Violence prevention programs are commonplace in today's schools, though reviews of the literature reveal mixed empirical findings on their effectiveness. Often, these programs include a variety of components such as social skills training, student mentoring, and activities designed to build a sense of school community that have not been tested for…

School-based prevention and intervention programs are designed to address a variety of issues faced by youth today, both within and outside of schools. The five statements discussed in this report are based on practices rated by CrimeSolutions: (1) School-based bullying prevention programs prevent victimization and reduce perpetration; (2)…

Objective: To investigate the association between psychological flexibility and physical violence perpetration among a large sample of college students. Participants: We analyzed data from the 2018-2019 national Healthy Minds Study, which included 21,850 undergraduate and graduate student participants at 78 U.S. campuses. Methods: We used…

Although research advocates for comprehensive cross-sector youth violence prevention efforts, mobilizing across sectors to translate scientific recommendations into practice has proven challenging. A unifying framework may provide a foundational step toward building a shared understanding of the risk and protective factors that impact youth…

This study examined relations between patterns of dating aggression and victimization and school environment factors among 4,114 early adolescents attending 37 middle schools in four sites in the United States (51% Black, non-Hispanic, 21% Hispanic, and 17% White). Latent class analyses revealed a five-class solution that differentiated among…

Objective: This study examined if empathy was a significant moderator of several empirically established risk factors for sexual violence perpetration among college men. Participants: Data are from 544 college men who participated in a longitudinal study from 2008 to 2011 at a large, public university. Methods: Participants completed a self-report…

Background: Being bullied online is associated with being bullied in school. However, links between online bullying and violence-related experiences are minimally understood. We evaluated potential disparities in these associations to illuminate opportunities to reduce school-based violence. Methods: We used five cohorts of Youth Risk Behavior…

Health-Promoting School (HPS) interventions aim to reduce bullying and violence via curriculum, environmental and family/community-engagement components. Despite evidence of their effectiveness, factors influencing the implementation of such interventions are poorly understood. This systematic review aims to examine such factors by assessing…

This study investigated the structure and concurrent validity of the Beliefs About Fighting Scale (BAFS). Participants were 2,118 students from three urban middle schools who completed measures of their beliefs, frequency of physical aggression, victimization, and nonviolent intentions. Ratings of students' frequency of physical aggression,…

Relevant studies have shown that if aggressive behavior is not stopped in early childhood and persists during elementary school, the risk of continued physical violence and other non-violent forms of delinquency increases during adolescence. Evidence also shows the effectiveness of an intervention that targets aggressive behavior when implemented…

This study examines individual and family predictors of disrespect sensitivity in urban adolescents. Seventy-five adolescents from Southeastern USA (95% African American, 52% female) participated in two waves of a longitudinal study (mean ages 16.1 and 17.8 years, SDs?=?1.11). Youth reported on their disrespect sensitivity at both time points, as…

A review of the literature illustrates the high prevalence rate and negative student outcomes associated with verbal aggression (VA) in school settings. Research in the U.S. reveals the correlates and effects of VA that can inform and facilitate a research agenda for interventionists focused on violence prevention in school settings. Our analysis…

Current empirical research on youth bullying rarely asks students to describe their violent encounters. This practice conflates incidents of aggression that may actually have different forms and features. In this article I provide the results of a qualitative analysis of retrospective interviews with high school youth about their experiences of…

This report is based on research conducted by the Urban Institute's Justice Policy Center on the violence prevention activities taking place at the Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter High School during the 2008-2009 school year. Based on an assessment of the school's violence prevention approach using qualitative and quantitative data from…

Background: In this cross-sectional study we explored relationships between aggressive and violent behaviors and emotional self-efficacy (ESE) in a statewide sample of public high school adolescents in South Carolina (N = 3836). Methods: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Survey items on aggressive and violent…