title: Community Participation in the Development and Validation of a School Violence Observation Instrument.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  School violence is a worldwide public health issue with negative effects on education. Official statistics and reports do not include daily occurrences of violent behavior that may precede severe incidents.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This project aimed to engage school community members in the development, validation, and implementation of an observation instrument to identify characteristics of school violence in two Puerto Rican schools.
  
  
  METHODS
  The role of school community members in all phases of the research is described.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The input of community partners contributed to enrich the process by providing insight into the problem studied and a more informed framework for interpreting results.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taking into account distinctive features of each particular school made results meaningful to the school community and fostered a sense of empowerment of community members as they recognized their knowledge is essential to the solution of their problems.
authors.forename: Nilda
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Medina
authors.forename: Gisely
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fernández
authors.forename: Tania
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Cruz
authors.forename: Natalia
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Jordán
authors.forename: Maryanes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Trenche
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D003159:Community-Institutional Relations; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D016730:Program Development; D015397:Program Evaluation; D012574:Schools; D014754:Violence / Q000517:prevention & control*