IV. Identifying Solutions

D. Parent-focused Programs: Extensive Parent Education

Extensive parent training can provide parents with the necessary tools to manage their children’s behavior effectively. Such training programs must be extensive if they are going to be successful.64 Ongoing sessions lasting from six months to several years are recommended.65 Although such training requires a significant investment, they can reduce delinquency and result in better school adjustment in the long run.66 One source for extensive parent education programs is “Communities That Care.”67

E. Primary Prevention Programs

i. Pre-School Home Visits and First Grade Programs

The earlier the prevention efforts are provided, the greater is the potential for impact in school and beyond. Violence prevention is focusing more and more on preschoolers and elementary school children. Developmentally appropriate programs can help young children develop and enhance social skills. “Young children who are nurtured in a positive social environment and are given a firm foundation of interpersonal skills are able to avoid many social and academic troubles.”68

Preschool programs with home visits can provide the support for parents and foundation for children that promote healthy development.

“There is extensive evidence that preschool programs, especially when combined with weekly home visits over a period of years, can have substantial, long-term impact on families and the quality of a child’s adjustment. Some programs like the Perry Preschool Project found that children randomly assigned to the preschool and home visit program not only did better in school than control children, but had fewer arrests as juveniles and adults. A strength of the Perry Preschool Project was its emphasis on facilitating parent involvement in children’s academic and social development.”69

First grade behavior management programs have also shown a long-term effect on youth violence. Dr. Sheppard G. Kellam and colleagues from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health studied 680 first-graders in 1985. The children were divided into two groups; one group participated in a behavior management program called “Good Behavior Game” while the other group did not. After revisiting the two groups once the children reached the sixth grade, Dr. Kellam found that:

“If you were an aggressive, disruptive 1st grader and you were in a poorly managed classroom, the risk of being aggressive later on was 59 times that of average kids. In well-managed classrooms, the same kid’s risk would be three times that of the average child. And poor academic achievement reinforces students’ aggression, so that they have careers of aggressive behavior,” he says. “And aggressive behavior gets reinforced by other children who are also disruptive.”70

ii. Primary Mental Health Prevention (PMHP)

“The primary mental health prevention (PMHP) project is one of the oldest and most respected school-based programs for identifying and treating children at risk for emotional and behavioral problems. PMHP has changed and evolved over the course of nearly 40 years, with a basic model involving carefully supervised, paraprofessional counseling for children with emotional or behavioral problems. There are specialized components to teach social problem-solving, assist children with divorced parents, facilitate peer relationships and encourage cooperative learning (the “Study Buddy” program). A variety of large-scale, multi-year program evaluations involving thousands of students documented positive changes in the emotional and behavioral adjustment of PMHP children. PMHP has a well-established dissemination and training program; the model is now formally employed in California (180 school districts), Connecticut (23), New York (134), and Washington (34), with more than a dozen other states implementing similar programs in one or more school districts.”71