School Violence Prevention: The Youth Development Perspective

Negative behaviors among youth, such as violence and bullying, continue to be notable public health concerns. Positive youth development provides a useful framework for reducing these behaviors by focusing on social competencies that can overcome risk factors by providing support and opportunities to build social capital, engender civic identity and situate oneself in the broader institutional community. This paper presents recent findings about school violence, briefly reviews school-based violence prevention strategies, describes the philosophies which underline the youth development perspective and examines the implications for practice that this perspective provides for approaching and reducing anti-social behaviors and school violence.