A Quasi-Experimental Analysis of School-Wide Violence Prevention Programs

• In Event: New Developments in Conflict Resolution

Abstract

There is variability across school-wide violence prevention programs necessitating a need to determine the precise strategic components that are effective in reducing violent and aggressive episodes in schools. In our study, we used propensity score estimation and matching to explore the effectiveness of involving students in resolving conduct problems and having a hotline or tipline as a component of school violence prevention programs on reducing rates and frequency of reported violence and aggression. One-way MANOVAs revealed significant multivariate main effects for resolving problems and hotline/tipline. For resolving problems, follow-up ANOVAs revealed significant results for bullying, verbal abuse, and physical attacks. For hotline/tipline, follow-up ANOVAs revealed significant results for bullying, police reported violence, and gang and hate crimes.

Authors

• Tia Navelene Barnes, University of Florida

• Walter L. Leite, University of Florida

• Stephen W. Smith, University of Florida