Jeffrey R. Sprague

Integrated Approaches to Preventing Antisocial Behavior Patterns among School-Age Children and Youth

This article provides a reconceptualization of the role of schools in preventing antisocial behavior problems among children and youth. The U.S. Public Health Services conceptual model of prevention, involving primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention approaches, is used as an organizing framework to illustrate how schools can deliver interventions more effectively and improve outcomes. Traditional school approaches to coping with students who are at risk and antisocial are reviewed, and the following major topics are addressed: (a) A case is made that schools can play a central, coordinating role in collaboration with families and social service agencies in addressing the challenging problems presented by antisocial students; (b) a generic intervention approach is suggested that involves reducing risk factors for antisocial behavior and enhancing protective factors; (c) a three-level approach to organizing specific interventions for achieving prevention goals and outcomes is described; and (d) recommended interventions or approaches are suggested for each prevention level (i.e., primary, secondary, tertiary). The article concludes with a discussion of some factors associated with a revised mission for schools in this domain and how these factors may impair or enhance the necessary changes required to achieve this goal.

Preventing school violence: The use of office discipline referrals to assess and monitor school-wide discipline interventions.

Confronted by increasing incidents of violent behavior in schools, educators are being asked to make schools safer. Schools, however, receive little guidance or assistance in their attempts to establish and sustain proactive discipline systems. One area of need lies in directions for use of existing discipline information to improve school-wide behavior support. In this article, we describe how office discipline referrals might be used as an information source to provide an indicator of the status of school-wide discipline and to improve the precision with which schools manage, monitor, and modify their universal interventions for all students and their targeted interventions for students who exhibit the most severe problem behaviors.

Validity of Office Discipline Referral Measures as Indices of School-Wide Behavioral Status and Effects of School-Wide Behavioral Interventions

Office discipline referrals (ODRs) are widely used by school personnel to evaluate student behavior and the behavioral climate of schools. In this article, the authors report the results of a review of the relevant literature to evaluate the validity of ODR data as indices of school-wide behavioral climate, the effects of school-wide behavioral interventions, and differing behavior support needs across schools. They used Messicks unified approach to validity by focusing on examples of evidence for empirical and ethical foundations of interpretations, uses, and social consequences of ODR measures at the school-wide level. The authors also discuss ongoing issues, study limitations, and related recommendations for interpretations and uses of ODR measures as school-wide indices, based on the existing literature.

How Can We Improve School Discipline

School discipline addresses schoolwide, classroom, and individual student needs through broad prevention, targeted intervention, and development of self-discipline. Schools often respond to disruptive students with exclusionary and punitive approaches that have limited value. This article surveys three approaches to improving school discipline practices and student behavior: ecological approaches to classroom management; schoolwide positive behavioral supports; and social and emotional learning. The article examines their epistemological and empirical roots and supporting research, suggesting ways to combine approaches.

Early Identification and Intervention for Youth with Antisocial and Violent Behavior

This article addresses the growing problem of antisocial behavior in schools and its impact on safety, effectiveness, and ecology. We describe the factors leading to the development of antisocial behavior in children and youth. We explore the relationship between early investment in an antisocial behavior pattern and later negative outcomes including school failure, delinquency, and violence. The article also focuses on best practices in the areas of screening and early intervention for antisocial children and youth and those who are at risk for adopting this behavior pattern. Recommendations are made regarding research-based practices, tools, and approaches in both screening and intervention. A model for integrated approaches to school-based prevention of antisocial behavior is presented and the implications of such a model are discussed.

The Path to School Failure, Delinquency, and Violence: Causal Factors and Some Potential Solutions

This article addresses the issues associated with the path to school failure, delinquency, and violence that increasing numbers of our children and youth are following. Causal factors are identified and described, and the developmental nature of the path leading from exposure to risk factors to short- and long-term destructive outcomes is discussed. Prevention strategies for diverting at-risk children and youth from this path are also described and illustrated. These strategies include but are not limited to supporting families, developing and implementing school-based prevention approaches, supporting schools, improving academic and social competence, and achieving prevention goals through true collaborative arrangements between schools, families, and communities.

Alternative Education Strategies Reducing Violence in School and the Community

Alternative education programs are expanding in the United States due to zero-tolerance policies, changes in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, increases in youth violence and school failure, and knowledge of the developmental trajectories leading to antisocial behavior. At the same time, there is little research evidence of the efficacy of these programs due to great diversity in approaches, populations served, and locations of the programs. In this article we provide a review of teaching strategies expected to be effective in alternative education programs for students who are at risk for school failure, dropout, delinquency, and violence. We discuss the need for alternative educational programs for students in both special and general education, describe research-based and recommended alternative education strategies, and offer suggestions for program development.

Functional-Assessment-Based Behavior Support Planning: Research to Practice to Research

Research in applied behavior analysis has shaped an important technology, called functional assessment, for understanding the relationship between problem behavior and environmental events and factors. From this understanding, effective and relevant behavioral interventions have emerged. However, given the dramatic increase in the need to conduct functional assessments, efforts must focus on translating what we have learned from this research into formats and processes that can be used efficiently in applied settings. In addition, research must continue to build a technology of functional assessment that meets the full range of situations faced in our schools, homes, and communities.

Antisocial Behavior in Schools

Acts of aggression, property vandalism and destruction, and harassment and intimidation by children and youth are increasing in intensity, prevalence, and incidence. In response, more communities are establishing zero-tolerance policies, building more segregated facilities, and increasing security in schools, businesses, and neighborhoods. Unfortunately, these “get-tough” responses have not curtailed the growth of antisocial behavior in our schools and communities. In fact, the pressures and social effects resulting from these behavioral manifestations and failed interventions are threatening to overwhelm the process of schooling for all of our students (Walker, Colvin, & Ramsey, 1995). For staff and students alike, school safety has risen to a level of great importance and excruciating national concern. Making schools safe and violence-free is currently one of the most pressing issues before the U.S. Congress. The focus of this chapter is on antisocial behavior in the context of schooling. The nature and characteristics of antisocial behavior, a schoolwide systems response, and behavior support planning for individual students are discussed.

A Promise Unfulfilled: Social Skills Training With At-Risk and Antisocial Children and Youth

Antisocial behavior exhibited by children and youth has been an issue of concern for societies throughout history. Events of recent years in the United States (e.g., school shootings, increases in criminal adjudication among children and youth, escalation in violent behavior within this age group) have galvanized public concern and raised antisocial behavior among children and youth to a national health care issue. The purpose of this article is to briefly review the social skills training knowledge base and describe social skills training considerations for at-risk and antisocial children and youth at 3 grade levels: (a) preschool and elementary, (b) middle school, and (c) high school. Characteristics of students, composition of model social skills interventions, and, where possible, efficacy data are reviewed and discussed. We conclude the article by discussing recommendations for future research in this area.