Using Animation to Promote Prosocial Skills and Reduce Violent Behaviors in Youth Placed in Residential Programs

• In Event: Protesting Violence Across Different Contexts

Proposal

In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021) reported 1 in 5 students had witnessed violence in their community (Harper et al., 2023). Victimization and exposure to violence are risk factors for students engaging in violent behaviors themselves. Students who have been placed in residential programs for serious emotional and behavioral disorders have especially high rates of exposure to trauma and violence (Tyler et al., 2019). Conversely, prosocial skills are protective factors against trauma and violent behavior. For example, social skills training on problem-solving and peer relations have been effective in helping students reduce emotional problems and suicidality (Tyler et al., 2021; 2022). Similarly, strategies for preventing violent behavior include developing critical thinking, empathy, tolerance and togetherness (Stephens et al., 2021). Innovative strategies have been used to promote social skills in marginalized and at-risk students. For example, the 1001 Nights curriculum produced by Big Bad Boo Studios has been implemented by UNICEF and ministries of education with over 50,000 refugee children ages 5-9 in Jordan and Lebanon, and has shown reductions in religious intolerance, violence, and bullying (Fowler & Jetha, 2019). This current study examined the potential benefits of combining an existing social skills program at Boys Town with the 1001 Nights animated curriculum to improve prosocial skills and reduce violent behaviors in students ages 10-18 placed in a residential program for emotional and behavioral disorders in the United States. Two research questions were addressed: 1) Does combining animated cartoons with social skills teaching from direct-care staff improve the use of social skills for youth? 2) Are social skills associated with youth violent behavioral incidents in the program?
Participants included 187 children and adolescents ages 10-18 residing in the Boys Town Family Home Program which is a trauma-informed residential program in Boys Town, Nebraska. Youth were 70% male and racially and ethnically diverse (44% White). Random assignment with counterbalancing was used to create two groups based on the homes youth resided in. Group A (n = 101) received the intervention in the first phase, with Group B (n = 86) as the control group, and Group B received the intervention in the second phase. Data on social skills and significant incidents of violent behavior were collected at three time points: Baseline, the end of Phase 1 and the end of Phase 2. The 1001 Nights curriculum developed by Big Bad Boo Studios is a 40-lesson program that uses animated cartoons as the focus of lesson plans that teach the rule of law, democratic principles, human rights, and civic values like tolerance, non-violent dispute resolution and respecting the opinions, beliefs and identities of others. Fourteen animated episodes of the 1001 Nights curriculum were selected that aligned with Boys Town social skills curriculum (e.g., problem solving, resolving conflicts) aimed at increasing protective factors that are related to preventing violent behavior (i.e., grievances, isolation, psychological distress). Staff were instructed to watch the animated episodes with the youth and then teach the youth the assigned social skills.
Results revealed there was a significant negative correlation between the prosocial skills and violent behavioral incidents. Youth showed significant gains in prosocial skills overall with a medium effect size. There were significant interactions that showed significant effects for the use of animation with small effect sizes for social skills and violent incidents. Students showed greater gains in socials skills and lower levels of violent incidents during the animation intervention.
In summary, greater gains in social skills and greater reductions in violent incidents were found when social skills training was combined with the animated episodes. These preliminary results demonstrate the potential benefits of combining animation with skills teaching to promote prosocial skills and reduce violent behavior in students with EBD. This study provides an example of how combining social skills teaching with animation can be beneficial for students who are at-risk for violent behavior. Social skills training is an effective intervention for students with emotional and behavioral needs in regions that lack mental health resources (Patel et al., 2011). Additionally, animation provides a cost-effective intervention that can further enhance the instruction of prosocial skills in students and be delivered in many different environments by adults with different levels of education and training. For instance, this intervention could be used with students in afterschool programs in under-resourced communities that may lack mental health and social services resources. More research is needed to replicate the study and further evaluate the benefits of using social skills training and animation to reduce violent behaviors in students in marginalized communities.

Authors

• Patrick Tyler, Boys Town

• Nicole Whaites, Big Bad Boo