Violence prevention in early childhood: Effectiveness of a violence prevention curriculum for head start teachers

Abstract

Youth in the U.S. are victims of, perpetrators of, and exposed to violence. A tool of violence prevention is earty childhood education. Teachers of Heed Start in rural, heavily Hispanic, South Texas are recruited
to receive a newly deYeloped violence prevention training program. This wn done utilizing a quasiexperimental design wlh a control group and two experimental groups. Of the 107 teachers involved in the program, 84 completed both the pre-test and post-test Instruments. The effectiYeness of the training in influencing knowledge and attitudes Ia tested here. Analysis or the data indicates that knowledge and attitudes are Influenced both by the training and by having had prior exposure to violence. The results of this study suggest that violence prevention education enhances both knowledge and feelings of competency regarding ability to dell with violence. This study indicates that there is a need fOf further development and implemelllalicli of violence prevention curricula fOf both teachers and children involved in earty childhood training pograms such as Head Start.