Educational programs to promote the adoption of healthy behaviors and to decrease the onset of risky behaviors in pre-adolescents are far more likely to be successful than attempts to alter established patterns of high-risk behaviors. The project involves an evaluation of a comprehensive 4-year elementary school prevention initiative starting in 3rd grade. The prevention initiative, grounded in social cognitive, influence, and development theories is embedded within a pre-existing comprehensive elementary school social development program and will employ an evidence-based social skills curriculum (PATHS) in selected schools. The aim of the program is to teach children to use problem-solving and communication skills to negotiate and prevent high-risk behaviors.~Students attending schools that will receive the enhanced social development program will be compared to students attending schools that will receive the current, standard social development curriculum. The study hypothesizes that students who participate in the 4-year enhanced social development program will self-report fewer risk behaviors when surveyed by the school system in grades 6-8.
This project will evaluate the benefit of an enhanced social development program in grades 3-6 to decrease the onset of risky behaviors in pre-adolescents.