Charley Bowen

Date of Award

2001

Degree Name

School Psychology

College

College of Liberal Arts

Type of Degree

M.A.

Document Type

Thesis

First Advisor

Elizabeth Kelley Boyles

Second Advisor

Fred Jay Krieg

Third Advisor

Beverly Farrow

Fourth Advisor

Stephen L. O’Keefe

Fifth Advisor

Leonard J. Deutsch

Abstract

Youth violence has been a major concern in every community in the United States. A group of educators, social service providers, law enforcement officials, mental health providers, and various interest groups in a small rural West Virginia County developed a plan to address the growing problem of violence among Lincoln County youth. In the fall of 1999, Lincoln County was awarded a three-year Federal Grant. The goal of the Lincoln Early Aggression Prevention Program was to develop and implement a program to increase the health and safety of Lincoln County Students. The county has also received a state grant (Drug Free and Safe Schools) as part of the Safe Schools/Healthy Schools Initiative. This grant targeted teaching students conflict resolution skills to allow them to deal with conflict in non-violent ways. During the past year there has been a slight increase in the overall school connectnedness, self-esteem, and conflict resolution skills among the third through sixth graders in the county. The majority of the teachers in the county are not familiar with what the two grants encompass. The teachers want to be involved but feel that poor communication has contributed to them being left out of the planning and implementing of the programs. Ten percent of the Lincoln County teachers took part in an oral interview of their opinions of the effectiveness of the current grants in decreasing violent acts in the schools. Baseline data was compared to current data to learn if the efforts of these caring adults has decreased the number of disciplinary actions for violent acts in the Lincoln County school system. The suspension rates for disrespectful and aggressive behavior have remained consistent during the past six years.

Subject(s)

Schools – West Virginia – Lincoln County.

School violence.

Youth and violence.

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