The school transitional environmental program

Academics There was a significant association with improved grade point average among students who participated in STEP compared with control students. In addition, the measures for academic expectations were significantly better for the STEP intervention group relative to comparison group children. School Transition Stress The treatment group in the Felner et al. Intervention ID. Factors - Placeholder.

Factors - Protective. Student bonding attachment to teachers, belief, commitment. Opportunities for prosocial school involvement. Teacher ratings of classroom behavioral adjustment were also significantly better than controls. STEP students grades and attendance patterns were significantly better than controls as well. Though it may be more effective as part of a more comprehensive prevention effort, other studies of STEP have found it to be more effective than programs targeting transitional life events through individual skill building.

Although its focus is somewhat narrow, the study demonstrated significant outcomes with a relatively large sample across a wide range of behavioral and emotional indices, using both student and teacher reports. Group equality and attrition did not appear to be at issue.

It is noteworthy that although the cost-effectiveness data in Table were calculated using crime and population statistics for California, they have national implications with respect to the relative costs and benefits of violence prevention and incarceration. They note the importance of matching the intervention to the population -- a particular challenge for programmers, but one that has a critical effect on both the overall effectiveness and the cost-effectiveness of an intervention. The results of the Washington study are summarized in Table While this table includes only the programs and approaches discussed in this report, the Washington study actually included many more programs and strategies, including some targeting adult offenders.

All cost estimates in Table were calculated using the same methodology so that programs can be compared. Although most costs are calculated as direct, per-participant program costs, the costs of Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care are calculated relative to regular group home costs, and the costs of intensive supervision programs and boot camps are calculated relative to regular court probation costs. Thus, the negative program cost of boot camps means that these programs cost less to implement than regular court probation programs.

This overall approach may not be the same one used by other researchers to calculate program costs, resulting in inconsistencies between costs in this table and those projected by individual program designers Box Comparative costs and benefits of prevention and intervention.

Nevertheless, the Washington study offers some useful insights into the cost-effectiveness of youth violence prevention. Looking at the benefits to the criminal justice system alone that is, benefits to the taxpayer , many early interventions and selected strategies come close to paying for themselves with the money they save; others actually achieve benefits that are greater than program costs. Programs targeting at-risk or delinquent youths can be even more cost-effective.

The same trend holds when considering the benefits of youth crime prevention to both the criminal justice system and crime victims personal and property losses -- the largest economic returns are achieved with interventions targeted at juvenile offenders, who are at greatest risk of future offending. However, even programs aimed at nonoffenders can achieve significant cost benefits when future savings to potential crime victims due to a reduction in the number of victims and the taxpayer are combined.

In general, these analyses underestimate the benefits of prevention programs because they fail to consider many of the indirect benefits of preventing serious or violent offenses, such as increased work productivity, increased taxes realized, reduced welfare assistance costs, and reduced victim medical costs. Clearly, we are past the era in which some observers believed that "nothing works" to prevent youth violence.

Numerous programs have demonstrated their effectiveness in reducing risk factors for serious violence. At the same time, there is a pressing need to evaluate more youth violence prevention programs.

Of the hundreds of programs currently in use throughout the United States, only six met the criteria for a Model program, and 21 met the criteria for a Promising program. Of the school-based program modules reviewed by Gottfredson et al.

For most violence, crime, and drug prevention programs now being implemented, there is simply no evidence regarding effectiveness. Although well-designed program evaluations are expensive and time-consuming, they are the only way to determine the effectiveness of existing youth violence prevention programs. Nearly half of the most thoroughly evaluated strategies for preventing youth violence are ineffective, however, and a few are even harmful.

It is in society's best interest to evaluate programs before exposing children and adolescents to them -- otherwise we run the risk of harming young people rather than helping them. The most effective youth violence prevention programs are targeted appropriately, address several age-appropriate risk and protective factors in different contexts, and include several program components that have been shown to be effective.

This finding is consistent with research showing that youth violence is affected by numerous risk and protective factors that span several environmental contexts individual, family, school, peer group, community and several stages of a youth's life see Chapter 4. While identifying best practices in youth violence prevention is critical to reducing the number of young people involved in and affected by violence, it is not the last step. The manner in which a program is implemented can have an enormous impact on its effectiveness -- even the best programs are effective only when implemented with high quality and fidelity to the program's design.

In other words, using an effective strategy is only part of what is required to achieve effective results. Details of program delivery, including characteristics of the youths receiving the intervention, the setting in which they are treated, and the intensity or duration of the intervention, play important roles in determining effectiveness. Programs must be delivered with design fidelity, to a specific population of youths, within a specific context, and for a specific period of time. Unfortunately, very little is known about how to preserve a prevention program's positive effects when it is implemented on a wide-scale or national level.

What research has been conducted indicates that effective implementation is at least as important to a program's success as the characteristics and content of the program itself Petersilia, ; Lipsey, a , b. Studies of program implementation consistently find that effectiveness depends on the following principles, according to a review by Petersilia , p.

The project has clearly articulated goals that reflect the needs and desires of the "customer. The organization has a leader who is committed to the objectives, values, and implications of the project and who can devise practical strategies to motivate and effect change.

The project has a director who shares the leader's ideas and values and uses them to guide the implementation process and ongoing operation of the project. Practitioners make the project their own rather than being coerced into it; that is, they buy into it, participate in its development, and have incentives to maintain its integrity during the process of change.

The project has clear lines of authority: There is no ambiguity as to who is in charge. The change and its implementation are not complex and sweeping. The organization has secure administrators, low staff turnover, and plentiful resources. Gendreau et al. While they acknowledge the importance of a program's characteristics, such as its theoretical basis, they also stress that positive change and success are dependent on much more than the specific characteristics of a prevention program or intervention.

Characteristics of the implementer, the environment in which the program is implemented, and even the target population have a significant influence on overall program effects.

Both the Petersilia and Gendreau et al. In particular, the CDC study highlights the importance of training, monitoring, and supporting the staff who implement a program on the local level. An appropriate match between staff and the target population can also contribute to program success, particularly in parent- and family-based programs.

Staff must be committed to the program, experienced with the general strategy being used, knowledgeable about the target community, and capable of managing group dynamics and overcoming resistance. Likewise, as noted by Petersilia, maintaining community involvement is a key element of program success.

Finally, linking a youth violence prevention program to existing strategies and support agencies in the community or school can contribute to success Thornton et al. A similar group of implementation characteristics affects the success of school-based delinquency prevention programs, according to Gottfredson and colleagues In a study of more than 1, schools throughout the United States, they found that extensive, high-quality training and supervision, as well as support for the program from the principal of the school, are key elements of success.

Schools also appear to have greater success with standardized materials and methods, as well as programs that can be incorporated into the regular school program. Consistent with Petersilia's principles, local buy-in and initiation of school-based delinquency prevention are important predictors of program success.

Multiple sources of information, including the use of an expert to assist with training and implementation, also help to ensure positive results. Improvements in any or all of these factors should improve the quality of the overall prevention program -- and its effects on youths. The CDC recommends monitoring the progress and quality of program implementation on a local level.

This step can be particularly important when implementing Model programs. The proven effectiveness of these programs in multiple, long-term studies makes them suitable for implementation on a wide, or even national, scale, but even Model programs are successful only when implemented with fidelity. While it is not always necessary to conduct expensive outcome evaluations of Model programs, given their demonstrated positive effects and ongoing national evaluations, it is critical to monitor the quality of implementation on the local level.

Scientific research has established the effectiveness of a number of prevention programs, and evaluation studies are sure to identify more in the near future. Although the studies cited above offer valuable guidance, more research is needed on how to implement youth violence prevention programs with fidelity on a national scale, how to monitor program fidelity on this scale, and how to increase community and agency capacity for implementing these programs.

In addition, large-scale program dissemination will affect the overall benefits of individual youth violence prevention programs. Addressing these issues will require a major investment of time and resources, but it is the essential next step in the continuing effort to find effective solutions to the problem of youth violence. View in own window. Diffusion effects on the siblings of target youths have also been observed, with significantly fewer siblings of FFT youths than control youths having juvenile court records 2.

Seattle, WA. Alexander, J. Functional family therapy. Elliott Series Ed. Mendel, R. Less hype, more help: Reducing juvenile crime, what works -- and what doesn't. One year after leaving treatment, treated boys had significantly larger decreases in arrest rates than controls, had significantly fewer arrests overall, and were significantly more likely not to have been arrested at all during follow-up.

Treated boys also reported significantly fewer criminal activities general delinquency, index offenses, and felony assaults. In prior evaluations that included both boys and girls, Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care improved rates of program completion, reduced rates of incarceration and number of days incarcerated during the first year after treatment, and resulted in a faster drop in rates of problem behavior for seriously impaired youths.

Treatment foster care. Family strengthening series. Washington, DC: U. Chamberlain, P. Multidimensional treatment foster care. Comparison of two community alternatives to incarceration for chronic juvenile offenders. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 6, Eddy, J.

Family management and deviant peer association as mediators of the impact of treatment condition on youth antisocial behavior. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 5, Moore, K. Community-based treatment for adjudicated delinquents: The Oregon Social Learning Center's "Monitor" treatment foster care program. Residential Treatment for Children and Youth. Studies conducted in Memphis, Tennessee, and South Carolina among seriously delinquent youths show that participation in MST can have significant positive effects on behavior problems including conduct problems, anxiety-withdrawal, immaturity, and socialized aggression , family relations, and self-reported offenses immediately after treatment.

After 2. In Columbia, Missouri, MST improved family relations and arrest rates, including arrests for violent and substance-related crimes, and demonstrated a dose-response effect, with program completers demonstrating significantly more benefits than dropouts. Multisystemic therapy. Thornton, T. Best practices of youth violence prevention: A sourcebook for community action.

A year follow-up of low-income, teenage mothers in whom this intervention was implemented in Elmira, New York, showed a 79 percent reduction in reports of child abuse and neglect, a 31 percent drop in subsequent births, a 44 percent decline in maternal behavioral problems, a 9 percent decline in maternal arrests, a 56 percent decrease in running away by children, and reductions of 56 percent in arrests of children and alcohol consumption by children.

The program also increased the average spacing between children by more than 2 years. Preliminary results of a replication in Memphis, Tennessee, demonstrated positive effects on parental caregiving and childhood injuries and reductions in dysfunctional caregiving, including child abuse and neglect. Recent reanalysis of the year follow-up in Elmira showed that the program's effects on child abuse and neglect were significantly diminished in families that reported high rates of domestic violence more than 28 incidents since the birth of the study child.

A new replication of the program in Denver has taken this limitation into account, adding elements on partner communication and assessment and referral for domestic violence.

Olds, D. Prenatal and infancy home visitation by nurses. Howell, J. Guide for implementing the comprehensive strategy for serious, violent, and chronic juvenile offenders. Other benefits of the program include lower rates of alcohol and delinquency initiation, improvements in family management practices and parent-child relationships, greater attachment and commitment to school, and less involvement with antisocial peers.

Follow-up at age 18 shows that the Seattle Social Development Project significantly improves long-term attachment and commitment to school and school achievement and reduces rates of self-reported violent acts and heavy alcohol use. Replications of this program have confirmed its benefits in both general and high-risk populations of youths.

Raising healthy children through enhancing social development in elementary school: Results after 1.

Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence. Developmental Research and Programs, Inc. Hawkins, J. Preventing adolescent health-risk behaviors by strengthening protection during childhood. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

The Seattle Social Development Project: Effects of the first four years on protective factors and problem behaviors. Tremblay Eds.

New York: The Guilford Press. Changing teacher practices in mainstream classrooms to improve bonding and behavior of low achievers.

American Educational Research Journal, 25, Reducing early childhood aggression: Results of a primary prevention program. O'Donnell, J. Preventing school failure, drug use, and delinquency among low-income children: Long-term intervention in elementary schools. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 65, Sherman, L.

Preventing crime: What works, what doesn't, what's promising. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. On average, the program reduces tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana use by 50 to 75 percent.

Long-term follow-up of students 6 years after participation in the intervention demonstrates that LST also reduces polydrug use by 66 percent, reduces pack-a-day cigarette smoking by 25 percent, and decreases the use of inhalants, narcotics, and hallucinogens. For further information: Developmental Research and Programs, Inc. Botvin, G. Life skills training. Specifically, cigarette, alcohol, and marijuana use were 5 percent, 2 percent, and 0 percent lower, respectively, in the Midwestern Prevention Project group at 6 months; 8 percent, 4 percent, and 3 percent lower after 1 year; and 9 percent, 2 percent, and 3 percent lower after 2 years.

At 3 years, significant program effects on tobacco and marijuana use, but not alcohol use, remained. Based on early results of this program, a replication in Indianapolis Project I-STAR modified the Midwestern Prevention Project intervention by adding two sessions on alcohol use to the school curriculum, introducing a parent-training component a year earlier than in the initial study, adding a pretraining orientation for parent committee members, shortening the time between the various program components, and changing the community organization structure.

In the Project I-STAR replication, the effects on cigarette and marijuana use through the high school years were similar to but smaller than the effects demonstrated in Kansas City. The magnitude of effects on inhalant, amphetamine, and LSD use was similar in the two cities. When the quality of implementation was taken into account, the effects of the program in Indianapolis reached the same magnitude as the effects demonstrated in Kansas City with respect to gateway drug use tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana.

The midwestern prevention project. One evaluation of a poorly implemented replication in North Carolina additional sites were added to the original study group showed a deterioration of program effects over time. Land, K. Intensive supervision of status offenders: Evidence on continuity of treatment effects for juveniles and a "Hawthorne effect" for counselors. McCord Eds. Depart-ment of Justice, Office of Justice Programs.

Sontheimer, H. Evaluation of juvenile intensive aftercare probation: Aftercare versus system response effects. Justice Quarterly, 10, Boys followed to age 12 3 years after the intervention had significantly lower rates of delinquency, fighting, serious difficulties in school, and placement in special-education classes, and they were rated as significantly more well adjusted in school than controls. Three years later, treated boys were less likely than untreated boys to report gang involvement, drunkenness, or drug use in the past year, delinquency, and having friends arrested by police.

Because the effects of this intervention on girls are unknown, these benefits can be expected only when the intervention is implemented in boys. Greenberg, M. Preventing mental disorders in school-age children: A review of the effectiveness of prevention programs. Tremblay, R. A bimodal preventive intervention for disruptive kindergarten boys: Its impact through mid-adolescence. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 63, Parent and child training to prevent early onset of delinquency: The Montreal Longitudinal Experimental Study.

The intervention has also reduced antisocial behavior and misconduct in elementary school and shown positive effects on commitment to school, academic achievement, rates of employment, and job satisfaction at age Changed lives: The effects of the Perry Preschool Program on youths through age Epstein, A. Training for quality: Improving early childhood programs through systematic inservice training. Greenwood, P. Diverting children from a life of crime: Measuring costs and benefits.

Schweinhart, L. Young children grow up: The effects of the Perry Preschool Program on youths through age Weikart, D. The Ypsilanti Perry Preschool Project: Preschool years and longitudinal results through fourth grade. In long-term studies, STEP students had lower dropout rates than controls 21 percent versus 43 percent , higher grades, and fewer absences.

In a replication of the program in middle and junior high schools, both STEP and control students showed increases in substance use, delinquent acts, and depression, and decreases in academic performance and self-confidence. However, these changes were significantly smaller among STEP students than controls. Students who participated in STEP also had lower dropout rates than controls. Replication in students with lower risk profiles 1 year after participation in STEP confirmed these findings, showing lower rates of delinquency and higher self-esteem, academic performance, and school attendance than controls.

This program has not been evaluated in small or high-achieving schools. In past studies, the program has worked best in large schools. The major limitation to the evaluation research on this program is that the first study lacked pretest measures; however, the researchers reported no differences between treated students and controls with respect to attendance and grades at baseline. Felner, R.

Price, E. Cowen, R. Ramos-McKay Eds. Primary prevention during school transitions: Social support and environmental structure. American Journal of Community Psychology , 10, Restructuring the ecology of the school as an approach to prevention during school transitions: Longitudinal follow-ups and extensions of the School Transitional Environment Project STEP.

Jason, K. New York: The Haworth Press. Reyes, O. An evaluation of a high school dropout prevention program. Journal of Community Psychology, 19, Compared to controls and comparison youths, youths who participated in CASASTART also reported significantly less lifetime drug sales and less involvement with delinquent peers.

While the initial evaluation of this intervention included multiple, ethnically diverse sites, a true replication of this program has not been evaluated. Harrell, A. Children in the program also demonstrated more positive self-ratings, higher educational goals, and increased self-efficacy.

Benefits to parents included greater encouragement of their children's success and increased family unity. The existing evaluation research on this program is limited by several factors: The program has not been replicated; there was relatively high attrition of families in the initial studies that may have led to a positive bias in the follow-up results; and allocation to treatment and control groups was not randomized.

This program is no longer deliverable -- that is, no technical assistance is available to those who wish to implement it. Lally, J. The Syracuse University Family Development Research Program: Long-range impact on early intervention with low-income children and their families.

Sigel Eds. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing. Two years after the intervention, bully-victim problems in treated schools decreased by 50 percent. Antisocial behavior, including theft, vandalism, and truancy, also dropped during these years, while school climate improved.

These changes showed a dose-response relationship. Multiple replications of this program have demonstrated similar effects in England, Germany, and the United States. Bullying prevention program. Short-term follow-up at the end of grade 1 shows improvements in children's aggressive, disruptive, and oppositional behavior; peer ratings; parenting techniques; parent-child bonding; and maternal involvement in school activities.

Long-term follow-up studies are in progress, but data are not yet available. Development and Psychopathology, 4, Long-term follow-up evaluations of the Good Behavior Game show sustained decreases in aggression among boys rated most aggressive in grade 1.

Program effects on violence or delinquency have not been measured. For more information: Barrish, H. Good behavior game: Effects of individual contingencies for group consequences on disruptive behavior in a classroom.

Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2, Dolan, L. The good behavior game manual. Also available on the Internet, at www. Kellam, S. The course and malleability of aggressive behavior from early first grade into middle school: Results of a developmental epidemiologically based preventive trial.

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 35, Building developmental and etiological theory through epidemiologically based prevention intervention trials. Medland, M. Good-behavior game: A replication and systematic analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 5, A second study demonstrated sustained improvements in classroom behavior and problem solving 3 to 4 years after the end of the program. In 5th- and 6th-graders, the program increased the use of positive and prosocial behaviors and improved peer relationships and problem-solving skills.

In general, it appears that the program is more effective in high-risk students than in students from the general population. Prior studies of this intervention did not use a randomized study design and were limited by high attrition. Shure, M. Interpersonal problem solving and prevention: A five year longitudinal study -- kindergarten through grade 4.

Final Report MH Interpersonal problem solving thinking and adjustment in the mother-child dyad. Rolf Eds. Interpersonal problem solving as a mediator of behavioral adjustment in preschool and kindergarten children.

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 1, Interpersonal problem-solving in young children: A cognitive approach to prevention. American Journal of Community Psychology, 10, Interpersonal cognitive problem solving. McKay Eds.