%0 Journal Article %J J Adolesc Health %D 2013 %T The impact of a middle school program to reduce aggression, victimization, and sexual violence. %A Espelage, Dorothy L %A Low, Sabina %A Polanin, Joshua R %A Brown, Eric C %K Adolescent %K Aggression %K Anger %K Bullying %K Child %K Crime Victims %K Female %K Humans %K Internal-External Control %K Longitudinal Studies %K Male %K Midwestern United States %K Peer Group %K Problem Solving %K Program Evaluation %K School Health Services %K Sex Offenses %K Substance-Related Disorders %X

PURPOSE: To evaluate the impact of the Second Step: Student Success Through Prevention (SS-SSTP) Middle School Program on reducing youth violence including peer aggression, peer victimization, homophobic name calling, and sexual violence perpetration and victimization among middle school sixth-grade students.

METHODS: The study design was a nested cohort (sixth graders) longitudinal study. We randomly assigned 18 matched pairs of 36 middle schools to the SS-SSTP or control condition. Teachers implemented 15 weekly lessons of the sixth-grade curriculum that focused on social emotional learning skills, including empathy, communication, bully prevention, and problem-solving skills. All sixth graders (n = 3,616) in intervention and control conditions completed self-report measures assessing verbal/relational bullying, physical aggression, homophobic name calling, and sexual violence victimization and perpetration before and after the implementation of the sixth-grade curriculum.

RESULTS: Multilevel analyses revealed significant intervention effects with regard to physical aggression. The adjusted odds ratio indicated that the intervention effect was substantial; individuals in intervention schools were 42% less likely to self-report physical aggression than students in control schools. We found no significant intervention effects for verbal/relational bully perpetration, peer victimization, homophobic teasing, and sexual violence.

CONCLUSIONS: Within a 1-year period, we noted significant reductions in self-reported physical aggression in the intervention schools. Results suggest that SS-SSTP holds promise as an efficacious prevention program to reduce physical aggression in adolescent youth.

%B J Adolesc Health %V 53 %P 180-6 %8 2013 Aug %G eng %N 2 %R 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2013.02.021 %0 Journal Article %J J Community Psychol %D 2010 %T Implementation of the Communities That Care prevention system by coalitions in the Community Youth Development Study %A Arthur, Michael W %A Hawkins, J D %A Brown, Eric C %A Briney, John S %A Oesterle, Sabrina %A Abbott, Robert D %X

While advances in prevention science over the past 2 decades have produced a growing list of tested and effective programs and policies for preventing adolescent delinquency and drug use, widespread dissemination and high-quality implementation of effective programs and policies in communities has not been achieved. The Community Youth Development Study (CYDS) is a randomized, community-level trial of the Communities That Care (CTC) system for promoting science-based prevention in communities. This paper compares 12 community prevention coalitions implementing the CTC system in 12 intervention communities as part of the CYDS to prevention coalitions located in the 12 control communities. As hypothesized, the CYDS coalitions implemented significantly more of the CTC core intervention elements, and also implemented significantly greater numbers of tested, effective prevention programs than the prevention coalitions in the control communities. Implications of the findings for efforts to achieve widespread dissemination of effective prevention programs, policies, and practices are discussed.

%B J Community Psychol %V 38 %P 245-258 %8 2010 Mar %G eng %N 2 %R 10.1002/jcop.20362