Violence Middle School Violence Prevention Term Paper

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We are using four different schools for our data, but as the data are being obtained from one community (therefore one unit of measurement for both the study and comparison group). We are unable to randomly assign the children to either the experimental or control group, therefore all of our participants do not have the same chance of being in the control or experimental group. Our data will also not be blinded, although identifying information on standardized testing scores, absenteeism, suspension and expulsion will not be available to the research designer.

The design for this type of group would be diagrammed as follows:

The central idea behind this design is that the null case would not expect the treatment group (in this case our community) to differ at greater than chance levels. This allows consideration of a treatment effect when the post-test data of the treatment group varies from the control group regression line. The limitation is that one must always be aware that elements outside of the treatment may be the cause of treatment shift from the regression line, and careful attention to internal validity interference is important.

Threats to Internal Validity

By its nature, quasi-experimental design is weak in its ability to control threats to internal validity, but usually effective in controlling threats to external validity. Since our research is being done in a commonly encountered situation, it is likely to have wide applicability to similar settings if the threats to internal validity to be controlled. Possible threats to internal validity include:

Historical elements - are there elements within the community or within the individual which will effect the change in the variable? In this case, it is not possible to be sure that each population experienced the same events and come to the study with a similar background and experience.

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Statistical regression - Do the subjects come from same or similar backgrounds? Both groups have been evaluated for socioeconomic status similarity, but are there other elements in the population that can confound the data?

Maturation - if changes are noted over the year subsequent to the presentation of the program, is this a typical change of behavior noted in this age group simply related to maturity? By using the control school where no program is provided, we hope to evaluate for this.

Experimental mortality - Do some of the children enrolled in the study leave the school? Do enough children move away to affect the validity of the study? Do the teachers who provided the education continue to see the students on a regular basis, enough to adequately report on behavior?

Design contamination - did the control school find out about the study schools? Did the study school change standards in such a way to look better or worse on the study outcome than is real?

Reference:

Aber JL, Brown JL, Jones SM. (2003) Developmental Trajectories toward Violence in Middle Childhood: Course, Demographic Differences, and Response to School-Based Intervention. Developmental Psychology, 2, 324-348.

Clayton RR, Catarello AM, Johnstone BM, (1996) the Effectiveness of Drug Abuse Resistance Education (Project DARE): 5-Year Follow-Up Results. Preventive Medicine, 3; 307-318

Greenberg, M.T., Kusche, C.A., Cook, E.T., & Quamma, J.P. (1995).

Promoting emotional competence in school-aged deaf children: The effects of the PATHS curriculum. Development and Psychopathology, 7, 117-136.

Grossman DC, Neckerman HJ, Koepsell TD, Liu P, Asher KN, Beland K, Frey K, Rivara, FP. (1997) an Evidence-Based Violence Prevention Curriculum for Elementary School Children. (1997). Journal of the American Medical Association, 277(20), 1605-1611.

Samples, F., & Aber, L. (1998). Evaluations of School-Based Violence Prevention Programs. In D.S. Elliott, B. Hamburg, & K.R. Williams (Editors), Violence in.....

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