Evaluating the Impact of Conflict Resolution on Urban Children’s Violence-Related Attitudes and Behaviors in New Haven, Connecticut, through a Community Academic Partnership
Complete Project
Title:
Evaluating the Impact of Conflict Resolution on Urban Children’s Violence-Related Attitudes and Behaviors in New Haven, Connecticut, through a Community Academic Partnership
Status:
Completed
Topic:
School-based;Violence Prevention
Funding Source:
Community Mediation/CARE and the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Funding Period:
2007-2008
Study Design:
Quasi-Experimental Design (before & after study)
Purpose:
To examine the impact of a violence prevention program utilizing peer mediation training on economically disadvantaged urban youth from the New Haven Public Schools as well as their perceptions of self-efficacy, feelings of hopelessness and hostility, and perceptions of violence via validated questionnaires. The primary intent was to empower participating youth, leading to increased self-esteem and a reduction of anti-social behaviors.
Further Study Details:
A community-academic partnership between CommunityMediation Inc.,New Haven Public Schools, Yale School of Public Health,and Yale-Griffin PRC was formed to evaluate a school-based violence prevention program taught in the New Haven Public Schools. During the 2007–08 schoolyear, 191 fourth and fifth grade students in 3 schools took part in 5 workshops led during the school day by experienced mediators. Of the 191 students, 165 (84%) completed pre- and post-intervention questionnaires. The team used validated questionnaires to examine the intervention’s impact on thelikelihood of violence, conflict self-efficacy, hopelessness,and hostility (potential causes of violent behavior) among participants.
Findings:
The intervention had little positive impact on participants’violence-related attitudes and behavior. On the other hand, the students’ schools independently predictedhostility and conflict self-efficacy scores; this is consistent with other research showing thata school’s organizational structure, climate, size and cohesion have a major effect on violence-related behaviors In addition, a perception that the neighborhood police could be trusted correlated with a lower likelihood of violence; and the presence of parents when children arrive home from school tended to correlate with a reduced sense of hopelessness. This sample of students from 3 schools isnot necessarily representative of all elementary schools in thedistrict.The impact of the intervention might be improved by increasing its duration, adding more components, and specifically targeting high-riskstudents.
Eligibility:
Fourth and fifth grade students enrolled in 3 selected schools in the New Haven Public Schools
Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center