Youth violence is a global problem. The major research into youth violence has been conducted in the United States (U.S.) and there has been little research to investigate whether the prevalence or predictors are similar in comparable Western countries like Australia. In the current paper, analyses are conducted using two waves of data collected as part of a cross-national longitudinal study of adolescent development in approximately 4000 students aged 12 to 16 years in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, U.S.. Students completed a self-report survey of problem behaviours including violent behaviour, as well as risk and protective factors across five domains (individual, family, peer, school, community).Compared to Washington State, rates of attacking or beating another over the past 12-months were lower in Victoria for females in the first survey and higher for Victorian males in the follow-up survey. Preliminary analyses did not show state-specific predictors of violent behaviour. Therefore, the final multivariate model included the combined Washington State and Victorian samples. In the multivariate model, protective factors were being female and student emotion control. Risk factors were prior violent behaviour, family conflict, association with violent peers, community disorganisation, community norms favourable to drug use, school suspensions, and arrests. A major implication of these findings is that the range of factors that influence violent behaviour in North America may also apply in Australia. Hence, the application of U.S. early intervention and prevention programs may be warranted, with some tailoring to the Australian context.
Community-based coalitions have been advocated as a promising mechanism to reduce youth involvement in violence, delinquency, and substance use, but coalitions have not always been successful in ensuring widespread adoption of evidence-based prevention strategies. This paper describes the strategies used by 12 community coalitions to collaborate with schools to select and implement school-based prevention programs, including the barriers to establishing coalition/school partnerships and methods for overcoming these challenges.In this five-year research project, all communities adopted school-based prevention programs. Coalitions helped achieve this outcome by building relationships with school personnel, fostering champions within the school, creating win/win situations in which schools' needs were addressed, and initiating school-based prevention programs as pilot efforts that were later expanded. While success was achieved in all cases, persistent messaging about the importance of youth problem behaviours was needed to overcome schools' concerns about using academic time to teach prevention messages and replacing current practices with unfamiliar programs.Findings from this study can be used by coalitions and prevention scientists that want to partner with schools to reach a large population of students with effective prevention programming. The results are also of value to researchers and practitioners interested in fostering widespread dissemination of other types of evidence-based programs.
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