RUNNING HEAD: Accessing and Evaluating Evidence in Social Work Practice Phase III

Accessing and Evaluating Evidence in Social Work Practice

Tamesha Green
SW 3810 Dr. Harrison
Wayne State University

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Statement of problem

Intervention: If children living in low income areas are educated on violence and violence
Prevention will the level of juvenile violent offenders decrease?
Negative exposure of Detroit in local and national news highlights the violent epidemic that is
engulfing the city. Majority of the perpetrators of these heinous crimes are juveniles, an
abundance of which reside in lower income urban areas. Wayne County ranks number one for a
targeted intervention due to high juvenile crime rates (Donovan 2009). The rates of juvenile
offenders can be contributed to the lack of education on this matter. The National Academic
press reports that the development of delinquent behavior that adolescents exhibit is influenced
by individual, social, community conditions, social interactions (Juvenile Crime Juvenile Justice
2001). On a national average 50% of youth live in low poverty areas compared to about 30% of
African American children in Michigan (Tanner 2014). The likely hood for a violent offender to
be a juvenile in the city of Detroit is more likely to occur than in suburban areas. The traditional
two parent family is no longer as strong or cohesive as it once was; only 32 % of African
American children in Detroit are cohabitating with both parents (Tanner 2014). With the lack of
fundamental support for adolescents, they are influenced by their communities and social
involvements. These affiliations have shown to lead to violent offences that can be seen nightly
on the local news. In Michigan the Youth are arrested for violent crimes more the 6, 00 times a
year (Jacobson, Phillips, Walker 2008). Once the offender is placed into custody justice is not
officially served, a new problem is then ordained. Juvenile offender policies border on nurturing
the adolescent or severely punishing the violent offenders. If the offender is not punished

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effectively enough there is a chance for that behavior to reoccur. However if the punishment is
too severe then question of evenhandedness comes into effect.
The problem of regaining normalcy in society once a juvenile offender has being entangled in
the judicial system is very arduous task of young parolee to overcome. This process is not
working well to serve a productive society. If there is more education and programs on violence
and violence prevention the question is whether there will be a decrease in violent behavior
among middle school aged children.
Research Design
Casual research design is used to understand what impact a particular change will have on an
existing circumstance. The researcher used this type of design to understand what type of impact
media campaigns had when featuring local high School students targeted towards sixth, seventh
and eighth graders opposing violence and would this intervention help to detour school based
violence. After the study was complete there was a reported reduction of violence and an
assumed sense of safety among the students. One of the threats to the internal validity of this
research design was the history of the study and the population that was used. The research
should have been concluded again the following year within the same school districts and using
the same children. This would have allowed the researches to determine if non violence media
exposure actually impeded violent behavior on a consistent basis. The other threat to the internal
validity was the maturation of the population. The sample was middle school age youth which
had the ability to mature and abstain from illicit behaviors. It is not clear how the maturity level
of the students had on a reduction of violent behaviors over time. This could have a definite
impact on the results on a repeated longitudinal study. With testing, there were not multiple

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measures done to ensure the test sample was in need of an intervention. There were minimal non
correlating domains in which the researcher used to obtain their sample. The level of violence the
children endured previous to the study was not known and not used as a factor.
Sampling
The samples were selected from 126 small town communities that participated in a National
drug abuse study on small towns in a previous year. Five samples were then taken from each of
those participants in opposing directional locations, Idaho (NW), Louisiana (S), Kentucky (E),
California (W) and Illinois (MW). Students were enrolled in the study based on signed parental
consent. The sample was designed for the likelihood of closeness and interaction of the children.
The advantage of this strategy can help researchers to learn how the closeness of children lessens
the likelihood of violent behaviors. The disadvantage of this sample is how effective it would be
on a larger scale in densely populated areas. The other disadvantage was that there was not an
established level of violence among the samples and the samples only came from small towns. It
does not reflect how the intervention would be effective on children that are notably affected by
violence like those who live in low income areas where violence is escalated in schools and
communities. The use of this intervention can still be beneficial to use in urban areas when used
in small groups.
Measurements
The variable in this study was media campaign on Resolve It or Solve It. This slogan was
used to urge children to solve their problems by non violent means. The variable was
implemented by radio, news print and television depicted local high school students as the actors.
The y variable being the reduction of school based violence after the induction of the media

Accessing and Evaluating Evidence

campaigns. The campaigns effectiveness was then measured with five items that asked students
of their exposure and ability recall the media campaigns, the results were measured on a five
point Likert scale. Students were then asked if they recalled other students using the tag line of
the campaign, those responses were measured on a four point Likert scale. Violent behavior was
measured with three subscales from a twelve item scale of aggressive anger expression (Swaim,
R. Kelly, K. 2008).
There were standard deviations for variables which were gender time and across treatment
conditions. Differences were evaluated to determine changes in growth by experimental
condition. With respect to the two cognitive measures (self-efficacy and violent Intentions), a
significant difference was found only for violent intentions. Whereas intentions for violence
increased over time among the control group students (slope=0.328), the slope for intervention
students was near zero (slope=0.047). Thus, while intentions for violence increased among
control students, they were relatively unchanged for students who were exposed to the media
intervention. (Swaim, R. Kelly, K. 2008). The findings may have concluded differently if the
media campaign had been done by people that influenced the children, such as local athletes,
actors actresses. Many of the students surveyed did not recall the Resolve it or Solve it
campaigns and therefore did not yield the intended results.
Data Collection
Data collection of this study was done by self report survey on a likert scale. Students were
asked to take the surveys and answer the questions ranging from most likely to not likely. There
was an 87.4% completion rate of the surveys and participant involvement. There is an advantage
to using the self repot method and that is to obtain the most accurate information from the

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participants. The disadvantage of using this method is participants unwillingness to complete

self repot surveys or forget to return them. A different method of collecting this data and
obtaining close to 100% survey completion is to offer the survey on line. The likely hood of
completing a survey and returning it may yield greater results if done within a controlled setting.
Having an incentive for the students after their completion of the on-line survey gives the
students something to look forward to. The availability to take the survey should also be
considered when dealing with school aged children. The day the survey was administered could
have an effect on the survey completion. By offering the same survey for an extended amount of
time, along with a completion incentive could raise the amount of children willing to participate
in taking the surveys.
Ethics and Cultural Considerations
The intervention that was used in this article was conducted on a rural population that
consisted of 67% white non Hispanic, 9.9% African American and 9.8% Mexican American.
Participants were chosen based on their potential of closeness and repetitive interactions. When
using this article for a targeted intervention, the ethnicity of this population may not be
duplicated but the variable can remain constant. The targeted population will consist of majority
African American middle school aged urban youth. This intervention would work best if
conducted in smaller settings such as community, school based or clinical group violence
intervention programs. The process of media and its influence on youth has always had a
significant impact regardless of ethnicity. The problem that may occur from attempting to
duplicate this type of intervention could result from the lack of funding. In low income areas the
issue of money is ever so prevalent, funding a media campaign in print, radio and television, will
have to be taken into consideration as to its feasibility.

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Researchers did not attempt to mislead the students into thinking the survey was for other
purposes then what was specified. If the participants decided not to complete the survey or
decided not to continue with the intervention, the researchers did not try to course the participant
into completion. The students were only subjected to the survey after parental consent was
obtained. The researchers did uphold ethical standards when conducting their research, however
for those students that did not get permission to participate in the study were still subjected to the
media campaigns without consent.
Results and Implications
The need for an intervention that was identified in Phase I highlighted the intervention of a
role model for low income inner city youths. There are large amounts of adolescents that are
persuaded by their peers and their community. The amount of violent juvenile offenders has risen
to alarming proportions. There is a dire need for an intervention to curtail community and school
based violence among inner city youth. In this case the model would be media influence. The
theory of media being influential towards youth can work out to be a productive intervention if
managed correctly. The researchers used the theory that youth are also influenced by and feel
comfortable with people that they are in constant and close interactions with. This is another
important aspect to consider when attempting to duplicate the results of this intervention.
In order to implement this type of intervention my expertise should be in, clinical group,
group worker or youth worker. When practicing Social work it is very important to practice
within your field of expertise. This will help Social Workers to eliminate mishaps in ethical
standards sanctions placed against a professional licensure because of a worker not being
competent to practice in a particular field. As a Social Worker one challenge that I feel would be

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difficult would be working with youth that are not motivated to change in a positive direction.
The other barrier that would make this intervention difficult to complete would be the feasibility
for the media campaigns. Securing a funding source for this type of intervention can pose a
problem for the administrators. When working with public agencies in urban areas there will be a
concern for funding projects of this nature. A social worker trying to implement this type of
intervention should look to private funding or grant writing proposals to do so.

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References

Jacobson, S., Phillips, Y., & Walker, N. (2001, January 1). Youth Violence in Michigan Retrieved
June4,2014,from,http://www.familyimpactseminars.org/s_mifis03c01.pdffrom
Tanner, K. (April 6, 2014). Raw Data Michigan Ranks 48th for overall well being of African
American children. Opinion Commentary. Detroit Free Press. Retrieved June 4, 2014
from,http://www.freep.com/interactive/article/20140406/OPINION05/304060030/childre
n-michigan-poverty-black-african-american-kids
Juvenile Crime, Juvenile Justice. (2001). The Development of Delinquency. Washington, DC:
The National Academies Press, Retrieved June 4, 2014 from,
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9747&page=66
Donovan, R.L. (November 14, 2009). The Worst Cities for Urban Youth. ABC News Retrieved
June 4, 2014 http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Politics/worst-cities-urban-youth/story?
id=9083935&page=2
Harrison, S. Dr. (2014) Social Work 3810, Research Methods in Social Work I syllabus,
unpublished manuscripts, Wayne State University
Swaim, R. Kelly, K. (2008) Efficacy of a Randomized Trial of a Community and School-based
Anti-violence Media Intervention among Small-town Middle School Youth. Society for
Prevention Research, 9:202214, DOI 10.1007/s11121-008-0096-7

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