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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this paper by Hausman et al. was to examine the effects of a community-based youth violence prevention project, the Violence Prevention Project (VPP) in Boston, MA, on attitudes about and knowledge of violence. VPP is a comprehensive, educational and outreach youth violence prevention program.
METHODOLOGY:
The authors employed a quasi-experimental design in order to assess the association between VPP and knowledge/attitudes towards violence. Random-digit dialed telephone surveys were conducted with teens (13-19 years of age) in Boston neighborhoods in the Fall of 1987 (pretest, Time 1) and the Fall of 1988 (post-test, Time 2). Sample size was 400, with 200 teens from two project target communities and 200 teens from the rest of Boston. The post-test was conducted in order to assess the impact of the stimuli. Twenty-minute interviews were conducted to solicit demographic information and to question respondents about experiences with violence and feelings of personal safety. The instrument utilized was suitable for a fifth grade reading level. Details on the content of the survey instrument were described in another article (Hausman et al., 1992). Knowledge was operationalized using sixteen true-false questions. These questions asked about certain characteristics of acquaintance violence and risk factors including weapon carrying and the use of alcohol. Reliability measures produced a Cronbach's alpha of .57. Attitudes toward violence were measured by subjects ranking of agreement to 23 statements. Exposure to VPP was measured by asking about participation in workshops and one-on-one discussions about conflict resolution. Questions were also asked addressing the extent and nature of subjects' exposure to a media campaign. Multivariate analysis was used to assess the strength and direction of relationships.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION
Response rates were 51% (Time 1) and 56% (Time 2). The proportions of males and females and blacks and whites were representative of the general population in Boston. Forty-four percent (n=186) of teens surveyed reported no exposure to the program, while 30% reported exposure to the media campaign. Fourteen percent reported exposure to workshops, and 12% reported both media and workshop exposure. Seventy-three percent of those reporting media exposure reported having been exposed through mass media compared to 13%, who reported exposure through targeted media.
Types of exposure were significant predictors of knowledge and attitudes. Exposure to the media campaign was predictive of higher knowledge, as was race and gender. Nonexposed boys at Time 2 had lower attitude scores than any girls (at either Time 1 or Time 2) or exposed boys. This finding was consistent across races. The authors noted that low response rates may indicate that the survey did not capture the most at-risk youth in Boston. However, it was also noted that higher response rates in low income target neighborhoods may indicate that income-related bias may be unimportant. Also, the small overall variance explained in the model hints that there are other undiscovered variables accounting for attitudes and knowledge scores. While it was anticipated that the one-on-one contact with the curriculum would be strongly associated with attitudes and knowledge, the media campaign was clearly the stronger predictor. The authors asserted that this may be due to the fact that fewer subjects were exposed to the one-on-one campaign than were exposed to the media campaign. The authors also stated that the evaluation perhaps should have waited until more youths were enrolled in the project. The differential response to the media campaign by boys may be due in part to the fact that boys were targeted.
AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS:
The authors suggested that the results of this study necessitate further evaluation of educational violence prevention efforts.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
Massachusetts
Community Based
Program Evaluation
Program Effectiveness
Prevention Program
Violence Prevention
Juvenile Violence
Media Campaign
Prevention Education
Education Program
Juvenile Knowledge
Juvenile Attitudes
Juvenile Perceptions
Violence Perceptions
Language: en |