95% C.I. = .139 to .339, p < .001). Effectiveness did not vary significantly by outcome class or by race/ethnicity. Especially in the latter case, however, the pattern of point estimates raises the possibility of moderation with an increase in power. Suggestions for future research conclude the article.

Effectiveness of interventions to prevent youth violence a systematic review

OBJECTIVES

To identify interventions effective in preventing youth violent behavior and commonalities of effective and ineffective interventions.

METHODS

A systematic review of the literature on the effectiveness of youth violence interventions was conducted. Interventions were categorized according to the level of the intervention: primary (implemented universally to prevent the onset of violence), secondary (implemented selectively with youth at increased risk for violence), and tertiary (focused on youth who had already engaged in violent behavior). An intervention was considered effective if one or more violence outcome indicators was reported as significantly different at the p<0.05 level, and ineffective if none of the violence outcome indicators was significantly different at the p<0.05 level. Data collection and analysis were conducted in 2003 and updated in 2006.

RESULTS

Forty-one studies were included in the review. Overall, 49% of interventions were effective. Tertiary-level interventions were more likely to report effectiveness than primary- or secondary-level interventions. Effective interventions evaluated by randomized controlled trials included Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways, Aban Aya Youth Project, Moving to Opportunity, Early Community-Based Intervention Program, Childhaven's Therapeutic Child-Care Program, Turning Point: Rethinking Violence, and a multisystemic therapy program. Differences among programs and within subpopulations could not be assessed because of inadequate data.

CONCLUSIONS

Increasing effectiveness was reported as the level of intervention increased from primary to tertiary. Approaches to evaluate prevention interventions need to be clarified and standardized.