Browsing by Author "Crooks, Claire V."
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- ItemOpen AccessEstimating costs and benefits associated with evidence-based violence prevention: Four case studies based on the Fourth R program(The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary, 2017-05) Crooks, Claire V.; Zwicker, Jennifer; Wells, Lana; Hughes, Ray; Langlois, Amanda; Emery, J.C. HerbTeen violence in dating and peer relationships has huge costs to society in numerous areas including health care, social services, the workforce and the justice system. Physical, psychological, and sexual abuse have long-lasting ramifications for the perpetrators as well as the victims, and for the families involved on both sides of that equation. An effective violence prevention program that is part of a school’s curriculum is beneficial not only for teaching teenagers what is appropriate behaviour in a relationship, but also for helping them break the cycle of violence which may have begun at home with their own maltreatment as children. The Fourth R program is an efficacious violence prevention program that was developed in Ontario and has been implemented in schools throughout Canada and the U.S. Covering relationship dynamics common to dating violence as well as substance abuse, peer violence and unsafe sex, the program can be adapted to different cultures and to same-sex relationships. The program, which gets its name from the traditional 3Rs — reading, ’riting and ’rithmetic — offers schools the opportunity to provide effective programming for teens to reduce the likelihood of them using relationship for violence as they move into adulthood. The federal government has estimated that the societal costs of relationship violence amount to more than $7 billion. These costs can continue to be incurred through the legal and health-care systems as the ripple effects of violence play out over the years, even after a relationship has ended. Other types of violence are also costly to society and not just in terms of dollars, but in young lives diverted into criminal activity. Up to 15 per cent of youth who become involved with the justice system grow into serious adult offenders who develop lengthy criminal careers. Yet, research shows that if prevention programs such as the Fourth R can deter just one 14-year-old high-risk juvenile from a life of crime, up to $5 million can be saved in costs to society.
- ItemOpen AccessPredictors of Healthy Youth Relationships Program Implementation in a Sample of Canadian Middle School Teachers(2019-06) Exner-Cortens, Deinera; Spiric, Vanja; Crooks, Claire V.; Syeda, Maisha M.; Wells, LanaImplementation of evidence-based, Tier 1 social-emotional learning (SEL) programming that supports healthy relationships skills is recognized as a key mental health promotion and violence prevention strategy for youth. However, work specifically exploring how to support the high-quality implementation of such programming with Canadian teachers and schools is just beginning to emerge. Drawing on implementation frameworks that emphasize the importance of setting, provider and implementation process characteristics for understanding program implementation outcomes, this prospective, longitudinal study explores implementation of the Fourth R, a SEL-based healthy relationships program, in a Western Canadian province using a sample of middle-school teachers. The aim of this mixed-methods study was to illuminate relationships among teachers’ attitudes towards evidence-based programming, perceptions of organizational climate and training experience with program implementation outcomes (dosage, quality, fidelity). Findings of this exploratory study identified that these characteristics influenced implementation dosage, quality and fidelity in differential ways. Qualitative data drawn from teacher interviews supported quantitative findings, and highlighted the importance of organizational support for high-quality implementation. We discuss areas for further study, given that there are significant gaps in knowledge about teachers’ attitudes towards evidence-based programming, school climate and other systemic factors in the Canadian context, as well as relevance of study findings to the field of school psychology.