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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Leslie Upledger Ray, MA, MPPA, Health and Human Services Agency, Division of Emergency Medical Services, County of San Diego, 6255 Mission Gorge Rd, San Diego, CA 92120, 619-285-6429, lrayxxhe@co.san-diego.ca.us
Background: Violent and bullying behaviors by children toward their peers have been implicated in many of the random school shootings in the five years. The Upledger Foundation developed a program curriculum designed to teach compassionate behaviors to kindergarten through second grade students. The “Helping Hands” program requires only a single training with students and occasional reinforcement by teachers.
Methods: One hundred seventy three K through 2 students were assessed by their teachers using the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS) at the beginning of the school year prior to the introduction of the curriculum and again at the end of the school year. The SSRS is a 57 item inventory of social skills, problem behaviors and academic competence designed for K-6. Eighty-four students who were enrolled in the study in academic year 1999/00 were assessed again at the beginning and end of academic year 2000/01. Additional cohorts of students from two other elementary schools were enrolled during academic year 2001/02. These results will be available in July 2002. A total of 498 students have been enrolled in the study to date.
Results: Students in the 2000/01 showed highly statistically significant (<0.001) increases in mean pre-test and post-test assessments in social skills including cooperation, assertion and self-control and highly statistically significant (<0.001) decreases in problem behaviors including externalizing and hyperactivity. For the cohort entering in 1999/01 and followed for two years, the positive social behaviors continued to be highly significant (<0.001) as well as hyperactivity related problem behaviors. While mean values for other problem behaviors decreased these results were not statistically significant (0.154 and 0.129).
Learning Objectives:
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.