The multisite violence prevention project: impact of a universal school-based violence prevention program on social-cognitive outcomes

Abstract

This study evaluated the impact of a universal school-based violence prevention program on social-cognitive factors associated with aggression and nonviolent behavior in early adolescence. The effects of the universal intervention were evaluated within the context of a design in which two cohorts of students at 37 schools from four sites (N = 5,581) were randomized to four conditions: (a) a universal intervention that involved implementing a student curriculum and teacher training with sixth grade students and teachers; (b) a selective intervention in which a family intervention was implemented with a subset of sixth grade students exhibiting high levels of aggression and social influence; (c) a combined intervention condition; and (d) a no-intervention control condition. Short-term and long-term (i.e., 2-year post-intervention) universal intervention effects on social-cognitive factors targeted by the intervention varied as a function of students' pre-intervention level of risk. High-risk students benefited from the intervention in terms of decreases in beliefs and attitudes supporting aggression, and increases in self-efficacy, beliefs and attitudes supporting nonviolent behavior. Effects on low-risk students were in the opposite direction. The differential pattern of intervention effects for low- and high-risk students may account for the absence of main effects in many previous evaluations of universal interventions for middle school youth. These findings have important research and policy implications for efforts to develop effective violence prevention programs.

Fig. 1

Differences in adjusted means (d-coefficients) between students at schools assigned to universal intervention condition versus comparison schools as a function of the number of risk factors at pretest. Figures include a variables positively correlated with aggression, and b variables negatively correlated with aggression

Fig. 2

Growth trajectories for students at universal and control schools as a function of the number of risk factors at pretest on a Goals and Strategies Supporting Aggression, and b Self-Efficacy for Nonviolent Responses. Plotted trajectories are based on linear and quadratic coefficients but do not include variation within school years (i.e., fall-to-spring changes). Intercepts within each level of the Risk Index were based on the average across intervention and control schools to facilitate comparisons