While educators have limited control over the broader geo-political challenges and physical violence affecting school safety, mental and emotional distress that students experience must also be considered. There are ways to keep children safe and calm fears in the face of the growing unease associated with school shootings in the United States,…

Active shooter drills are widely used in schools throughout the United States, with more than 92% of public schools having an active shooter plan. These drills can increase student stress and anxiety and can have a variety of negative effects, such as somatic complaints, anxiety, poor self-regulation of emotions and behaviors, risk for depression,…

Background: School shooting events and lockdowns have increased in the United States, raising concerns about their impact on youth mental health. Method: This study assessed the association between school lockdowns and changes in youth mental health in 10,049 children who participated in the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development study. The…

While Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) play a crucial role in children's and parents' ability to maintain routines, their impact during armed conflicts remains understudied. During a 10-day military operation in Israel involving missile launches, we conducted an online survey among parents of children aged 1-7, to assess the relationship…

Throughout history, guns have been used as tools for social control to instill terror within minoritized communities. Campus carry is a current gun law that now allows licensed concealed handgun holders to carry on public college campuses in 11 U.S. states, including Texas (National Conference of State Legislatures [NCSL], 2018). This qualitative…

School violence, and particularly, school shootings, remain a serious concern among parents, community members, educators, and governmental leadership at the local, state, and national levels. While school shootings periodically dominate media coverage of school safety issues, schools are among the safest places for students in the community. This…

The author, director of UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access, shares results of a study he led exploring how principals in U.S. high schools are responding to five specific societal challenges; he highlights what principals said about the challenge of gun violence in their schools. More school leaders reported their school being…

Purpose: To create a high-stress shooting among the crowd (SAC) program and to examine its effectiveness in reducing SWAT trainees' stress level and their shooting performance in a simulated hostage-rescue situation. Method: After the SAC program was created, it was evaluated using a pretest and posttest experimental design: 98 young male SWAT…

The current study examined the unique and interactive effects of family and community violence across types of violence (weapon, physical, and death) and relationship proximity (self, family/friend, and strangers) in African American adolescents (mean age = 12.63, SD = 0.99, 54% female). Items from the community violence and family violence…

The ability to creatively resolve conflict supports excellence in communication and fosters a positive classroom/studio climate. Despite the fact that school violence continues to be high, many schools fail to teach conflict management, social-emotional skills, or community building to all educators. This research-based article shares dance…

This article covers on the matters which allow stating that people living in the areas with unfavorable ecological conditions experience long-term psycho-traumatic psychological stress caused by exaggeration of irradiation danger and its aftereffects for health. The reasons for long-term psychological stress as per the results of questionnaire and…

This study explored the hypothesis that the presence of anxiety symptoms is less related to simulated basic rifle marksmanship (S-BRM) performance than is cognitive disruption. The sample was comprised of 82 Stryker Brigade Soldiers at a large military post in the Pacific Northwest. Simulated rifle marksmanship was assessed using the Engagement…

War poses a challenge for social workers, adding exposure to direct risk of personal harm to the general stress of social work practice. Artworks are frequently used in health care settings with people in high distress. This study had three goals: (1) to characterize the stressors of social workers living in a war zone, (2) to teach social workers…

New to the curriculum at many colleges this fall will be instruction for students in survival skills. The training material will not be like Clemson University's "College Survival Skills" Web site, which features useful advice on note taking, studying for exams, and dealing with professors. Rather, a new security DVD, Shots Fired on Campus:…

The author profiles the prevalence, severity, and characteristics of victimization among a group of youths with hearing loss presenting to substance abuse treatment. Intake data on 111 deaf and hard of hearing youths (42% female) were analyzed and compared with data from a weighted, gender-matched sample of hearing youths. After gender is…