School Anti-Violence Programs Can Work

School-based violence prevention programs can curb aggressive behaviors in students, finds a systematic review by British researchers.

The improvements can be achieved in both primary and secondary school age groups, says the report.

The most effective programs are those that help students learn key social skills such as listening, thinking about the feelings of others, working cooperatively and being assertive in constructive ways, according to lead author Dr. Julie Mytton, a public health physician at the University of the West of England.

The majority of aggressive children are choosing to use that behavior because they don’t have the skills to achieve what they wish to achieve any other way, says Mytton.

Mytton and colleagues identified 56 randomized controlled trials evaluating programs designed to reduce aggressive behavior in at-risk students.

These programs are capable of producing moderate beneficial effects, concludes the study, published in The Cochrane Library.

However, the authors add that none of the studies collected data on violent injuries in schools.

We cannot be certain of the extent to which an improvement in behavior translates to an actual injury reduction, the authors said.