title: The impact of a middle school program to reduce aggression, victimization, and sexual violence.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the impact of the Second Step: Student Success Through Prevention (SS-SSTP) Middle School Program on reducing youth violence including peer aggression, peer victimization, homophobic name calling, and sexual violence perpetration and victimization among middle school sixth-grade students.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study design was a nested cohort (sixth graders) longitudinal study. We randomly assigned 18 matched pairs of 36 middle schools to the SS-SSTP or control condition. Teachers implemented 15 weekly lessons of the sixth-grade curriculum that focused on social emotional learning skills, including empathy, communication, bully prevention, and problem-solving skills. All sixth graders (n = 3,616) in intervention and control conditions completed self-report measures assessing verbal/relational bullying, physical aggression, homophobic name calling, and sexual violence victimization and perpetration before and after the implementation of the sixth-grade curriculum.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Multilevel analyses revealed significant intervention effects with regard to physical aggression. The adjusted odds ratio indicated that the intervention effect was substantial; individuals in intervention schools were 42% less likely to self-report physical aggression than students in control schools. We found no significant intervention effects for verbal/relational bully perpetration, peer victimization, homophobic teasing, and sexual violence.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Within a 1-year period, we noted significant reductions in self-reported physical aggression in the intervention schools. Results suggest that SS-SSTP holds promise as an efficacious prevention program to reduce physical aggression in adolescent youth.
authors: Department of Educational Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL 61820, USA. espelage@illinois.edu
authors: Dorothy L
authors: DL
authors: Espelage
authors: Sabina
authors: S
authors: Low
authors: Joshua R
authors: JR
authors: Polanin
authors: Eric C
authors: EC
authors: Brown
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000374:Aggression / Q000523:psychology*; D000786:Anger; D058445:Bullying / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D015146:Midwestern United States; D010379:Peer Group; D011340:Problem Solving; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012572:School Health Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012742:Sex Offenses / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000523:psychology*; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000517:prevention & control
keywords: Aggression; Middle schools; Randomized clinical trial; Social-emotional learning