Examples of Effective Youth Violence Prevention Programs
A series of youth violence prevention programs for at-risk and high-risk youth are identified by the CDC publication “Best Practices of Youth Violence Prevention”. At-risk and high-risk youth are defined as those who are aggressive and having difficulty with impulse control, problem solving, anger management, assertiveness and empathy. A small sample of “best practice” violence prevention programs includes the following:
- Elementary school programs including the “Anger Coping Program” and the “Coping Power Program”. Both interventions focus on developing children’s abilities to manage anger, reduce hostile intents, and improve social problem-solving skills through 18 to 30 group sessions. Post interventions showed significant reductions in children’s aggression.
- One sixth grade program, “Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways”, designed for students with a history of violent behavior used Prothrow-Stith’s model including 25 sessions of 50 minutes each in behavior repetition for conflict resolution, skill building and didactic learning opportunities. Results showed significantly fewer disciplinary code violations, fewer weapons carried and fewer injuries reported from fighting.
- Middle school programs included “Aggressors, Victims and Bystanders”. This program was based on the premise that all three players can build the cognitive and social skills necessary to resolve problems nonviolently. The curriculum was evaluated in a study of over 300 high-risk adolescents and a control group. The intervention reduced students’ belief that violence is a favorable response to conflict and it increased their intent to resolve conflict without aggression and improved their self-rated behavior.
- The PACT (Positive Adolescent Choices Training) was designed for aggressive 12 to 16 year olds and includes components of social skills training used to express anger, frustration and disappointment constructively. Anger management training is used to recognize anger triggers and learn anger responses. Techniques are learned to control anger; violence risk education is used to raise the awareness of the dynamics of violence. The program is delivered in groups fewer than ten, one to two times weekly, for 19 weeks. Researchers found that compared to controls, PACT participants had 50% fewer serious school incident reports and 50% fewer referrals to juvenile court.