NCJ Number
164007
Journal
Journal of Adolescent Research Volume: 11 Issue: 1 Dated: (January 1996) Pages: 12-35
Date Published
1996
Length
24 pages
Annotation
The Child Development Project, designed to reduce risk and bolster protective factors among children, includes classroom, school, and family components that collectively help schools become caring communities of learners and environments characterized by supportive social relationships.
Abstract
The project embodies a sense of common purpose and a commitment to prosocial values, emphasizes helping schools become responsive to children's developmental and sociocultural needs, and aims to foster children's resilience when they are confronted with stressful events and circumstances. The project has five specific dimensions: (1) building stable, warm, and supportive relationships; (2) simultaneous attention to social, ethical, and intellectual learning; (3) teaching for understanding; (4) meaningful, challenging, and learner-centered curriculum; and (5) fostering intrinsic motivation. The project was implemented at 24 elementary schools in six school districts throughout the United States, and similar schools from the same districts served as a comparison group. Data on problem behaviors were obtained over a 3-year period based on student and teacher questionnaires and classroom observations. Data analysis indicated the project significantly reduced student drug use and delinquency. Project effects were strongest for students in schools that made the greatest degree of progress in project implementation. The authors believe that a resilience-based model is effective in primary prevention and that school environment and other contextual factors need to be considered in youth developmental outcomes. 42 references, 3 notes, 4 tables, and 1 figure