Jennifer Zabriskie
Pacific Visions Communications
As graduate students develop the skills and professional networks to succeed in the practice of psychology, the American Psychological Association's Warning Signs youth anti-violence initiative is proving to be a valuable teaching tool while helping to address the national problem of youth violence.
At the University of Kansas, Dr. Steven Lee's graduate students in psychology adopted the Warning Signs program as a classroom project. Their goal was two-fold: gaining some practical experience, while at the same time educating youth and parents about how to recognize the warning signs of youth violence and get help if they recognize these signs in themselves, their peers or their children, before violence occurs.
"It showed the students how to develop and implement a violence prevention program, and gave them a chance to get out into the schools and interact with parents and teachers," Lee says. "They were also excited they could have a role in preventing school violence."
The Warning Signs project is a component of “Talk to Someone Who Can Help,” APA's multi-faceted public education campaign, which is aimed at educating the public about the value of psychology. In response to growing concerns about shootings on school campuses, the Warning Signs project was launched in April 1999, just two days after the tragic shooting at Columbine High School. To date, psychologists have led more than 1,000 forums in their communities, reaching hundreds of thousands of youth, parents and educators around the country.
Components of the outreach effort, made available at no cost to APA members, include a Warning Signs documentary co-produced by APA in association with MTV: Music Television and a planning kit, which is designed to help psychologists plan forums and prepare for community and media outreach. A Warning Signs brochure and “Communication Tips for Parents” were also developed as part of the initiative and are available to psychologists to hand out at their presentations. The Warning Signs documentary and brochure have also recently been translated into Spanish.
Dr. Lee's students began their preparations by watching the Warning Signs documentary and modeled in their classroom the youth and parent forums that are suggested in APA's Warning Signs planning kit. Then, under the guidance of their field supervisors who are licensed psychologists, they conducted about a dozen forums for both youth and parents at area high schools.
"They were most nervous about the media," says Dr. Lee, who also had his students localize template media materials provided in the planning kit and work through the university's press relations office to secure press interviews with both local newspapers and television stations.
Overall, it was a valuable experience for everyone involved, Lee says, and officials in one school district have requested that additional Warning Signs forums be held for the entire student body.
Dr. Dan Birmingham of the Western Missouri Mental Health Center brought the Warning Signs program to two Kansas City area middle schools with other practitioners and two interns, who are graduate students. They conducted forums for 150 eighth-grade students, with a practitioner and an intern working together in each class.
“Warning Signs is helpful in terms of teaching," Birmingham says. "The interns learned more about violence risk factors and risk assessment, as well as how to talk with eighth-graders.”
During a forum, youth typically raise concerns about bullying, difficulty talking with their parents and concerns about fitting in. At parents' forums, educators, psychologists and parents discuss how violence impacts children's lives, how parents can talk about difficult issues with their children and how to listen effectively.
Fear of school violence is an issue of paramount concern for many youth today. According to MTV research, violence is the number-one concern overall among its viewers. In an APA/Penn, Schoen & Berland poll, 40 percent of young people said they have been concerned about a potentially violent classmate, and statistics show victims of violence in America are most likely to be between the ages of 12 and 24.
Dr. Lee says the program is relatively simple to implement and one only needs to have university faculty who are willing to get involved to make the project a part of graduate students' practicum experience. Questions about how the program was implemented at the University of Kansas can be emailed to Dr. Lee.
Dr. Birmingham also recommends that training directors use the Warning Signs program and that students approach their training directors to encourage them to get the materials and use them.
“Everybody wins with Warning Signs, it's good for the community, we got some good PR from it, and both the junior high students and the interns learned from it,” Birmingham says. “As pro bono work, this is something students can do and use in whatever community they go to after graduation.”
Graduate students can learn more about connecting with licensed psychologists in their communities who may be willing to co-sponsor forums by calling APA's campaign services bureau toll free at 877-274-8787 x136 or by email.
For more information about APAGS and the “Warning Signs” Public Education Campaign, see: http://www.apa.org/apags/advocacy/edyouth.html, and visit: http://www.apa.org/campaign/mtvupdate.html.
