PEACEBUILDERS

OVERVIEW

PeaceBuilders is a school-wide violence prevention program designed for elementary schools (K-5). The program aims to change school climate by promoting prosocial behavior and conflict resolution among students and school staff. The schools involved in the PeaceBuilders program reiterate positive behaviors by posting rules and principles of the program throughout the school as well as having students complete specialized program activities from a comic book. In addition, nine broad behavior-change techniques are employed by the program. An experimental evaluation using random assignment of eight schools found that after the program, children in participating schools experienced a decrease in physical and verbal aggression.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Elementary schools students (K-5)

PeaceBuilders is a school-wide violence prevention program designed to reduce and prevent youth violence by promoting and rewarding prosocial behavior. Children at participating schools learn five principles: seek out opportunities to praise people, avoid put-downs, seek wise people as advisors and friends, notice and correct hurts we cause, and right wrongs. Nine techniques are used to reinforce these principles and promote prosocial behavior. These techniques include: community norms though common language, stories and live models for positive behavior, environmental cues to signal desired behavior, role plays to increase range of responses, rehearsals of positive solutions after negative events, group and individual rewards to strengthen positive behavior, threat reduction, self and peer-monitoring for positive behavior, and generalization promotion to increase maintenance of change across time, places, and people. In addition, positive behavior is practiced and reinforced by role-plays and rehearsals of positive responses to negative events. Students are given individual and group rewards to further strengthen positive behavior. Staff and adults at home model and reinforce behaviors.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Flannery, D. J., Vazsonyi, A. T., Liau, A. K., Guo, S., Powell, K. E., Atha, H., Vesterdal, W., & Embry, D. (2003). Initial behavior outcomes for the PeaceBuilders universal school-based prevention program. Developmental Psychology, 39(2), 292-308.

Evaluated population: Students at elementary schools (K-5) in Pima County, Arizona. Eight elementary schools from two school districts were selected to participate in this program evaluation based on their high rates of juvenile arrests and histories of suspensions. In total 4,679 students (51% Hispanic, 28% White, 13% Native American, 6% Black) participated in this evaluation. Approximately half (n = 2,398) were assigned to the program intervention while the other half were assigned to a delayed intervention control group.

Approach: Four schools were randomly assigned to participate in the PeaceBuilders intervention program in 1994, while four additional schools were delayed from starting the program until 1995. The schools in the delayed control group were referred to as PeaceBuilders-delayed (PBD) schools. The schools in the PeaceBuilders group participated in the program for two years while the PBD schools participated for one year.

Surveys were administered to students in Grades 3-5 at data collection points before, during, and after participation in the PeaceBuilders program. For Grades K-2, 50 percent of students were randomly selected to participate in a 20 item face-to-face interview. In addition, teachers completed a 45-item instrument for each student in their class. Teachers reported on students’ aggressive behavior, ethnicity, and social competence. Students were asked to report how frequently they engaged in prosocial and peace building behavior.

Results: This evaluation showed that schools participating in the PeaceBuilders program showed significant improvement in child social competence and peace-building behavior. In addition, PeaceBuilders schools showed significant decreases in aggressive behavior after one year of intervention when compared with nonintervention schools. Treatment effects were larger for students who scored higher on measures of aggression at baseline. The rate of weekly injury-related visits to the school nurse significantly decreased at the treatment schools while there was no significant change in the control schools. Increases in pro-social behavior and decreases in aggressive behavior were maintained for intervention students in year two.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Link to program curriculum: http://www.peacebuilders.com/

References

Embry, D. D., Flannery, D. J., Vazsonyi, A. T., Powell, K. E., & Atha, H. (1996). PeaceBuilders: A theoretically driven, school-based model for early violence prevention. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 12(5), 91-100.

Krug, E. G., Brener, N. D., Dahlberg, L. L., Ryan, G. W., & Powell, K. E. (1997). The impact of an elementary school-based violence prevention program on visits to the school nurse. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 13(6), 459-463.

Website: http://www.helpingamericasyouth.gov/programdetail.cfm?id=382

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: early childhood; middle childhood / Program age ranges in Guide: 5-10

Program components: school-based

Measured outcomes: physical health; behavioral problems; positive citizenship

Program information last updated 3/23/07