Urban youth violence prevention: effectiveness of a scaled‐up practice‐to‐research programme
| Published date | 30 November 2012 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/17466661211286472 |
| Date | 30 November 2012 |
| Pages | 246-261 |
| Author | Lisa M. Chauveron,Amanda C. Thompkins,Ofer Harel |
| Subject Matter | Education,Health & social care,Sociology |
Urban youth violence prevention:
effectiveness of a scaled-up
practice-to-research programme
Lisa M. Chauveron, Amanda C. Thompkins and Ofer Harel
Abstract
Purpose – The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effectiveness of The Leadership Program’s Violence
Prevention Project (VPP) – a 12-session programme consisting of explicit curriculum-based classroom
instruction designed for adolescents to promote a range of communication skills associated with
violence prevention and alter classroom norms about aggression and violence.
Design/methodology/approach – A multi-site, quasi-experimental effectiveness trial examined pre-
and post-implementation surveys that assessed violence-related behaviours and attitudes from 3,264
6th-8th grade students in 24 urban public schools acrossfour consecutive academic years (2005-2009).
Findings – Multilevel modelling showed VPP buffered negative beliefs and behaviour in a wide range of
violence-related outcomes including peer support and tolerance for aggression. VPP also promoted
positive conflict resolution skills by reducing the use of verbally and physically aggressive resolution
strategies over time in programme participants. Programme quality was maintained through a five point
practitioner-created fidelity system amenable to real-world conditions.
Originality/value – Findings indicate semester-long violence prevention programmes promoting
communication skills are effective with urban early adolescents.
Keywords Youth development, Implementation research, Violence, Young adults, Social problems,
Social differentiation, Management effectiveness
Paper type Research paper
Background
Universal school-based prevention programmes have demonstrated their effectiveness at
reducing the aggressive behaviours associated with youth violence. For more than two
decades, schools have hosted preventive interventions that have reduced verbal and
physical aggression and increased the pro-social attitudes, behaviours, and skills necessary
for healthy youth development (HHS, 2001; Wilson et al., 2003). Despite this success,
traditional school schedules are increasingly unable to accommodate the requirements of
such programmes. School reforms demand greater focus on academics, making scarce time
for classroom instruction beyond the scope of core curriculum, particularly in middle and high
schools across the globe whose trimester and semester structures allow only 12-16 weeks,
respectively, for subject content delivery. Budget reductions faced by school systems in
numerous countries compound these limitations. One solution is the utilisation of evidence-
based programmes whose time requirements fit into semester and trimester schedules.
Classroom-based prevention curricula with as few as ten sessions have effectively reduced
aggressive and violent behaviour (Barnoski, 2004; Hausman et al., 1996) and have been rated
as model programmes; thus, short, effective programmes are practical options.
With fewer sessions available to make impacts, short programmes arguably necessitate
implementation fidelity to ensure anticipated outcomes are replicated. When model
interventions are delivered under real-world conditions factors including differences in
school settings, staff buy-in, and resource restrictions commonly challenge the integrity of
PAGE 246
j
JOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S SERVICES
j
VOL. 7 NO. 4 2012, pp. 246-261, QEmerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 1746-6660 DOI 10.1108/17466661211286472
Lisa M. Chauveron and
Amanda C. Thompkins are
based at The Leadership
Program, New York,
New York, USA.
Ofer Harel is based in the
Department of Statistics,
The University of
Connecticut, Storrs,
Connecticut, USA.
programme design (Greenberg et al., 2005). Additionally, since community implementers
tend to alter or drop elements in effort to meet participant needs and foster their own sense of
ownership (Rotheram-Borus et al., 2009; Schoenwald and Hoagwood, 2001), and frequently
run out of time to deliver content (Hill et al., 2007) the actual versus intended programme
dosage may be affected. Further, continuously assessing fidelity in multi-site community
implementations is especially difficult (Ogden et al., 2005). To ensure viability, then, short
programmes should use designs that account for known fidelity threats and establish
monitoring systems maintainable by community-based disseminators.
One such programme is The Leadership Program’s Violence Prevention Project (VPP),
a school-based preventive intervention for urban middle (6-8th grades) and high school
(9-10th grades) students. VPP, a practice-to-research initiative, reduces violence by
increasing peer support, improving conflict resolution skills, and changing beliefs about
aggression and violence. Designed to fit into semester and trimester schedules, VPP uses
trained classroom-based facilitators to implement 12 interactive lessons with skill-building
exercises for students, two evaluation sessions, and two individualised planning sessions
with teachers and principals, which collectively compose a ‘‘residency’’. Within a residency,
each 45-minute lesson consists of an aim, warm-up, main activity,and closing known as the
TLP lesson structure, all connected by the experiential learning cycle (ELC; Pfieffer and
Jones, 1983), an interactive teaching style where learners process an activity through five
stages of comprehension culminating with application.
VPP’s curricular framework supports fidelity with adaptation to core components, and has a
user-friendly monitoring system designed with sustainable dissemination in mind. VPP has
been highly rated by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s
National Registry of Evidence-based Practices and Programs (NREPP, 2010), and is graded
as promising by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention’s Model
Programs Guide (2010). The current study reports evaluation results of VPP’s quality of
implementation and effectiveness in 24 Title I New York City (NYC) middle schools during
four consecutive school years from 2005 to 2009 (high school outcomes are available in
Thompkins et al. (2011). The study details two essential components of prevention
programming: the process evaluation, detailing the procedures of a five-point fidelity model
created and administered by practitioners in a scaled-up programme; and the outcome
evaluation, a quantitative assessment of the programme’s effectiveness.
The intervention
VPP emerged as a response to a community-driven request for effective violence reduction
programming in underserved schools. Created by a group of artists and educators, the
concept was to use the engaging approach associated with arts and leadership programmes
to couch the delivery of evidence-based content. VPP’s theme-based curriculum is arranged
according to core components: introduction to leadership (an introduction to positive
behaviour); self-affirmation; cooperation; vision and imagination (goal setting); and conflict
management. Scaffolding concepts through these components starts by setting
expectations for positive behaviour and affirming youth as individuals and as members of a
classroom community before addressing the bulk of the programmatic focus, conflict
resolution. Concluding with group project-based learning promotes teamwork,
problem-solving, and offers opportunities to apply newly acquired skills (Johnson and
Johnson, 2004); rooting it in the arts promotes pro-social competencies and reductions in
aggression, violence, crime (McArthur and Law, 1996) and increases participant
engagement.
Facilitators use two required introductory lessons and select their remaining lessons within
each component according to the component outline: one or two lessons each from
self-affirmation,cooperation, and visionand imagination, four to six fromconflict management,
and an arts-based final project work. Lesson selection is based on facilitator, principal, and
teacher assessment of student and school needs (discussed at pre-implementation teacher
and principal meetings) including class functioning, sociocultural relevancy, special needs,
school-specific issues, and ot her factors essential to loc al as well as large-scale
VOL. 7 NO. 4 2012
j
JOURNAL OF CHILDREN’S SERVICES
j
PAGE 247
To continue reading
Request your trial