title: Urban African American youth exposed to community violence: a school-based anxiety preventive intervention efficacy study.
abstract: This study evaluated the efficacy of a school-based anxiety prevention program among urban children exposed to community violence. Students who attended Title 1 public elementary schools were screened. Ninety-eight 3rd-5th-grade students (ages 8-12; 48% female; 92% African American) were randomized into preventive intervention versus wait list comparison groups. Students attended 13 biweekly one-hour group sessions of a modified version of FRIENDS, a cognitive-behavioral anxiety intervention program. Results indicated that both intervention and control groups manifested significant reductions in anxiety symptomatology and total exposure to community violence, along with improved standardized reading achievement scores. Additional gains observed only in the intervention group were increased standardized mathematics achievement scores, decreased life stressors, and reduced victimization by community violence. The intervention was equally efficacious for both genders and for children exposed to higher, compared to lower, levels of community violence. Implications for comprehensive, culturally and contextually relevant prevention programs and research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, NPI-Semel Institute for Neuroscience, University of California-Los Angeles, Center for Culture and Health, 760 Westwood Plaza, Box 62, B7437, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1759, USA. mcooley@mednet.ucla.edu
authors.forename: Michele R
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: Cooley-Strickland
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Griffin
authors.forename: Dana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Darney
authors.forename: Katherine
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Otte
authors.forename: Jean
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ko
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000367:Age Factors; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology; D001521:Behavior Therapy; D002648:Child; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005006:Ethnicity; D006801:Humans; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011594:Psychometrics; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012574:Schools / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012931:Social Environment; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States; D014505:Urban Population / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data