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1Correspondence should be directed to Nancy G. Guerra, Department of Psychology, Univer- ... increase in availability and willingness to use firearms (Mercy & Rosenberg, ... to infuse alcohol and substance abuse prevention programs into the school .... enced component of explosive types of aggression and violence.
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C 2003) Journal of Applied Psychoanalytic Studies, Vol. 5, No. 2, April 2003 (°

Preventing School Violence by Promoting Wellness Nancy G. Guerra1

This paper presents a framework for school-based health promotion and prevention programming that can serve to guide planning and action. Rather than separating specific prevention programs (such as violence prevention, substance abuse prevention, etc.) from more broad-based youth development efforts, this approach provides an integrated framework that: (a) identifies benchmarks of healthy development and strategies to support this development across contexts; (b) specifies additional factors that contribute to identified problems that are not directly linked to healthy development; and (c) provides for matching services to individual needs. Suggestions for application of this framework are discussed, with a particular focus on its application to the development of school-based Wellness Centers. KEY WORDS: aggression; violence; school-based prevention; youth development.

Thinking back to high school, almost all of us can recall some experience with violence. In my case, I have vivid memories of beehive hairdos that concealed small razor blades used to extort money from those unlucky enough to walk into the girls’ restroom at the wrong time. Although these razor blade confrontations were relatively infrequent, indirect aggressive strategies such as social exclusion and gossip began well before high school and were quite pervasive among girls. Conflicts among boys clearly involved more physical aggression, from pushing and shoving to an occasional stabbing. My school was not the safe haven envisioned by those who recall the “good old days” when Ozzie and Harriet and Leave it to Beaver were part of mainstream television fare. On the other hand, although school violence was around us, we did not live in mortal fear of being hurt or even killed. Indeed, the face of school violence has also changed considerably over the last few decades. First, it has 1 Correspondence

should be directed to Nancy G. Guerra, Department of Psychology, University of California at Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521; e-mail: [email protected]. 139 C 2003 Human Sciences Press, Inc. 1521-1401/03/0400-0139/0 °

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become more organized. Recent reports indicate that approximately 30 percent of students aged 12 to 19 report street gangs in their schools (National Center for Educational Statistics, 1999). Second, it has become more lethal. A cut on the face is now a bullet in the head. This trend parallels the changes in youth violence; much of the surge reported during the 1980’s and 1990’s was related to an increase in lethality rather than in number of episodes (Huizinga, 1997). Most researchers attribute this increased lethality to an increase in availability and willingness to use firearms (Mercy & Rosenberg, 1998). Third, there have been several multiple killings of students at school over the past decade that have given rise to the concept of “targeted violence” (U.S. Secret Service, 2000). These high-profile shootings have pushed a public panic button, with urgent calls for immediate action resonating all the way to the White House. Policy-makers have been quick to respond to this urgency with a huge influx of funds into various federal, state and local programs. Academics quickly followed suit, with a surge of publications following the highlypublicized Columbine High School shootings in 1999.2 The private sector has also experienced an unprecedented boom in violence prevention and school security products. Everyone, it seems, has a different explanation, product, or solution to address school violence. Given this growing sense of impending crisis, schools also seem willing to try almost anything and everything. Rather than a dearth of programs, schools are being flooded with new and improved programs that have been described by some as the “flavor of the month” (Devine, 1999). For example, numerous curriculum-based interventions are available that focus on one or more skills such as conflict resolution, peer mediation, anger management, communication, social interaction, social perspective taking, social problem solving, decision-making, refusal, and impulse control. Other programs emphasize recreation, arts, mentoring, character development, and after-school activities as violence prevention strategies. Still other programs emphasize school-wide responses such as antibullying and antiviolence campaigns and rules, restructuring schools to engage students, parents, teachers, and community members in collaborative governance, asset-building, gang prevention and enhancing school climate. These responses are often paired with efforts to increase security via metal detectors, video surveillance, campus security officers, and enhanced police response. In many districts, zero-tolerance policies require expulsion for weapon possession on school grounds. Still other districts augment these efforts with prevention of targeted violence using procedures such as profiling, 2A

recent computerized literature search of social science data bases for keywords “school violence” showed a 300% increase in scholarly articles between June, 1999 and June, 2000.

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structured assessments (e.g., warning signs, checklists), automated decisionmaking (e.g., actuarial formulas), and threat assessment. In addition to these ever-expanding violence prevention portfolios, schools are also engaged in other prevention activities that require time and resources. Coalitions across the United States have spearheaded efforts to infuse alcohol and substance abuse prevention programs into the school curriculum. Tobacco prevention programs may be included in these activities or they may be implemented as a separate project. Some schools include suicide prevention programs in their antiviolence efforts. Programs to prevent teenage pregnancy and HIV/AIDS further augment the prevention landscape. This dizzying array of programs often leads to competing demands of school time and resources. Further, there is usually considerable overlap in types of services and strategies recommended for each specific type of prevention program (Dryfoos, 1990). Adding to this rather complicated state of affairs, there has also been a recent backlash against “problem-focused” prevention approaches that emphasize risk, dysfunction, and illness. In response, many school and communities have shifted towards (or added) a health promotion approach that emphasizes resilience and well-being. Programs such as the Search Institute’s asset-building model have become increasingly popular by providing lists of external and internal assets (Leffert, Benson, Scales, Sharma, Drake, & Blythe, 1998). How can schools address healthy development, violence prevention, and prevention of other problem behaviors simulatiously? There have been numerous calls for comprehensive, multifaceted approaches that address risk and protective factors across contexts (e.g., Cunningham & Singh Sandhu, 2000; Kopka, 1997). Unfortunately, rather than simplifying matters, such efforts often lead schools to believe they must provide even more services to cover every aspect of student, school, family, and community life. What is often lacking is an overarching framework to guide programmatic decisions and provide for integrated service delivery for all children as well as those most in need. In the remainder of this paper, I discuss a framework for action that links healthy development and prevention of problem behaviors. My colleagues and I have been working on this approach for several years, spearheaded initially by support from the Annie E. Casey Foundation (Williams, Guerra, & Elliot, 1997). The concept of linking development and risk prevention led to the acronym, DART (Development and Risk Together). Although such a framework could be expanded to include risk for a range of problem behaviors, our interests were focused on youth violence prevention. With additional funding from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) to the Riverside Unified School District, we

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have been able to partner with schools and translate the DART model into an implementation and service delivery approach. This approach centers on the concept of wellness promotion and school violence prevention simultaneously through the operation of school-based Wellness Centers.

DEVELOPMENT AND RISK TOGETHER: THE DART MODEL Drawing on the strengths of risk-focused and health promotion approaches, we attempted to lay out a framework that would (a) identify benchmarks of healthy development; (b) specify additional risk or protective factors that contribute to youth violence that are not directly linked to healthy development; and (c) provide a specific guide for programming to support development and reduce risk factors for violence that also addresses the issue of matching services to individual needs. We began our efforts to develop an integrated framework for action by looking at the strengths and weaknesses of both risk-focused prevention and health promotion approaches. Over the last decade or so, risk-focused models of prevention have drawn heavily on the emerging field of developmental psychopathology. A primary focus has been on identifying developmental trajectories to dysfunction that are influenced by multiple individual and contextual factors that have a differential impact across the life course (Coie et al., 1993). In other words, development is seen as a complex chain of reciprocal influence across multiple systems. Prevention is directed at identifying a negative chain of events that lead to or intensify a given disorder in order to intervene at optimal points to weaken these linkages by reducing risk factors or enhancing protective factors. Applying this approach to violence prevention, list of risks and protective factors for youth violence have been compiled from numerous empirical studies. These studies typically focus on identifying risk and protective factors for different age groups. For example, insecure attachment to a caregiver during infancy has been linked to later aggression, violence, and delinquency (for a review see Karr-Morse & Wiley, 1997). Interventions such as home visitation that increase the caregiver-child bond have also been shown to prevent later violence (Olds & Kitzman, 1993). Efforts have also been made to determine which risk or protective factors are most influential at different points in development by comparing effect sizes across studies using different age groups. For example, in a recent meta-analysis, Lipsey (1997) found that association with deviant peers was the best predictor of youth violence for adolescents but not for elementary school children. An emphasis on understanding the complex processes of development and how they relate to dysfunction and disorder has advanced our scientific

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knowledge considerably. However, some limitations of this perspective are also evident. Identifying multiple trajectories to disorder that vary further by gender, culture, and setting, while theoretically informative, presents numerous problems for guiding interventions. Although the idea may be to identify prototypical pathways to specific disorders, the numerous transactions across multiple systems over time render possible a myriad of potential pathways. Designing interventions to accommodate these various pathways would be quite a difficult undertaking. More commonly, preventive interventions are designed to modify one or more selected risk and protective factors for each problem behavior. Further, a focus on prevention of dysfunction as a desired outcome speaks more about what is to be avoided than what is to be accomplished. Although reduction of selective risk factors or enhancement of selected protective factors are measured as intervening mediators, this approach still does not provide an overall picture of successful adaptation and the processes that support it. This is further complicated by the designation of variables as risk or protective factors depending on whether they are conceptualized as the absence or presence of some feature. Otherwise put, a characteristic such as adaptive and flexible social problem-solving skills could be labeled a risk factor if absent, or a protective factor if present. Social problem-solving skills could also be recast as markers of healthy adjustment. However, other protective factors such as high quality and responsive schools tell us little about individual markers of healthy adaptation. In contrast, health promotion and “asset-building” approaches typically have incorporated developmental theory by identifying adaptive pathways and positive markers of wellness during different developmental periods. The goal of such programs is to foster healthy developmental outcomes for all. Most conceptualizations of healthy adaptation have been driven by psychological models of competence. Some draw on theories that emphasize attainment of basic human needs over time (e.g., Erickson, 1950; Sullivan, 1953). Other conceptualizations are linked more to the acquisition of specific age-appropriate skills. Several listings or taxonomies of skills have been offered (e.g., W.T. Grant Consortium on the School-Based Promotion of Social Competence, 1982). In many cases, models are offered that incorporate the importance of meeting a few selected developmental needs and acquiring appropriate skills. For example, Cowan (1994) singles out the importance of attachment formation in infancy and age-appropriate skill acquisition in childhood as central to psychological wellness. However, regardless of the specific milestones outlined, asset-based models typically do not focus on linkages to specific problems or address any nondevelopmental risk factors for different problem behaviors (e.g., limiting access to weapons as part of violence prevention programming).

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BENCHMARKS OF SUCCESSFUL ADAPTATION AND LINKS TO YOUTH VIOLENCE PREVENTION Developing a framework that is both consistent with the risk prevention and health promotion literature and that is relevant to more practical organizational and implementation concerns of schools proved to be quite challenging. We began by reviewing the developmental literature to identify central developmental tasks or “benchmarks” separately for each major developmental stage from infancy to adolescence. Although our focus was limited to social and emotion tasks, the list soon became long and complex— certainly too cumbersome for practical application in schools elsewhere. To simplify matters, we selected as benchmarks those components of social and emotional development that have been consistently indicated as outcomes of healthy development by adolescence and, when compromised, increase risk of youth violence. They are: (a) the ability to monitor and regulate feelings, thoughts, and actions (e.g. impulse control); (b) the capacity to show empathetic concern for others; (c) the ability to cope with and solve interpersonal problems; (d) a positive identity and future orientation; and (e) the ability to engage in positive peer relations. Each of these competencies unfolds from birth though adolescence and beyond and may manifest itself in different ways at different points in development. Clearly, there is extensive literature on the developmental significance and progression of these competencies that is beyond the scope of this paper. What follows is a brief description of each benchmark and its links to aggression and violence.

The Ability to Monitor and Regulate Feelings, Thoughts, and Actions Several perspectives on the relations among emotion, cognition, and behavior have been presented in the psychological literature. Over the last decade or so, particular attention has focused on emotional self-regulation, defined as “the set of processes involved in initiating, maintaining, and modulating emotional responsiveness, both positive and negative” (Bridges & Grolnick, 1995, p. 186). This has been broken down further into the ability to regulate the expression of emotion as well as the specific behaviors that regulate the emotional experience (e.g., self-soothing). A number of studies have documented normative developmental changes in both emotional responsiveness and self-regulation strategies, particularly during the infant and toddler period (Kopp, 1982). These studies point to increased adaptability with age, wherein children get better at managing negative emotions and sustaining positive emotions (Izard, Hembree, & Huebner, 1997; Thompson, 1990). These competencies are also linked to increased

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behavioral self-control, such as the ability to delay immediate gratification for larger rewards in the future (e.g. Mischel, 1974), and the ability to refrain from desired actions and control impulsive behavior (e.g., Funder, Block, & Block, 1983). A different line of research on aggression has demonstrated that intense and agitated negative affect portends a type of impulsive aggression. In other words, aversive experiences (ranging from intense heat to physical attack) can lead to an agitated negative affect that, in turn, leads to an aggressive response (Berkowitz, 1997). Anger is but one component of this negative affective state, although it is perhaps the most commonly referenced component of explosive types of aggression and violence. As developmental research shows, even very young children differ in their ability to inhibit aggressive responses (Rothbart, Attadi, & Hershey, 1994). Further, longitudinal studies have found that children who perform poorly on measures of impulsivity or response inhibition are more likely to engage in aggressive and delinquent behaviors as adolescents (Farrington, 1988; Moffit, 1990; 1993). Thus, not only does emotional self-regulation appear to be an important component of healthy social and emotional development, failure to develop this competency should increase impulsive types of aggression, particularly when individuals are not able to manage negative affective experiences.

The Capacity to Show Empathetic Concern for Others Empathy has been defined in a number of different ways, ranging from literally feeling the same emotion as the other to reacting emotionally in a way that is more appropriate to someone else’s situation than one’s own (Hoffman, 1992). Studies suggest that the capacity for empathy is inborn, although its developmental course depends on emerging cognitive structures, socialization experiences, and their interaction (Schore, 1994). For instance, developmental improvements in the ability to take the perspective of the other can lead to increases in empathetic responses (Selman, 1980). Caring and loving relationships with parents have also been shown to relate to empathetic tendencies in children (Barnett, Howard, King, & Dino, 1980). In turn, empathy has been linked with prosocial behaviors, particularly during adolescence and adulthood (Eisenberg, 1986). At the other end of the spectrum, an impaired ability to empathically experience the emotional states of others has been associated with aggression. This is particularly evident in the literature linking child abuse with aggression (Schore, 1994). In the most extreme cases where empathetic circuits seem absent, as with the psychopathically violent, an individual may simply

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be unresponsive to the pain or suffering of others and incapable of feeling guilt. For example, studies of children who murder often find a pattern of decreased physiological arousal in response to scenes of violence, suggesting an inability to be emotionally connected to others (Perry, 1997). To the extent that empathy and associated feelings of guilt about others’ distress serve to inhibit aggressive responding, a failure to develop age-appropriate empathic responses will contribute to aggressive and even extreme violent behavior. The Ability to Cope with and Solve Interpersonal Problems Emotional self-regulation and the capacity to show empathic concern for others represent healthy developmental outcomes that primarily involve the affective domain (although they clearly interface with cognition and behavior). In addition to this affective competencies, studies of children’s emerging competencies have also emphasized the social cognitive underpinnings of adaptation. Although, a number of social-cognitive skills have been studied, much of the work linking social cognition and aggression has focused on children’s social problem-solving skills, specifically how children think and reason about interpersonal problems. Developmental studies have shown that as children get older, their ability to solve interpersonal problems improves. They are more able to read social cues, generate more alternative solutions, consider multiple consequences, choose a solution, and reflect on the adequacy of their choice (Doge, 1986). Given the relative frequency of interpersonal problems in everyday social interactions and associated stressors, children who are more skilled should be better able to cope with life’s social ups and downs, i.e., display more competent behavior across different situations via information seeking and problem solving (Skinner & Welborn, 1994). In contrast, children who are less skilled at solving social problems would be expected to encounter more difficulties in their interactions with others. This is certainly the case for aggressive children and adolescents. Indeed, numerous studies have shown that aggressive children are more likely than their nonaggressive counterparts to view others as hostile and provocative, adopt vengeful and instrumental goals, generate fewer and more aggressive responses, and generate fewer negative consequences for aggression (Dodge, 1986; Crick & Dodge, 1994). A Positive Identity and Future Orientation What begins as basic self-awareness during infancy (e.g., recognition of mirror images of self, self-related speech) sets in motion a long

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developmental journey of self discovery that continues through much of childhood and adolescence. The developmental literature suggests that children progress from conceptions of self based on concrete physical attributes and activities towards conceptions of self based on abstract psychological dimensions and future goals (Damon & Hart, 1982). A major goal of adolescence is to achieve harmony across these diverse components of self. Thus, an integrated identity is formed that leads to decisions and commitments in various areas, including occupation, religion, and personal values (Erikson, 1968). Problems with identity development can lead to behaviors such as violence and delinquency. For example, deindividuation, which has been associated with a willingness to commit aggressive and antisocial acts, has been shown to decrease with increasing self-awareness (Ickes, Layden, & Barnes, 1978). Perhaps most germane to adolescent violence and delinquency is the extent to which one’s self definition (or self-schema) is linked to being aggressive, a type of negative identity. In some settings, particularly where positive means of establishing social status are lacking and future prospects for conventional success are limited, being tough and willing to fight portend elevated social status and enhanced self-esteem (Fagan & Wilkinson, 1998). This is true across a wide range of adolescent subcultures, from loosely-knit peer groups to tightly organized street gangs.

The Ability to Engage in Positive Peer Relations As early as three months of age, babies show interest in other babies. From this time through adolescence, peer relations go through certain developmental sequences related to both the child’s developmental stage and social skills. General trends in peer relations show that over the course of childhood and adolescence they become more frequent, more sustained, more complex, more intimate, and more cohesive (Schaffer, 1998). Children develop a repertoire of social skills (e.g., communication, cooperation, conflict resolution) that enable them to engage peers and friends in a positive and sustained fashion. These skills are also forerunners of subsequent intimate relationships during adolescence and adulthood. Children who have difficulty with age-appropriate social skills are more likely to be rejected by peers. They are often picked on, taunted, and excluded from social groups. This social exclusion further limits their ability to learn social skills within a peer context. It may also motivate some children to seek revenge against those who reject them—more than half of the recent incidents of targeted school violence had revenge against peers as a motive (U.S. Secret Service, 2000). Even in less extreme circumstances, rejected

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children are often characterized as disruptive, antisocial, overly talkative, unwilling to share, and socially inappropriate. They are also likely to develop more serious adjustment problems later in life, including school drop out, delinquency, violence, and adult criminality (Parker & Asher, 1987).

ADDITIONAL RISK FACTORS FOR YOUTH VIOLENCE NOT DIRECTLY LINKED TO HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT Although healthy adjustment may be a cornerstone of violence prevention efforts, developmental issues alone are not the only predictors of school violence. For this reason, it is also important for prevention efforts to identify problem-specific factors that are not related to development. An extensive literature on these risk factors is beyond the scope of this paper. However, several factors stand out as particularly germane to school violence prevention. They include classroom and school norms supporting violence (Felson, Liska, South, & McNulty, 1994; Huesmann & Guerra, 1997; Henry, Guerra, Huesmann, Tolan, & Van Acker, 2000) and bullying (Olweus, 1994), high levels of community and gang violence (Hill & Madhere, 1996; Lorion, 1998), excessive exposure to media violence (Donnerstein, 1998), and availability/carrying of weapons (Mercy & Rosenberg, 1998; Sheley, McGee, & Wright, 1992).

SCHOOL-BASED PROGRAMMING TO SUPPORT HEALTHY DEVELOPMENT AND REDUCE VIOLENCE RISK Linking this framework to school violence prevention, the task then becomes how to provide services that facilitate social and emotional development along these five benchmarks and simultaneously impact nondevelopmental risk factors for violence. It is clear that each of these benchmarks of healthy adaptation is influenced, in part, by an individual’s innate characteristics, somewhat like a biological birth certificate. However, these propensities unfold across social contexts that vary in terms of the presence or absence of developmental supports. Developmental supports help individuals make healthy adjustments through mechanisms such as direct instruction, modeling and reinforcement, enhanced opportunities, and trusting relationships. When developmental supports are absent (for example, for children who suffer early abuse or trauma in their families), remedial supports may be needed. What type of developmental supports can schools provide? First, direct instruction via specific curricula have been used to build a number of social

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and emotional skills. A multiple of K-12 programs are available, with some programs linked to improvements in social competence and reductions in aggressive behavior (Greenberg, 1998). Classroom curricula may be focused primarily on one specific area such as empathy training or moral development programs that emphasize concern for others, or they may be more comprehensive in scope targeting several outcomes. Direct instruction may also be offered for selected students or groups of students with specific needs (e.g., anger management groups for students with low impulse control). In addition to direct instruction, schools can train teachers to model appropriate behaviors and to teach via reinforcement what behaviors are acceptable and what behaviors are not appropriate. Teacher training programs frequently emphasize proactive classroom management strategies. Schools can also structure the learning experience to provide opportunities for students to develop and/or practice a variety of the indicated benchmark skills. For instance, programs that foster ethnic pride and celebrate historical contributions of different ethnic groups should be important in helping students (particularly students of those ethnic groups) develop a positive identity. Similarly, cooperative learning and peer mediation programs allow children to practice their peer relations and social problem solving skills as part of the regular school day. Among the most important supports schools can provide are opportunities for students to develop and build trusting and caring relationships with peers and adults. Although the caregiver-infant bond may be profoundly important for future social emotional development (e.g., Erikson, 1950), opportunities for meaningful relationships continue throughout childhood, adolescence, and beyond. Successful school climate interventions often promote more teacher and parent engagement in student’s lives (e.g., Corner, Hayes, Joyner, & Ben-Avie, 1996). Mentoring programs can also be important for building peer relations skills (when children are matched with older peers), and adult-child relationships. In this fashion, programs and practices can be evaluated in terms of how they support the development of designated social and emotional benchmarks. As discussed previously, students who increase these skills should also be less likely to engage in violence. Beyond these benchmarks, specific antiviolence strategies can also be implemented. For example, bully prevention programs often emphasize creating a school and community normative climate that discourages bullying and other antisocial behaviors (Olweus, 1994). In schools where weapons are a serious problem, antiweapon strategies such as focused curricula and/or metal detectors may be needed. A final issue concerns how to select students to be served. Health promotion and youth development efforts typically involve all youth, while risk prevention programs have been distinguished based on level of client

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identification for services (e.g. universal, selected, indicated). The DART framework can be used as a guide for both universal services for all youth as well as services for identified youth. In addition to promoting attainment of developmental benchmarks and antiviolence themes, students can be identified for more intensive services based on either previous problems with violence and/or specific social, emotional, or behavioral problems that indicate lags in accomplishing indicated benchmarks. Schools may choose to administer assessments of social benchmarks for all students and provide remedial services for children who display lags. Alternately, children who are identified because of distinct problems can be assessed on these developmental benchmarks in order to refer them to specific services (e.g., anger management programs for those with poor affect regulation and impulse control).

SCHOOL-BASED WELLNESS CENTERS The DART approach provides a framework for integrating health promotion and violence prevention services with in a school or other setting. However, we viewed this as a first step—a guide for services, but not a method of service delivery. Even when schools provide an array of antiviolence and other prevention programs that are consistent with supports for healthy development, they are commonly delivered in a loosely coordinated fashion with gaps and/or overlaps in services. Communication between prevention personnel from different agencies is often minimal, and students or families frequently are referred to services in a scattered fashion. Efforts to improve coordination of school prevention services typically involve the establishment of a multidisciplinary team including school personnel, health care providers, law enforcement, social services, parents, and community members. Different teams may address different problems, e.g., violence prevention, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse. Regular team meetings can enhance coordination efforts. However, it is often difficult to establish ongoing mechanisms for communication and a continuity of district-wide, school-wide, and individual student-focused efforts. In working with the Riverside Unified School District, our intent was to provide district-wide and site specific development, integration, and coordination of health promotion and violence prevention efforts. At a district-wide level, the intent was to promote a “culture of wellness” where health and wellness become part of the regular dialogue of students, teachers, and parents. In the social/emotional domain, this included fostering respectful, considerate, and courteous behavior among students, where common and hurtful practices such as teasing, taunting, excluding, and bullying

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would not be acceptable. Thus, creating a culture of wellness should work to minimize school norms supporting violence. To date, a range of activities and programs have been conducted, including school campaigns and presentations, public information campaigns, informational materials, consistent school policies, individualized student and family services, a 24-hour Wellness HotLine, and a website. In addition to incorporating developmental benchmarks and wellness into an overall district-wide strategy, five full-service Wellness Centers have been established—at one elementary school, one middle school, and three high schools. Each Wellness Center is housed in a designated space and is staffed by a Wellness Team. In addition to social-emotional development and antiviolence programming, the Wellness Centers also provide diagnostic and treatment services for students with physical and/or mental health problems. The team is comprised of a site coordinator, case manager (MSW), probation officer, school resource officer, youth resource officer, youth service agency staff person, and public health nurse. Staff are either full time at one site or shared across two sites. Efforts have been made to allow staff to operate in preventive and sometimes nontraditional roles. For example, although most schools have school resource officers, their primary function is safety and suppression; they provide resources for faculty and staff in response to criminal activity. In contrast, Wellness Center police coordinate with school resource officers, but assume a more preventive role by engaging in activities such as mentoring, recreation programs, and classroom instruction. Each Wellness Center also developed a site plan that included a core set of strategies (e.g., mentoring, tutoring, parenting) based on activities with demonstrated effectiveness that address specific benchmarks and risk factors for youth violence. Again, the focus was on selecting programs and practices that would directly impact the targeted benchmarks and/or antiviolence themes. Using this site plan, the Wellness Teams are responsible for coordinating all prevention and health promotion services at their school. Many of the activities are schoolwide or available to selected subgroups of students. For example, Wellness Centers offer comprehensive after-school programs that are staffed by various team members (e.g., youth counseling, police athletic league and mentoring project). In addition, individual students are referred to Wellness Centers for assessment and referral to mental health, internship, and other services. CONCLUSION School violence has become more organized, lethal, and highly publicized over the past decade. Still, rather than succumbing to knee-jerk responses to turn schools into armed camps or to begin criminal profiling in

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the nursery, we must approach this problem from a broader perspective that allows us to understand youth violence in the context of healthy youth development or wellness. As we have discussed, many of the risk factors for youth violence represent lags in social and emotional development. Schools can provide supports for this development and additional antiviolence programming. Such actions should put students on a course that minimizes violent behavior and enhances positive outcomes. The five social and emotional benchmarks of healthy adolescent development described in this paper are not intended to be an exclusive list but rather a starting point based on key indicators that are also linked to youth violence. Other benchmarks may also be important in specific settings. For instance, some tasks of healthy development may be culture specific. Consider the acculturation demands placed on bicultural youth. By adolescence, these youth must learn to navigate two worlds—that of their native culture and that of the country where they live. For some, this may lead to increased stress and corresponding problem behaviors. Similarly, the risk factors unique to violence discussed are provided as examples that may vary greatly by setting. Just as the DART Model provides a framework for integrating empirical data on healthy development and risk for violence, Wellness Centers can provide an organizational structure for service delivery. Although offered as school violence prevention models, both the DART Model and the Wellness Center approach place the greatest emphasis on the health and well-being of all students and how schools can organize towards that goal. REFERENCES Barnett, M.A., Howard, J.A., King, L.M., & Dino, G.A. (1980). Antecedents of empathy: Retrospective accounts of early socialization. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 6, 361–365. Berkowitz, L. (1997). Determinants and regulation of impulsive aggression. In S. Feshback & J. Zagrodzka (Eds.), Aggression: Biological, Developmental, and Social Perspectives (pp. 187–211). New York: Plenum Press. Bridges, L.J. & Grolnick, W.S. (1995). The development of emotional self-regulation in infancy and early childhood. In N. Eisenberg (Eds.), Social Development (pp. 185–211). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Coie, J.D., Watt, N.F., West, S.G., Hawkins, J.D., Asarnow, J.R., Markham, H.J., Ramey, S.L., Shure, M.B., & Long, B. (1993). The science of prevention: A conceptual framework and some directions for a national research program. American Psychologist, 48, 1013–1022. Comer, J.P., Haynes, N.M., Joyner, E.T., & Ben-Avie, M. (1996). Rallying the Whole Village: The Comer Process for Reforming Education. New York: Teachers College Press. Cowan, E.L. (1994). The enhancement of psychological wellness: Challenges and opportunities. American Journal of Community Psychology, 22, 149–178. Crick, N.R., & Doge, K.A. (1994). A review and reformulation of social-information processing mechanisms in children’s social adjustment. Psychological Bulletin, 115, 74–101.

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