Congress looks to APA on violence prevention

Colorado tragedy provides chance to prevent future youth violence.

By Joe Volz
Monitor staff

APA has launched a long-term legislative assault on the bur--geoning school violence problem, but its psychological experts, testifying on Capitol Hill, say it won't be easy coming up with the funding, despite the well-publicized Columbine High School slayings.

APA supports a comprehensive plan to increase the mental health resources available in the schools. As part of this plan, APA is arguing that 100,000 mental health professionals should be recruited to work in school-related settings in a $1.7 billion plan funded by the U.S. Department of Education and state and local governments. It would be similar to the Clinton administration program to hire 100,000 policemen.

Even though FBI statistics show that one of every six violent criminals is a juvenile, the nation needs more convincing that psychologists can help over the long term, according to Mark Weist, PhD, chair of an APA division task force on violence and youth. He asked the Congressional Children's Caucus on Capitol Hill in May, "Why has there been such a gap between youth mental health needs and the delivery of effective services?"

His answer: "We have not really invested in children's mental health and the demand for services far outstrips available resources."

Now may be time

Weist, an associate professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, sees several barriers including that families prevent youth from receiving mental health services.

He says not only do many families have "limited knowledge" of mental health problems or how to deal with them, but they raise concerns about how to get the children to community mental health centers and about how much they can afford to pay. Mistrust of mental health professionals by the public adds to family resistance. And stress in families often interferes with parents focusing on a child's emotional needs.

Even if parents do seek help, he notes, a new set of barriers awaits them at community mental health clinics, which are overwhelmed with long waiting lists, insurance obstacles and lengthy intake procedures.

Weist is concerned that mental health services in schools are usually limited. School counselors often have more than 400 students each in their caseloads.

A proven way to show improvements in children's mental health, Weist argues, is to expand school mental health programs, joining the school with community mental health programs and, in some cases, juvenile justice programs.

Lauren Fasig, PhD, of the APA Public Policy Office, agrees. She says APA supports initiatives to begin violence prevention with very young children--those from birth to age 5.

"Starting young is the best approach," she says. "Ensuring that the initial interaction skills developed by children help them to relate to others without aggression is much better than retraining them in nonviolent approaches when they are older.

"These early years are the time when children are most vulnerable for learning aggression as a means of social interaction. Programs are needed that employ multiple strategies for providing supportive environments and developing pro-social skills and supporting diversity."

APA proposes a legislative initiative that would meet these goals. The U.S. Department of Education would help fund programs targeting at-risk families and neighborhoods and providing training for both the children and parents. The programs would be administered through local education agencies involved in partnerships with community-based service providers.

Fasig emphasizes that APA is not proposing programs devoid of an empirical basis. Many violence prevention efforts that include research-based components have proven successful. For example, programs in elementary schools that teach children social problem solving and anger management and include parent training have been effective in reducing violence. How-ever, more attention needs to be directed towards children in the years before they start school.

She says, "Research has demonstrated that aggression is primarily a learned behavior that develops through observation, imitation, direct experience and rehearsals."

But how about violence on TV and in the movies?

L. Rowell Huesmann, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, has been studying violent behavior for over 25 years.

He told the Senate Commerce Committee recently that television, movies, videos, Internet displays and electronic games have assumed "central roles in socializing our children while parents have lost influence. For better or worse, the mass media are having an enormous impact on our children's values, beliefs and behavior."

Huesmann stops short of blaming the media as the primary reason for the violence. "Factors ranging from neurophysiological dispositions to parenting failures to impoverished environments to violent environments to the profusion of guns" all play a role.

He notes, though, that hundreds of studies have confirmed that exposing children to a steady diet of violence in the media makes them more violence-prone.

What is the solution?

Huesmann proposes better parental control, more governmental control of guns and training children not to be affected by violent video games or media violence.

Even while Congress agonizes over what to do, there have been successful programs in operation.

Karen Bierman, PhD, a Penn State psychology professor, told Congress that the Fast Track program, in which she participates, has found that prevention is possible "because many at-risk children can be identified early in the developmental progression. But prevention must include parents, peers and teachers, start early and be sustained over time."

Fast Track conducts risk assessments as early as kindergarten and carries out a prevention program through the 10th grade. The program includes child social skills training, helping with parent-child relationships, academic tutoring and home visiting.

Does it work?

Studying Fast Track programs in Durham, N.C., Nashville, Seattle and rural Pennsylvania, researchers found lower levels of aggressive behaviors, more stable friendships, higher reading scores and greater parental involvement.

As for school gun violence, Dewey Cornell, PhD, the clinical psychologist who directs the University of Virginia Youth Violence Project, offers some long-term strategies. He says the program should begin in elementary school, teaching students peaceful methods of resolving conflicts, including identifying--and stopping--bullying.Y



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