School violence: prevalence and intervention strategies for at-risk adolescents

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of social-cognitive group intervention on violence avoidance beliefs among at-risk adolescents. Fifty high school students were randomly assigned to an experimental or a control group. The experimental group participated in ten, 2-hour weekly sessions of a social-cognitive intervention. Both groups were administered a questionnaire before, immediately following, and 3 months after the intervention. Findings showed that the social-cognitive intervention did not result in significant differences between the groups on violence avoidance beliefs at posttest or follow-up. In addition, drug/alcohol users and nonusers, fighters and nonfighters, and students threatened at school and those not threatened were compared. Students who used drugs/alcohol and fought in school had significantly lower scores (i.e., a greater belief in using violence as a coping technique) than did students who did not engage in those behaviors.