Promoting Health of Youth with Disabilities through Violence Prevention Efforts

描述(申请人提供)：促进残疾青年的健康和福祉是一个重大的公共卫生问题。近5400万美国人患有干扰生活活动的残疾，研究表明，残疾青年比普通人群更容易出现危害健康的行为，包括参与暴力。健康促进计划可能会极大地惠及这些年轻人，而学校为实施这些努力提供了一个实际和重要的社会背景。不幸的是，大多数基于学校的暴力预防方案都是为普通人群制定的，这些方案在残疾青年中的有效性尚未得到评估，取得进展的一个关键步骤是修改经经验证明对普通人群有效的暴力预防努力，如以和平和积极的方式应对暴力，以满足残疾青年的需求，并确定此类干预措施对这一人群的有效性。残疾青年实施暴力和受害的风险很高，危害健康的行为与反社会行为发生率增加密切相关，抑郁和焦虑程度更高，生活满意度下降。这一研究项目的目标包括：(1)加强社区对残疾青年的暴力预防工作；(2)与残疾青年及其教师合作，更好地了解这些青年普遍面临的使他们有可能卷入暴力的问题情况，并确定在修改残疾青年RIPP干预措施方面的支持和挑战，以及(4)评估残疾青年RIPP干预措施的有效性。这一研究项目的每个阶段都包括残疾青年的参与，以期创建一个最有效的方案。虽然这个项目侧重于一种具体的干预措施，但我们预计它将为在其他学校和学校系统中复制健康促进努力提供一个实用模板。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The promotion of health and well-being among youth with disabilities is a significant public health concern. Almost 54 million Americans have disabilities that interfere with life activities, and research suggests that youth with disabilities are at higher risk that those in the general population for health-compromising behaviors including involvement in violence. Health promotion programs may benefit these youth greatly, and schools offer a practical and important social context for implementing such efforts. Unfortunately, most school-based violence prevention programs were developed for the general population and the effectiveness of these programs has not been evaluated among youth with disabilities, A key step in making progress is this area is to modify violence prevention efforts empirically demonstrated to be effective for the general population, such as Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RIPP), to meet the needs of youth with disabilities and to determine the effectiveness of such interventions for this population. Youth with disabilities are at a high risk for violence perpetration and victimization, health-compromising behaviors that are strongly related to increased rates of anti-social behavior, higher levels of depression and anxiety, and decreased life satisfaction. The goals of this research project include the following: (1) to increase community involvement in violence prevention efforts for youth with disabilities, (2) to work with youth with disabilities and their teachers to better understand the problem situations commonly faced by these youth that place them at risk for violence involvement, and identify supports and challenges in modifying the RIPP interventions for youth with disabilities, and (4) to evaluate the effectiveness of RIPP for youth with disabilities. Participation from youth with disabilities is included at each phase of this research project in hopes of creating a maximally effective program. Although this project focuses on a specific intervention, we anticipate that it will offer a practical template for the replication of health promotion efforts in other schools and school systems.