Abstract
The Youth Court in Schools Project was implemented in two low-income, violent, racially/ethnically diverse rural counties. This study examined if the presence of Youth Court impacted students’ perceptions of school danger, individual functioning, and interpersonal relationships. Data were gathered from 3454 youth; following multiple imputation, data were analyzed using paired samples t tests. Results indicated that perceptions of school danger increased significantly and self-esteem decreased significantly in the control schools pretest to posttest. Violent behavior, anxiety, friend rejection, and bullying victimization decreased significantly in the Youth Court intervention schools pretest to posttest, but did not change significantly in the control schools. Findings provide preliminary evidence that Youth Court is an effective way of improving school climate, individual functioning, and interpersonal relationships.
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Funding for this research was provided by the Developing Knowledge About What Makes Schools Safer grant through the National Institute of Justice (NIJ-2014-3878).
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.
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Smokowski, P.R., Evans, C.B.R., Wing, H. et al. Implementing School Based Youth Courts in a Rural Context: The Impact on Students’ Perceptions of School Climate, Individual Functioning, and Interpersonal Relationships. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 35, 127–138 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-017-0508-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-017-0508-2