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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: To test the efficacy of 2 programs designed to reduce high-risk behaviors among inner-city African American youth.
Design: Cluster randomized trial.
Setting: Twelve metropolitan Chicago, Ill, schools and the communities they serve, 1994 through 1998.
Participants: Students in grades 5 through 8 and their parents and teachers.
Interventions: The social development curriculum (SDC) consisted of 16 to 21 lessons per year focusing on social competence skills necessary to manage situations in which high-risk behaviors occur. The school/community intervention (SCI) consisted of SDC and school-wide climate and parent and community components. The control group received an attention-placebo health enhancement curriculum (HEC) of equal intensity to the SDC focusing on nutrition, physical activity, and general health care.
Main Outcome Measures: Student self-reports of violence, provocative behavior, school delinquency, substance use, and sexual behaviors (intercourse and condom use).
RESULTS: For boys, the SDC and SCI significantly reduced the rate of increase in violent behavior (by 35% and 47% compared with HEC, respectively), provoking behavior (41% and 59%), school delinquency (31% and 66%), drug use (32% and 34%), and recent sexual intercourse (44% and 65%), and improved the rate of increase in condom use (95% and 165%). The SCI was significantly more effective than the SDC for a combined behavioral measure (79% improvement vs 51%). There were no significant effects for girls.
CONCLUSIONS: Theoretically derived social-emotional programs that are culturally sensitive, developmentally appropriate, and offered in multiple grades can reduce multiple risk behaviors for inner-city African American boys in grades 5 through 8. The lack of effects for girls deserves further research. (Abstract Adapted from Source: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, 2004. Copyright © 2004 by the American Medical Association)
For more information on the Aban Aya Youth Project, see VioPro record number 896.
Illinois
Grade 5
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Junior High School Student
Violence Prevention
Violence Intervention
Intervention Program
Prevention Program
African American Juvenile
African American Child
African American Offender
African American Violence
African American Male
Male Offender
Male Violence
Juvenile Male
Juvenile Offender
Juvenile Violence
Child Male
Child Offender
Child Violence
Late Childhood
Early Adolescence
Program Effectiveness
Program Evaluation
Juvenile Delinquency
Child Delinquency
Male Delinquency
Male Substance Use
Male Behavior
Male Problem Behavior
Behavior Prevention
Behavior Intervention
Delinquency Prevention
Delinquency Intervention
Substance Use Intervention
Substance Use Prevention
Drug Use Intervention
Drug Use Prevention
Behavior Risk Factors
Multiple Risk Behavior
Multiple Risk Factors
Juvenile Behavior
Juvenile Problem Behavior
Juvenile Sexual Behavior
Juvenile Substance Use
Child Behavior
Child Problem Behavior
Child Substance Use
Child Sexual Behavior
African American Behavior
African American Substance Use
01-06 |