Stephen A. Rollin

School Violence in Children and Adolescents: A Meta-Analysis of the Effectiveness of Current Interventions.

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).

Project KICK: A school‐based drug education health promotion research project

There is a present concern that the majority of children in the United States will be exposed to drug and alcohol use before they leave elementary school. It is further known that the ability of children and teenagers to avoid indiscriminate use and abuse of drugs appears to be related to a number of social, economic, physiological, and psychological factors. The purpose of this research-based design was to address drug prevention and health promotion strategies through the combination of parent education and involvement and positive peer influence. These strategies were implemented in Project KICK using a four-cornered partnership among Florida State University, an elementary school, a middle school, and a community advisory board. The expected outcomes for the research project were improved self-esteem, drug knowledge and awareness, improved parenting skills, and health promotion. Both bimonthly parent education courses and weekly peer role modeling sessions between middle and elementary school students comprised the intervention for this research. It was hypothesized that the intervention would lead to an increase among the third graders (N=34) in self-esteem, improved attitudes, increased knowledge regarding drugs, and an improvement in the quality of parent-child relationships. The results were encouraging. Increases were found in the predicted direction from the experimental group on all of the major variables. (Author/ABL) *********************************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * * from the original document. * *********************************************************************** U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) tki This document has been reproduced as \ received from the person or orgarnintion originating it O Minor changes We been made to improve ruproductton quality Points of %hew or opinions slated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or pOliCy A SCHOOL-BASED DRUG EDUCATION HEALTH PROMOTION RESEARCH PROJECT Stephen A. Rollin, Ed.D. Roberta Rubin, Ph.D. Brenedette Hardy-Blake, M.S. Richard Marcia, M.S. Eldrige Groomes, M.Ed. Ursula Ferrullo, B.S. Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida A School-based

An elementary school violence prevention program

Abstract This article details the implementation and empirical evaluation of an elementary school violence program. The problem of school violence and the significance and focus of the study are discussed. The general research question in this study was to examine the potential for a computer-mediated anger management program to enhance or improve the conflict resolution skills of youth with aggressive behavior problems in an elementary school setting. This study employed an 8-week computer-mediated anger management program, called SMART Talk (Students Managing Anger Resolution Together), for teaching conflict resolutions skills. This program was derived from a meta-analysis (Scheckner et al., 2002) due to its large effect size, statistical significance, and computer-mediated execution in order to verify past results with a more specifically defined population of at-risk (i.e., aggressive) students. Overall, the results suggest that participants in the intervention group significantly reported more intentions to use nonviolent strategies in a future conflict than students in the control group. Further research is recommended in order to assess the replicability of this study to other populations. Recommendations include longer intervention duration, larger sample size, multiple school settings, and multi-systemic implementation (i.e., teacher and parent workshops) as well as longitudinal studies.

Integrating guidance, counselling, and counsellor education in Botswana: A consultation model

This paper reflects the work of the authors as consultants to the Ministry of Education and the University of Botswana on a project sponsored by the USAID. The mission of the consultants was to assist the educational leaders of the country of Botswana, Africa, in determining the next major step in developing country-wide guidance and counselling services in responding to significant boundary shifts, both economically and intellectually. The paper discusses background of Education and Guidance in Botswana along with recommendations to our respective agencies. We further review the procedure used to reach our conclusions, impediments to implementation, and recommendations for future consultancies.

The Motivational Orientation of Army Aviators

This study examined the motivational orientation of U.S. Army aviators as well as their preferences and expectations for future flight experience. A sample of 116 aviators-in-training enrolled in the Armys Initial Entry Rotary Wing aviator course at Fort Rucker, Alabama, participated in the study. Despite the occupational paradigm for each type of aviator (e.g., commissioned officers will typically focus on administrative and leadership skills, whereas warrant officers will typically specialize on individual piloting skills) and current Army policies focused on warrant officer aviator retention (e.g., additional monetary compensation), it was hypothesized that the aviators would not significantly differ with respect to these variables. A multivariate analysis of variance indicated that commissioned officer and warrant officer aviators did not significantly differ with respect to motivational orientation, preferences for future flight experience, and expectations of future flight experience. Hierarchical regression models were then developed to determine the relative importance of gender, officer type, and motivational orientation toward the prediction of preferences for and expectations of future flight experience. Motivational orientation contributed significantly to the prediction of preferences, whereas officer type contributed significantly to the prediction of expectations of future flight experience. Implications of these findings with respect to retention and job satisfaction, as well as methodological limitations of the study and future research directions, are reported.

Scales for perceived risk of student-on-student victimization in grades 7 through 10: A psychometric analysis of the adolescent index on school safety

Although past research has developed scales for the incidence, prevalence, and fear of student-on-student victimization (SSV), little is known about the scaling of perceived risk (i.e., the cognitive appraisal of the chances of experiencing SSV). Hence, this study examined self-report survey data for the perceived risk of SSV as measured in the Adolescent Index for School Safety (AISS). Children in grades 7 through 10 (n=337) in a single Florida public school completed the AISS. Factor analyses using Maximum Likelihood Estimation with Oblimin Rotation identified nine unique factors for perceived risk. Reliability analyses found standardized Cronbach Alphas that ranged from .64 to .91, and seven out of the nine identified scales were above .80, which suggested good to excellent internal consistency. Future research should examine the content validity, construct validity, and predictive validity for the AISS and other self-report surveys of SSV dynamics.

A Success Story of a Working Consortium: Project Kick

Eight years ago, Project KICK (Kids in Cooperation with Kids) at Florida State University (FSU) was developed in response to the need for a school-based drug education program. The specific purpose was to test a number of assumptions and models concerning alcohol and drug abuse prevention and its relationship to early intervention and health promotion. The program employed a community-partnership in drug education, parent involvement, and peer counseling. The objectives for achieving these goals were: teaching drug knowledge, drug refusal, and appropriate problem-solving skills; enhancing self-esteem and social skills; developing conflict resolution skills; and promoting increased family participation.

Conflict resolution: A model for effective marital and family relations

Abstract Marriage and family counselors are repeatedly exposed to problem situations in which ineffective communicative patterns are a major factor for their clients. One frequent context in which this is seen is that of interpersonal conflict. For the counselor to recognize that two or more parties are not effectively communicating is insufficient to help restore effective dialogue. What is missing is a method one can use to train effective communicators; a method by which communications between conflicted individuals can be restored and will be more resistant to future communication disruption. The three main steps of this model are: 1) owning ones position; 2) attending to the other person; and 3) resolving the conflict. Each of these steps contains several specific, learnable behaviors. The result of these learned behavioral patterns is the development of more effective communicators and communication patterns.

Interventions for Adolescents: Two Programs Based on a Multisystemic Problem-Solving Approach

This article describes two interventions for adolescents based on a multisystemic problem-solving approach. One intervention is a school reentry program for chronically ill adolescents, while the other is a violence prevention program for at-risk youth. Commonalties across the two programs include individualized interventions; an educationally oriented, skills based approach; systems consultation; peers as important change agents; and inclusion of parents, teachers, and community agents. The article discusses the importance of a multisystemic, problem solving approach to interventions. Next, the two individual prevention programs are described. Finally, implications for practice are reviewed for each of the programs.

Adolescents' Use of Imagination in Lower Socioeconomic Environments.

Imagination is an important skill that has proven to be related to divergent thinking skills, ability to cope with stress, and the expression of emotion. Necessary environmental factors conducive for the development of imagination are privacy, limited television viewing, a role model, and storytelling. Lower socioeconomic youth were interviewed to find the current use of their imagination and what environmental factors had been present in their lives. The interviews revealed that the youth had few environmental factors that would enhance their imaginative ability and most of them spent little time in imaginative activity. Following the interview, the youth in the study, 12- to 15-year-old African American boys and one girl, participated in a psychoeducational intervention aimed at enhancing imagery skills. Pre-post assessment of the intervention indicated significant change (p =.031) in richness of storytelling, evidenced by greater use of concrete images, adjectives, and adverbs. Subjects also reported a greater comfort with imaginative contents. The findings indicate that lower socioeconomic teens benefit from psychoeducational interventions aimed at teaching imagination skills.