EDDIE EAGLE GUNSAFE PROGRAM

AND BEHAVIOR SKILLS TRAINING (BST) GUN SAFETY PROGRAM

OVERVIEW

The Eddie Eagle GunSafe program teaches children a behavior sequence to invoke should they encounter a firearm.  In a study of the program’s effectiveness, preschool students were randomly assigned to receive either the Eddie Eagle program, a behavior skills training (BST) program, or no program.  Children in both the Eddie Eagle program and the behavior skills training program were significantly more likely than children who received no program to know the proper response upon finding a gun.  When asked to act out this response, behavior skills training program students performed significantly better than did Eddie Eagle program students, who performed significantly better than did control students.  However, neither the Eddie Eagle program, nor the behavior skills training program was successful at teaching students to respond properly when presented with a real-life scenario that involved finding a gun.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: children in Pre-K through 3^rd grade

The Eddie Eagle GunSafe program is an education-based training program developed and distributed by the National Rifle Association (NRA).  The program aims to teach children that, when they encounter a firearm, they should follow the “Stop.  Don’t touch.  Leave the area.  Tell an adult.” sequence.  The Eddie Eagle program consists of five 10-15 minute sessions that discuss and reinforce this sequence.  Children are provided with scenarios that require them to apply the sequence. 

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Himle, M.B., Miltenberger, R.G., Gatheridge, B.J., & Flessner, C.A.  (2004).  An Evaluation of Two Procedures for Training Skills to Prevent Gun Play in Children.  Pediatrics, 113(1), 70-77.

Evaluated population: 31 four- and five-year-olds from three independent pre-schools constituted the study sample for this investigation. 

Approach: Children were randomly assigned to either an Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program treatment group, a behavioral skills training (BST) treatment group, or a no-treatment control group. 

Children assigned to the Eddie Eagle treatment received the Eddie Eagle Gun Safe Program (Level 1) curriculum over the course of five consecutive days. 

Children assigned to the behavioral skills training treatment received a behavior skills training (BST) program in firearm safety.  The target skills trained in this BST intervention, similar to the Eddie Eagle intervention, included not touching the firearm, leaving the area, and reporting to an adult.  This intervention also took place over the course of five consecutive days for 10-15 minutes a day.  Sessions involved children being told how to behave appropriately, watching a trainer model appropriate behavior, and practicing appropriate behavior.  Once each child had demonstrated that he or she could correctly perform the entire sequenced response upon finding a gun, he or she practiced performing this chain in a variety of scenarios.

Following the completion of training, each student took part in three assessments: an interview assessment, a role-play assessment, and an in situ assessment.  The interview assessment consisted of a researcher asking each child how he/she would respond if he/she found a firearm.  The role-play assessment consisted of a researcher presenting each child with a situation that involved finding a firearm and asking him/her to act.  The in situ assessment took place in a child’s home or in a novel part of the preschool.  The children were not aware that they were taking part in an assessment.  Each child was directed to go somewhere where an unloaded gun had been stashed and responses to finding the gun were assessed.

Results: On the interview assessments, students who received the Eddie Eagle training or the behavioral skills training (BST) performed significantly better than did control students.  There was no significant difference between the performance of Eddie Eagle training students and behavioral skills training students.

On the role-play assessment, the behavior skills training students performed significantly better than did the Eddie Eagle training students, who in turn performed better than the control students.

On the in situ assessment, the three groups did not perform significantly differently.

These results indicate that the Eddie Eagle training program and the behavioral skills training program were equally successful in teaching young children how to describe the ideal response to finding a firearm, but that the Eddie Eagle training program was less successful than the behavioral skills training program at teaching young children how to act out this response.  However, neither program was successful at teaching young children to use these skills in real-life scenarios.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program materials and information available at:

http://www.nrahq.org/safety/eddie/

References:

Himle, M.B., Miltenberger, R.G., Gatheridge, B.J., & Flessner, C.A.  (2004).  An Evaluation of Two Procedures for Training Skills to Prevent Gun Play in Children.  Pediatrics, 113(1), 70-77.

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: 4-5

Evaluated participant grades: pre-school

Program age ranges in the guide: early childhood

Program components: early childhood education

Measured outcomes: life skills

Program information last updated 7/24/07