This action research project report was conducted because students' lack of sportsmanship skills in elementary school physical education was negatively affecting the physical activity level of many students. The teacher was spending classroom time giving attention to conflicts dealing with negative sportsmanship issues and therefore losing…

The promoting responsibility through education and prevention (PREP) program is an after school substance abuse and violence prevention program for at-risk fourth and fifth grade youths in St. Louis, Missouri. Staffed by licensed clinical social workers and professional volunteers, PREP offers cultural cooking classes, yoga, and art as well as…

Teachers may not be trained on how to prevent or address school violence and/or may lack the skills necessary to provide adequate intervention strategies. The purpose of this study was to explore urban K-6 teachers' perceptions of school violence at one metropolitan school. The conceptual framework for this study was supported by Bronfenbrenner's…

Bullying is a prevalent problem for many elementary school students, and it is associated with physical injury and depression. Objectives: Students engaged in this teaching activity will be able to identify bullying behaviors as well as list and demonstrate strategies to effectively deal with bullying situations. Target Audience: Fourth- and…

We studied 364 narratives about personal experiences with conflict written by urban 4th, 5th, and 6th graders. Narratives were examined in terms of children's narrative and perspective-taking skills and the responses to conflict they described. Several features of narrative were reliably coded, including level of violence described in the story,…

In this study, a nonprofit community mental health clinic developed a socioecological model of sexual abuse prevention that was implemented in a public school. The goal of the program was to promote and create community change within individuals and the school community by reducing tolerance of sexual violence and sexual harassment. Participants…

Over the past few decades, service-learning has surged in popularity. Although most programs are implemented in high school and college classrooms, service-learning has the potential for great impact in middle school. The present article evaluates a pilot service-learning program for fifth- and seventh-grade (N = 86) children in a large, urban,…

Drawing from the theoretical lenses of cultural memory and critical race theory, we examined how elementary level and middle school level social studies textbooks represent the history of racial violence directed toward African Americans and resistance to this violence in the U.S. Using a literary analysis method, we found that textbooks often…

Community and school violence continue to be a major public health problem, especially among urban children and adolescents. Little research has focused on the effect of school safety and neighborhood violence on academic performance. This study examines the effect of the school and neighborhood climate on academic achievement among a population…

Background: In elementary grades, comprehensive health education curricula mostly have demonstrated effectiveness in addressing singular health issues. The Michigan Model for Health (MMH) was implemented and evaluated to determine its impact on multiple health issues, including social and emotional skills, prosocial behavior, and drug use and…

Sustaining effective school-based prevention programs is critical to improving youth and population-based health. This article reports on results from the Aban Aya Sustainability Project, an effort to sustain a school-based prevention program that was tested via a randomized trial and targeted violence, drug use, and risky sex-related behaviors…

Focus groups explored the bullying prevention suggestions of 62 Grade 5 to 8 students. Discussions were transcribed and analyzed thematically. Students advocated a comprehensive approach including uniforms, increased supervision, playground activities, group restructuring to prevent social isolation, influential presenters, prevention skills…

This paper examines the effect of exposure to violent crime on students' standardized test performance among a sample of students in New York City public schools. To identify the effect of exposure to community violence on children's test scores, we compare students exposed to an incident of violent crime on their own blockface in the week prior…

This article describes a children's opera about bullying that was presented to five classrooms in three schools and evaluated with a pre-post design. Data were available for 104 Grade 4 and 5 students who completed a bullying prevalence survey and bullying knowledge quiz before and 6 weeks after the opera. Bullying knowledge increased…

This study advances research on media literacy by comparing the effectiveness of two versions of a media literacy intervention over time. Participants (156 children in 4th or 5th grade) were randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups or a control group. Both treatment groups were exposed to an instructional intervention designed to reduce…