This field study evaluated the impact of an intervention designed to prevent bullying among elementary-school students by prompting and rewarding prosocial behavior. More specifically, teachers of 404 second-, third-, fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students from an elementary school in northeast Virginia asked their students to look out for other students' prosocial behaviors (termed "actively caring") and to submit their stories about actively caring. At the start of every class day, the teachers read three of these stories and recognized one story and the two associated students (i.e., the observer and the performer) by providing each with a wristband engraved with "Actively Caring for People." For six consecutive Fridays, students reported their observations of bullying and completed a single item estimate of self-esteem. Weekly surveys revealed reductions in "being bullied" and "bullying others," as well as an increase in self-esteem.
Bryce Stucki for providing feedback on earlier versions of this manuscript.This research was generously supported by Red Canary Collective.
Highlights• Community psychologists can support activists working toward a moral reckoning on structural racism.• The political and commercial determinants maintain structural racism and racial inequities.• Structural thinking and structural intervention are essential for addressing structural racism.• First-order change interventions should build structural competency or critical consciousness.• Second-order change interventions should leverage systemic-level promotion and prevention.
Objective: Disasters, such as a school shooting or a global pandemic, harm psychological health and necessitate recovery. To complement adult-led disaster recovery and trauma-specific approaches, we propose a Youth-Led Resilience Promotion (YLRP) framework focusing on: (a) multitiered change, (b) resilience goals, (c) a promotion mindset, (d) youth strengths, (e) prosocial behaviors, and (f) capacity building through partnerships. The YLRP framework guided the development of a YLRP program in the aftermath of the Chardon High School shooting in Chardon, OH, which is detailed in a case study. Method: As part of a Community-Academic Partnership, 20 college student trainers delivered a multitiered, multicomponent resilience promotion intervention: universal resilience promotion to 1,070 high school students; targeted resilience promotion to 200 student leaders through workshops; and indicated resilience promotion to 30 student leaders through mentoring. Results: Student leaders formed a youth-led, afterschool club to advance relational resilience through prosocial strategies. Lessons learned from implementing the YLRP program for 6 years (2012-2017) are provided to guide YLRP program developers and program implementers. Conclusion: A youth-led program equipping youth leaders to engage in prosocial strategies may contribute to the psychological resilience and recovery of students after a school shooting, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and other potentially traumatic events.
Clinical Impact StatementDisaster recovery after a school shooting or global pandemic must address the psychological trauma and bereavement of students in schools. However, underresourced schools and underratioed, school-based mental health professionals limit mental health care. Cognizant of these constraints, we propose a Youth-Led Resilience Promotion (YLRP) framework and program. The lessons learned from implementing the YLRP program after a school shooting may complement adult-led recovery and extend to psychological recovery after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic or other potentially traumatic events.
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