CAMH Centre for Prevention Science, 100 Collip Circle, Ste. 100, London, Ontario N69 4X8, Canada.
Child Abuse Negl. 2011 Jun;35(6):393-400. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2011.03.002. Epub 2011 Jun 8.
Child maltreatment constitutes a strong risk factor for violent delinquency in adolescence, with cumulative experiences of maltreatment creating increasingly greater risk. Our previous work demonstrated that a universal school-based violence prevention program could provide a protective impact for youth at risk for violent delinquency due to child maltreatment history. In this study we conducted a follow-up to determine if participation in a school-based violence prevention program in grade 9 continued to provide a buffering effect on engaging in acts of violent delinquency for maltreated youth, 2 years post-intervention.
Secondary analyses were conducted using data from a cluster randomized controlled trial of a comprehensive school-based violence prevention program. Students (N=1,722; 52.8% female) from 20 schools participated in 21 75-min lessons in grade 9 health classes. Individual data (i.e., gender, child maltreatment experiences, and violent delinquency in grade 9) and school-level data (i.e., student perception of safety averaged across students in each school) were entered in a multilevel model to predict violent delinquency at the end of grade 11.
Individual- and school-level factors predicting violent delinquency in grade 11 replicated previous findings from grade 9: being male, experiencing child maltreatment, being violent in grade 9, and attending a school with a lower perceived sense of safety among the entire student body increased violent delinquency. The cross-level interaction of individual maltreatment history and school-level intervention was also replicated: in non-intervention schools, youth with more maltreatment in their background were increasingly likely to engage in violent delinquency. The strength of this relationship was significantly attenuated in intervention schools.
Follow-up findings are consistent with the buffering effect of the prevention program previously found post-intervention for the subsample of youth with maltreatment histories.
A relative inexpensive school-based violence prevention program that has been shown to reduce dating violence among the whole student body also creates a protective effect for maltreated youth with respect to lowering their likelihood of engaging in violent delinquency.
儿童虐待是青少年暴力犯罪的一个强有力的风险因素，虐待经历的累积会带来越来越大的风险。我们之前的工作表明，一项普遍的学校暴力预防计划可以为有儿童虐待史的暴力犯罪高危青年提供保护。在这项研究中，我们进行了一项随访，以确定在干预后 2 年，参加 9 年级学校暴力预防计划是否继续对遭受虐待的青年从事暴力犯罪行为产生缓冲作用。
使用一项综合学校暴力预防计划的集群随机对照试验的数据进行二次分析。来自 20 所学校的 1722 名学生（52.8%为女性）参加了 9 年级健康课的 21 节 75 分钟的课程。个体数据（即性别、儿童虐待经历和 9 年级的暴力犯罪）和学校水平数据（即每个学校学生平均的学生安全感知）被输入多层模型，以预测 11 年级末的暴力犯罪。
个体和学校水平因素预测 11 年级的暴力犯罪与 9 年级的研究结果一致：男性、经历儿童虐待、9 年级暴力犯罪以及就读于整个学生群体安全感知较低的学校会增加暴力犯罪。个体虐待史和学校干预的跨水平交互作用也得到了复制：在非干预学校中，背景中虐待经历较多的青年越来越有可能从事暴力犯罪。这种关系的强度在干预学校中显著减弱。
随访结果与先前干预后发现的预防计划的缓冲效应一致，即对于有虐待史的青年亚组。
一项相对廉价的学校暴力预防计划，已经被证明可以减少全体学生中的约会暴力，也为遭受虐待的青年创造了一种保护效应，降低他们从事暴力犯罪的可能性。
