THE STUDENTS FOR PEACE PROJECT - A COMPREHENSIVE VIOLENCE-PREVENTION PROGRAM FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS

Students for Peace is a three-year project (October 1993- September 19 96) designed to evaluate a comprehensive, school-based intervention th at seeks to prevent violence among sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students in a large urban school district in Texas. This study examine s rite hypothesis that students exposed to a two-year multiple-compone nt intervention will reduce aggressive behavior compared to students w ho receive the district's ''usual care'' of violence prevention activi ties. Students for Peace is based largely on Social Learning Theory (S LT), which addresses both the psychosocial dynamics underlying health behavior and the methods of promoting behavior change, while emphasizi ng cognitive processes and their effect on behavior. SLT explains huma n behaviour in terms of a model in which three factors-behavior, socia l-environmental influences, and personal factors (such as personality; perceptions and expectations, and affect)-all interact. Theoretically , an individual's behavior is uniquely determined by a combination of these factors; thus, these factors become the elements for interventio n strategies, The intervention program includes four main components; (1) modification of the school environment, (2) a violence-prevention curriculum, (3) peer leadership, and (4) parent education. Students fo r Peace is using a nested cross-sectional and, cohort design in which school is the unit of design, allocation, and analysis. Eight schools, four intervention and four central, are participating. In May 1994, a questionnaire was administered to all students in school the day of t he survey. A posttest evaluation was taken in the spring of 1995 and w ill be followed by a final posttest in spring 1996. A total of 8,865 s tudents responded to the baseline survey. Nearly all variables indicat ed comparability between treatment and control conditions. As a popula tion, Students for Peace participants are largely Hispanic (65%) or Af rican American (19%). Violence-related variables indicated 30-day figh ting prevalence, 23%; 12-month prevalence of injuries due to fighting, 14%; 30-day handgun carrying prevalence, 11%; 30-day prevalence of ta unts and threats at school, 27%, and threats going to and from school, 26%, Overall, the data from Year 1 activities indicate a population i n need of violence-prevention intervention. The challenge is to mold e xisting district resources into a theoretically found program of inter ventions. If that program is found effective, the district will alread y have the necessary documentation, personnel, and skills for broader dissemination. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH): violence prevention, y outh, adolescent, school health, health promotion, school-age populati on, intervention studies.