Community Psychology: An Example Examining Violence Prevention Program Effects on Urban Youth

1. Community Psychology:An Example Examining Violence Prevention Program Effects on Urban Youth Susan McMahon, Ph.D. Professor and Chair, Psychology smcmahon@depaul.edu DePaul University Chicago, Illinois USA November 24, 2011 Presented to Dogus University Istanbul, Turkey

2. Community Psychology • Some core components that I value and use….. • Values • Diversity, creating positive change to improve well-being, focus on underserved populations, action orientation • Theories • Systems & interconnections • Individuals are nested within settings at multiple levels • Skills • Program evaluation, consultation, collaboration, group-facilitation, critical thinking, problem solving

3. Prevention • Many more problems than we can address through traditional treatment approaches • Demonstrated effective on cost-effective • Empowerment • Facilitate feelings of control and abilities to create change and improve situation • Individual, group, organizational, community

4. DePaul Programs • Ph.D. Programs • Clinical Program (established in 1967; 2 tracks) • Clinical-Child • Clinical-Community • Community Program (established in 2000) • Undergraduate Community Concentration • Focus: develop theory, knowledge, skills, & experience to work with diverse, urban, underserved populations

5. Ph.D. Curriculum & Core Requirements • Core Community Courses • Community Psychology (2) • Principles of Consultation • Seminar in Program Evaluation • Field Work (spans 2 years) • Grant Writing • Seminar in Prevention & Intervention Methods • Empowerment or Health Psychology • Diversity • Psychology of Women or Social Psychology • Core Statistics/Research Methods • Statistics I, Statistics II, Research Methods • Factor Analysis, Multivariate, Mixed Methods, Qualitative (2) • 4 electives in any area • Master’s Thesis • Comprehensive Examination or Project • Internship (for clinical-community program) • Doctoral Dissertation

6. Undergraduate Community Psychology Concentration • Common psychology core: • Introductory Psychology I • Introductory Psychology II • Introductory Statistics • Research Methods Sequence (2) • History & Systems in Psychology • Community Core • Community Psychology • Principles of Field Research and Action • Field Work in Community Research and Action - 2 course internship sequence • Diversity • Psychology of Women, Psychology of Men, Cultural Issues in Psychology, Psychology of the African-American Child (1) • Other Core Psych • Social Psychology, Industrial and Organizational Psychology (1) • Child Psychology, Adolescent Psychology (1) • Theories of Personality, Abnormal Psychology (1)

7. SCRA Resources & Connections • SCRA (Society for Community Research & Action; APA Division 27) • http://www.scra27.org/ • Educational program list • My role: Regional Network Coordinator • Enhance national & international networks • Provide leadership & communication regarding membership; Organize International Regional Liaisons (IRLs)& Regional Coordinators • Europe IRL’s • Faculty, graduate student, and undergraduate student openings

8. School-Based Violence Prevention with African American Youth • Began work in 1996 • Schools approached Mental Health Center for services to address violence • Combined research, training, and service • Clinical students work in community as part of their practica experience • Focus on underserved population with high rates of violence and poverty

9. Youth Violence • Significant problem • Youth are both victims and perpetrators • Over 1/3 of homicides in the U.S. are committed by youth • Urban minority youth are at particular risk

10. Exposure to Violence • Numerous negative outcomes • Anxiety disorders • Depression • Low self-esteem • Aggressive & violent behavior • Academic • Family dysfunction • Substance abuse • Interpersonal difficulties • Peer rejection • Involvement in juvenile justice system • Aggression: stable across time

11. Theoretical Underpinnings • What are the mediating factors that contribute to the impact of exposure to violence on aggressive behavior? • Social information processing theory (Huesmann, 1998) • Interactions with environment combine with personal factors to make certain schemas & scripts more likely • External Events • Cognitive Filters • Normative Beliefs about Aggression • Retaliatory • General • Street Code • Self-Efficacy to control aggression

12. Community Violence Exposure Belief in Retaliation Self-Efficacy Aggressive Behavior Theoretical Model χ2 df p RMSEA RMR GFI AGFI CFI Model (Cross-sect) 3.97 2 0.14 0.09 0.04 0.98 0.92 0.97 Model (longitudinal) 3.79 2 0.15 0.10 0.04 0.98 0.90 0.96

13. Environmental Ecology • Neighborhood • Norms • Acceptability of & Exposure to violence • School culture • Socially shared knowledge, norms, & values • Can influence new programs • Sense of belonging • Links to well-being

14. Violence Prevention • Over 150 programs available • Few programs with empirical support • Few evaluations with urban, at-risk youth • Second Step • Widely used skills-based curriculum • Highly rated • Specific developmental curricula • Pre-kindergarten (28 sessions) to 8th grade (15 sessions) • Modest empirical support

15. Components of Second Step: A Violence Prevention Program • Knowledge • Empathy • Impulse Control • Anger Management • Problem Solving • Applying Skills • Role plays, video vignettes, puppets

16. Context of Current Studies

17. Study 1: Preschool & Kindergarten Children • Participants • 109 African American and Latino children • Settings • 3 preschool classrooms & 2 kindergarten classrooms • Serve housing development residents that differ from 1 another in terms of size, diversity, & culture • Poverty & Violence • Pre-test/Post-test design • Pre-test in the Fall; Post-test in the Spring • Curriculum implemented during academic year by teachers and graduate students

18. Measures

19. Preliminary Analyses • Settings differed by age and race • Females scored higher at pre-test on SSRS Social Skills • Older children scored higher at pre-test on SSRS Problem Behaviors

20. Results: Interviews (Knowledge and Skills)

21. Problem Behaviors (Preschool) (Teacher Report)

22. Behavioral Observations

23. Implications • Preliminary support for this program with this population • Children learned many concepts • Problem behaviors decreased from pre-test to post-test • Setting Differences • Teacher:child ratio • Preschool student: teacher ratio 4:1 • Kindergarten student:teacher ratio 27:1 • More opportunities to reinforce program concepts • Developmental differences • Findings consistent with few existing studies

24. Study 2: Violence Prevention with Middle School Students • Method • Community & Schools • Public housing development residents • Two public elementary schools • Participants • 156 students completed pretest • 149 students completed posttest • 64% female • 5th-8th grade • Ages 11-14

25. Training & Implementation • CPS teachers & DePaul staff • 4 hours of training • Co-teaching model • Co-taught 1st 8 sessions • Transfer of training • Weekly or bi-weekly meetings • Implementation • Program Monitoring

26. Hypotheses • Aggressive Behavior • Impulsivity • Knowledge & skills • Prosocial Behavior • Empathy

27. Measures • Knowledge • Second Step Knowledge and Skill Survey • Aggressive Behavior • Aggressive Behavior Scale, self-report • Teacher Checklist, teacher-report • Peer Rating, peer-report • Prosocial Behavior • Teacher Checklist, teacher-report • Peer rating, peer-report • Empathy Scale • Impulsivity • Psychological Sense of School Membership Questionnaire

28. Preliminary Analyses • Examined potential pretest differences: • school • grade • gender • Differences found, so these variables taken into account in all analyses • Correlations • Higher teacher-rated aggression • lower knowledge • lower teacher-rated prosocial behavior • higher self-rating of aggression & impulsivity • Higher peer-rated aggression • higher self-rating of aggression • lower knowledge • Construct validity

29. Analyses • Repeated measures ANOVAs • Knowledge • Empathy • Impulsivity • Sense of school membership • Repeated measures MANOVAs • Aggression (teacher, peer, self) • Prosocial behavior (teacher, peer)

30. Knowledge & Skill Survey • Wilk’s  = .93, F (1,123) = 8.73, p = .004

31. Teacher Checklist-Aggression • Wilk’s L = .90, F (3,71) = 2.70, p = .052 • F (1,73) = 6.58, p = .012

32. Teacher Checklist-Prosocial • Wilk’s L = .88, F (2,85) = 5.74, p = .005 • F (1,86) = 7.88, p = .006

33. Teacher Checklist-Prosocial by School Wilk’s L = .93, F (2,85) = 3.21, p = .045 F (1,86) = 5.70, p = .019

34. Empathy • Wilk’s L = .96, F (1,90) = 4.13, p = .045

35. Empathy by School • Wilk’s L = .93, F (1,90) = 6.69, p = .011

36. School Membership • F (1,86) = 6.384, p = .013

37. Discussion • Some success in teaching: • Knowledge & skills • Empathy • Prosocial behavior (teacher-report) • Replication of previous research • Mixed support • Increase in empathy • Predictive of decreases in aggression

38. Importance of school context • Most consistent influence • School B • Increase in prosocial behavior • Increase in empathy • Increase in sense of school membership • Other differences between schools? • School A has 4 times the % of chronic truants • Teacher characteristics? • Implementation issues?

39. Factors that Influence the Intervention Processes & Outcomes

40. Strengths & Limitations • Strengths • High-risk students & community • Need for prevention • Few evaluations • Multiple reporters • Theory-based outcomes • Limitations • Lack of a control group • Longitudinal, but only across one year • Missing data • Measurement of some constructs

41. Implications • Consider school & teacher variables • Explore & integrate ecological factors • Intra-individual skills deficits • Ethnic/racial identity • “Code of the streets” • Explore & evaluate cultural & community specific components • Need to better understand what interventions are effective under what conditions for whom