UW News

May 27, 1997

Anti-Violence Curriculum Gets Good Grade

SEATTLE — A scientific evaluation of an anti-violence curriculum developed in Seattle and used in over 10,000 schools throughout the US and Canada reveals that the curriculum is successful in reducing aggressive behaviors in elementary school-aged children. The results of the evaluation will be released Monday in the June issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
The curriculum entitled “Second Step” was developed in 1986 by the Committee for Children, a Seattle-based non-profit organization. The curriculum uses 30 specific lessons to teach social skills related to anger management, impulse control and empathy to children in elementary school.

To measure the effectiveness of the program, researchers from the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center (HIPRC) conducted a randomized control study. Over a 12-week period the curriculum was taught to 790 children in six schools in the state of Washington. Upon completion the children were evaluated, observed and measured against an equal number of children of the same age in six other schools who did not receive the program.

The behavior observations immediately after the curriculum revealed an overall decrease in physical aggression and an increase in neutral or prosocial behavior in the group of children that received the curriculum. Most of these effects were still present six months later.

“In recent years there has been an increase in the number of curricula and programs aimed at reducing youth violence,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. David Grossman, co-director of the HIPRC, and UW associate professor of pediatrics. “However, in this time of decreasing public funds, it is very important to educators, funders and the public to know which of these programs work and which do not. Clearly, the Second Step program does have some beneficial effect in terms of reducing the level of aggression and increasing the prosocial behavior of these kids. These effects were modest but real, and could perhaps be augmented if parents were involved.”

Joan Cole Duffell, Committee for Children’s director of community education added, “Throughout Second Step’s 10-year history in schools, we have received positive feedback from educators who found the program successful in teaching prosocial skills to students. But this study is especially important because it provides hard evidence of Second Step’s impact on children’s behavior. These results point out the importance of research-based prevention in the effort to curb youth violence.”