Using Narrative to Create Strengths-Based Approaches to Violence Prevention

Many narrative interventions require participants to write about trauma and adverse experiences, but some research suggests open-ended topic prompts can also be effective. If true, this could have promise for prevention, because it would not require prior disclosure or labeling as a victim.  This presentation will draw in part from a study of participants in a school-based values narrative program and in part from the broader literature on narrative and prevention, with an aim toward envisioning a more strengths-based, developmentally appropriate approach to violence prevention.  Participants were 717 people (66% female) from the rural U.S. South who had participated in a values narrative program. Almost half of narratives (44%) focused on an adversity as a part of the development of their personal values. Other personal stories were also common (37%) and only 19% wrote a narrative not connected to a personal life experience. Participants who had more exposure to family or peer victimization were more likely to write about adversity. Participants who wrote about adversity and shared their narrative with others reported more positive and fewer negative impacts. Encouragement and more time writing were also associated with better outcomes. Values narratives offer a potentially important opportunity for incorporating narrative into primary prevention programs, because they can be used with groups that include individuals who have and have not experienced adversity. Further, they do not require prior disclosure of adversity. Sometimes, prevention material is presented without any connection to participants' actual attitudes or values. The general emphasis on attitudes that many youth already reject or knowledge that many youth already possess, may be one reason why so many prevention programs have modest, if any, impact on behavior. The well-established "self-reference effect" demonstrates that information that is connected to the self is better learned and retained than other information.  A narrative component that allows youth to connect the messages of resilience and violence prevention with their own life history may be a way to increase the modest effects of most classroom-based prevention curricula and to offer help for victims without requiring explicit helpseeking or diagnoses. Preliminary process evaluation results from a new program, Bring Your Own Values (B.Y.O.V.), will also be used to inform implications.