School-based aggression prevention programs for young children: Current status and implications for violence prevention

There is a growing consensus that school psychologists, researchers, and po licy makers need to work together to define policies and promote procedures for keeping schools safe for young children. This article advocates for th e need to design, evaluate, and implement school-based prevention programs that focus upon decreasing the daily aggression and victimization that occu r in elementary schools across the nation. Not only do these daily occurren ces of aggression affect young children's school and social adjustment in e lementary school, but they also have the potential to result in more seriou s outbreaks of school violence in the future. Five model programs are revie wed in an effort to define best practices in aggression prevention programm ing and to outline future directions for the field. The importance of defin ing school aggression broadly, designing comprehensive prevention and inter vention services, utilizing culturally sensitive outcome measures across in formants and important school contexts, and providing empirical support to document program efficacy are discussed in detail. In addition, policy impl ications and the key role that school psychologists play in the challenge t o reduce aggression is highlighted.