PBH 643 - Journal #2 (Youth Violence)

Henry Reyes Professor Dipzinski

PBH 643 6/28/21

1. Your definition youth violence in your area based on data (5 points)

Youth violence can be harmful behavior that can start at an early age and continue into adulthood. Behavior’s such as weapons possession, bullying, cyber bullying, harassment, and discriminations can be part of youth violence. Violence can be physical, verbal, non-verbal, and relational. A person can be a victim, offender, or a witness (bystander) to youth violence.

2. Two quotes from the book that made you think differently about youth violence (5 points)

1. We must remind ourselves that behind each number or statistic was once a hopeful and promising face (Seifert & Kohl, 2011, p. 145)

2. Children who begin their lives with compromised or disrupted attachment are at risk for aggression and violence later on in their lives (Seifert & Kohl, 2011, p. 74)

3. One big idea that you will take away from the youth violence materials (5 points)

The big idea that I will take away from the youth violence materials is the risk factors associated with youth violence. Before reading this book, I thought that the only factors associated with youth violence was individual factors. I now know that not to be true. There are many factors that we must consider when it comes to youth violence. We must still consider individual factors, but we must also consider environmental, community, social, political, and family factors that can have an impact on youth violence.

4. A paragraph on the research-based program that will work for your area (10 points)

The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program (OBPP). OBPP is an evidence-based program that takes a comprehensive approach that includes schoolwide, classroom, individual, and community components. Its focus is on long-term change to create a safe and positive school climate. It has been designed and evaluated for use in levels K-12. OBPP’s goals are to reduce and prevent bullying problems among school children, as well as, improve peer relationships at school (Olweus, n.d.). It has been found to reduce bullying among children, as well as improve the social climate of the classroom (Olweus, n.d.). This program will work with my community's needs because we have recently had numerous cases of bullying and violence take place. I believe that this is due to the topic of bullying not being addressed by teachers and the school. In order to lessen incidents of bullying in violence, my school community needs to understand bullying, talk about bullying, and how we can prevent bullying from happening in our school. This program will perfectly fit the needs of my community because the effectiveness of this program, especially at the high school level. A study that was done to evaluate OBPP methods with students in grades 3-11 showed that for almost all grades there were increases in students’ expressions of empathy with bullied peers, decreases in students’ willingness to join in bullying, and increases in perceptions that their primary teacher had addressed bullying at the school (Limber et al., 2018). This data makes me feel comfortable that this program will not only fit my community’s needs but also address and improve them.

5. A paragraph reflection on the barriers and ways to overcome those barriers (10 Points)

Some barriers that could arise when trying to implement this violence prevention program is gaining support from school administrators and parents on the need of this program at our school. My focus with this program will be to educate students and the community on bullying. In order to overcome this barrier, I can provide administration and parent s with recent data on cases of bullying that we had in our school community. I can also provide them New York state statistics on the students that bully or get bullied so that they can start to see the importance of this topic and teaching this program. Another barrier I could arise could be from the students themselves. They might not understand why this being taught to them and the importance of being aware of what bullying looks like and sounds like. To combat this, I can also provide them with the data on cases that we have had in the school community. Additionally, I will provide them with New York state data so that they can learn the number of students their age who are impacted by bullying and violence.

6. Visual representation of the material above (15 points)

Jam board created and submitted.