Design of Project

• EKU entered into a partnership relationship with three rural Kentucky high schools in the Fall of 1999
• High School Freshmen in these 3 schools were included in the study (1 intervention school (School #13) and 2 control schools - #12 and #14)
• Repeated measure: The National School Crime and Safety Survey (Hamilton Fish Institute, 1999) was administered on 4 occasions to students (Oct. 1999, May 2000, Oct. 2000, May 2001)

• School #13 and #14 are in the same county with a population of approximately 57,000
• School #12 - County population 16,000
• Median household income in one county - $21,156; in the other county - $24,225
• Percentage of children in poverty (Ky. average is 26%) County #1 - 38.5%; County #2 - 30.4%
• Percentage of adults with no HS diploma - School #12 - 55%; School #13 - 44%; School #14 - 44%

• Participants were freshmen (98.3%) at the initiation of the project and were sophomores (98.3%) at the end of the 2-year project.
• 196 (46.7%) were male
• 224 (53.3%) were female
• 393 (95.1%) were white; 3 (.7%) were black; 1 (.2%) Hispanic or Latino; 5 (1.2%) other; 11 (2.7% multi-ethnic

• Multiple universal and targeted interventions to prevent school violence were used for slightly more than one year. The interventions included:
• School Coordinator to assist in VP efforts at school
• Conflict resolution training for all freshmen
• Formation of a SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) club
• Violence Prevention Curriculum for Adolescents - taught to all students referred for behavior problems
• Professional development sessions for teachers on "Importance of good student/teacher relationships"
• Enhancement of Character Education program
• School security assessments/crisis response drills
• Committee who monitors violent incidents
• Purchase of an interactive computer program - Relate for Teens

• The National School Crime and Safety Survey for Students with three scales:
  • The Motivation to Fight Scale - 5-items with good reliability measuring willingness to fight in response to others treatment.
  • Victimization by Common Aggression Scale - 6 items about experiences of victimization in the past 30 days.
  • Common Perpetration Scale - 5 items about performance of violent actions against others in the past 30 days.
  • Other items measuring carrying weapons and more severe violence and perpetration.
• Additional questions added at each survey time to measure other behaviors such as drug and alcohol use, perceptions of students about the needs for violence prevention, engagement in the intervention, and other items.
• Structured interviews with school administrators, teachers, and students at the intervention school at the end of the study.
• The National School Crime and Safety Survey for Staff.

Results

• In Fall 1999, the intervention school had the highest scores in victimization, perpetration, and the willingness to fight.
• Incidences of victimization and perpetration were more prevalent in spring than in fall across all three schools (see Figures 1 & 2).
• Both victimization and perpetration were increasing at the intervention school through the baseline period, consistent with the perception that the intervention school was most "at risk" of increasing violence.
• Results of ANCOVA analysis found that the changes in Victimization between the control and intervention schools was not statistically significant, F (1,328) - 1.63, p = .20. Figure 3 displays the data on Victimization and shows a trend toward lower scores during the treatment phase.
• Figure 4 shows that changes in Perpetration scores between the control and intervention school were statistically significant, F (1,347) = 4.37, p = .04. This demonstrates that Perpetration at the control schools remained nearly constant, while Perpetration at the intervention school was markedly reduced during the intervention phase.
• Chi-square analysis of distribution were used to test differences between schools in the number of knives and guns self-reported by students as having been brought to school. There were few statistically significant differences in the number of knives and other weapons reported to have been brought to school; those differences are displayed in Table 1.
• Sixty-four percent of students believed that the school violence program was effective in decreasing school violence and seventy percent felt that they had increased awareness of violent behaviors.
• Forty percent of students reported that they felt a sense of pride from having been engaged in a research study on school violence.
• Structured interviews with administrators, teachers and students revealed that there had been improved attention to school safety and that school administrators had made numerous system and policy changes to improve school safety.
• It is likely that the improved awareness, change in policies, and increased attention to safety will ultimately result in changes that are statistically significant.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Table 1

Self-Report of Carrying Knives and Other Weapons (not guns) to School

	Fall 1999	May 2000	Fall 2000	May 2001
School #12 Knives	6	6	3	6
Other Weapons	3	1	4	4
School #13 Knives	12	22*	13*	13
Other Weapons	7	10*	9	6
School #14 Knives	6	12*	8	11
Other Weapons	2	1	1	4

* = Numbers that were significantly higher than the other two schools.

Figure 3

Figure 4