Adolescents' Reactions to a Combined School Environment and Individual Skill-Building Violence Prevention Program

Introduction. Risk factors for aggression exist at multiple levels of an adolescent’s ecology. Subsequently, interventions that address the school environment and individual skills may be most effective. The development and improvement of such interventions necessitates an understanding of their effectiveness from adolescents’ perspectives. Thus, the current study analyzed interviews assessing middle school youth’s reactions to a combined skill-building (Second Step) and school environment (Olweus Bullying Prevention Program) violence prevention program.

Method. Students who received at least 75% of the lessons were randomly selected to participate in a debriefing interview. Participants included 69 students, 51% male and 97% African American. Interviews were conducted one-on-one, recorded, transcribed, and checked for accuracy. The current study focused on students’ general reactions to the intervention and their evaluation of specific skills taught in the intervention. Descriptive analyses were conducted on youth’s numerical ratings of effectiveness (1=Terrible, 2=Pretty bad, 3=Okay, 4=Pretty good, 5=Great) and confidence (1=Not at all, 2=Not very, 3= Middle, 4=Pretty, 5=Very) and consensus coding was used to analyze open-ended questions.

Results.  In regards to specific skills, 72% of students used dealing with bullying and emotion management; 57-59% of students used empathy, problem solving, and disagreeing respectfully. On average, students who used skills said they worked okay and were pretty confident applying them. Students who did not use skills thought they might work okay and were in the middle in regards to confidence. Reasons for not using specific skills included too much effort, difficulty remembering, anticipated negative consequences, personal or situational factors, and not having a chance to use. In response to what they thought of the lessons overall, 65% of students indicated they were pretty good or great. Some students explained that lessons were helpful, informative, or decreased aggression. In contrast, others said lessons were not relevant, difficult to apply, or perceived negatively by others. As a result of the intervention 71% of students changed their behavior to be more respectful, empathetic or better able to calm down, less likely to engage in aggression or affiliate with aggressive peers, and more likely to intervene in bullying or ignore negative interactions. Students who had not done anything differently (29%) were either resistant to change, already using the skills, or had not experienced difficult situations.

Conclusions. Results suggest the need for more targeted skill-building programs. They also highlight the need for programs to help students generalize the skills taught in real-world situations.