Research
Columbia Center for Youth Violence Prevention is dedicated to understanding and addressing the causes and consequences of youth violence in urban areas.
To learn about our projects please choose from among the categories items listed in the pulldown menu. Access our archive of past research projects.
Understanding Dating Violence: Shaping Interventions With Young Men and Women
Principal Investigator: Leslie L. Davidson
This research project has had several goals. First, we established baseline data on the occurrence and nature of dating violence in schools in the Washington Heights and Inwood area, which is the target area for the Columbia Academic Center for Excellence (ACE) for Youth Violence Prevention. We expanded this work in partnership with the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault to include 3 schools in other areas of NYC and produced a report: Partners and Peers: Dating and Sexual Violence among NYC Youth. Secondly, in order to enrich and describe the data compiled through a literature review and our prior work, we developed and implemented a qualitative study to explore the meaning of reports by young men and women of their own participation in dating violence, including the context in which violence occurs, the sequence of events leading to violent behavior, the nature of the participation of both partners in the violence, or mutual violence, and the relative severity of outcomes. This was accomplished through an in depth qualitative study interviewing 40 young men and women, 18-24, in the WH/I area. Finally, we have developed an intervention based on our research findings to train health professionals to identify, assess and appropriately refer high school students experiencing relationship violence. This has been developed and piloted in both English and Spanish and is currently being evaluated in Washington Heights and Inwood.We completed a systematic review of programs for training parents in the area of adolescent dating violence and presented our findings at the APHA in 2010. We will be working with the local high schools to develop and pilot a parent training program in 2011.
Adolescent Relationship Violence Training for Health Providers
Principal Investigator: Leslie L. Davidson
This project titled ‘Evaluation of Adolescent Relationship Violence Screening for Health Providers’ is an evaluation of the new program: The Adolescent Relationship Violence Screening by Health Providers in Washington Heights (ARVS). ARVS is a focused practitioner training effort to increase the number of health care providers that regularly screen for relationship violence when seeing adolescent patients in their office. The screening is meant to be incorporated into the already standard practice of HEADDSS an acronym that reminds providers of the essential components of a social history and anticipatory guidance for adolescent encounters. The goal of the evaluation is formative, the results will inform the further refinement and improvement of the training. The research questions that are proposed are:
a. Does provider exposure to the brief training curriculum and materials increase their knowledge of the key components of adolescent relationship violence?
b. Do providers exposed to the 2 training sessions improve their self efficacy and outcome expectancies in regards to adolescent relationship violence screening?
c. Does the training at one month follow-up change physician behavior regarding screening for adolescent violence during encounters?
d. What aspects of the training do providers identify as needing more or less emphasis in order for the training to make a difference in their practice?
This brief evaluation is under taken to see if this newly designed training is effective and to provide information on improving the training.
Through the ARVS program in 2011, CCYVP provided a 2-hour training session to providers across pediatrics, family medicine, school based health care, family planning/young men’s clinics. The goal of the training was to make the discussion of healthy relationships and relationship violence screening part of routine adolescent health encounters. A chief of service titled ‘Adolescent Relationship Violence: Safety, Human Rights, and the Law’ became an outgrowth of the trainings where providers wanted a place to discuss and learn more about the “worst-case” scenario. By addressing the provider concerns regarding these unlikely but worrisome cases, there will be an increase in the likelihood of providers to successfully integrate discussion of relationships into their routine practice. The Chief of Service goals were to:
1. Understand the legal boundaries of the physician in confidentiality within the context of adolescent reproductive/health rights:
2. Explore the assessment and management issues surrounding cases assessed to be at high-risk for future violence
3. Discuss the potential cases where child protection mandated reporting and personal violence management may intersect.
City Life Is Moving Bodies (CLIMB)
Principal Investigator: Lourdes Hernandez-Cordero
Currently, Dr. Hernández-Cordero directs the City Life Is Moving Bodies (CLIMB) project, a multilevel intervention to promote physical activity, stewardship and social capital. She utilizes community mobilization strategies to engage local stakeholders in initiatives that promote collaboration, resource sharing and a broad work agenda. Her works falls within the built environment and organizational efforts to prevent youth violence. At the core of the CLIMB project is the creation of a multi-use urban trail to link the escarpment parks of northern Manhattan which is celebrated annually through Hike the Heights (see below). In addition she proposes that there are opportunities for conceptually linking organizations, institutions and residents in the vicinity of the parks to create/strengthen programming and services that address neighborhood needs. Dr. Hernandez is actively involved in public health practice.
Hike the Heights - Check our events page for current date information.
A Path: The Giraffe Path is a trail that connects the Cloisters to Central Park through the Cliffside Parks of Northern Manhattan. This giraffe-shaped trail is formed by connecting the existing trails of Morningside, St. Nicholas, Jackie Robinson, Highbridge, Fort Tryon and Inwood Hill parks via a few city blocks. The trail can be hiked in sections or for the entire 10 miles and can be accessed year round. Take a walk!
A Potluck Party: Hike the Heights 8 will be on June 5th, 2012. The day consists of hikes along the Giraffe Path, the Giraffe Parade, and a Community Party at the Sunken Playground in Highbridge Park in Washington Heights, New York. The party will be complete with food, dancing, child and youth friendly art activities, and fun for families and neighbors. In the spirit of potlucks, we ask all participants to contribute in some way: your company, an activity, your time or your resources. Plan the party!
A Parade of Giraffes: Giraffe sculptures, created by hundreds of neighborhood youth will be exhibited on June 5th at the Community Party in Highbridge Park and will greet hikers at entrances to parks along the Hike the Heights route. Creative Arts Workshops for Kids coordinates the making and placing of the giraffes.
Project Post
Principal Investigator: Lourdes Hernandez-Cordero
“Project Post” is a block-based intervention in a formerly dangerous block, where CCYVP and its partners mounted an effort to engage mothers in creating a safer block, starting with a simple Halloween party that led to other activities, brought neighbors together, and was so effective in controlling violence that it inspired other blocks to follow suit. Our aim is to replicate this approach in diverse ways on other blocks, in WH/I’s schools, in settings where youth convene as well as in settings where high-risk youth get help. “Project Post” is an example of how success spurs even more action according to principles of efficacy theory. We expect positive outcomes in parks, on blocks and schools to spread. “Project Post” enhances block level collective efficacy and engages community promotores to lead positive change.
A Natural History of Building A Youth Anti-Violence Center
Principal Investigator: Mindy Fullilove
This study uses a mix-methods approach to chronicle a natural experiment in which a youth center will be established on one block in a large neighborhood troubled by violence. This study examines the impact of this settlement on youth, family, and block relations by conducting a two-year multi-level study comparing settlement-associated neighborhood youth and families, as well as by comparing the settlement block to itself, and to other blocks in its vicinity before and after installation of the settlement.
The Community Research Group, the research partner, has been working directly with Fresh Youth Initiatives, the intervention partner, to collect qualitative and quantitative data on individuals, families, apartment buildings and public areas connected with the Fresh Youth Initiatives’ model block settlement, as well as a comparison group that is not connected with the FYI project. Research data includes (1) the periodic collection of neighborhood and block observations (participant observation), (2) focus groups, (3) youth and parent surveys, as well as a (4) community survey.
Community Mobilization to Aid Re-Entry of Juvenile Offenders
Principal Investigator: Robert E. Fullilove
Awarded: 2005
This project intends to identify and analyze re-integration processes and outcomes for adolescent offenders returning from incarceration in adult or juvenile correctional facilities, or local detention centers. The project will estimate 1) the effects of a community mobilization strategy on the reactions of local public (police, schools), private (employers, neighbors) and parochial (NGOs, social service agencies) sectors to adolescent offenders returning from incarceration and 2) the impacts of community mobilization strategies on social and behavioral outcomes of youths returning from incarceration. This project will compare cohorts of 100 young men and women ages 16-24 returning from incarceration both before and after the implementation of the UNIDOS community mobilization.
Mobilizing School Communities to Promote Pro-Social Bystander Actions to Reduce School Violence
Principal Investigators: Ann Stueve
Awarded: 2008
This CDC-funded project produced a video-based program, Voices Against Violence/Voces Contra La Violencia (VAV), that addresses the critical, but often neglected role youth and adult bystanders can play in preventing school violence. Five short, dramatic vignettes are each presented by “the bystander,” a boy or girl of middle-school age who confronts a violent or potentially violent situation and then must decide how to respond. What will the bystander do? Join in and escalate the confrontation? Step back and watch as the violence takes place? Intervene directly or indirectly to prevent the violence? The decision is rarely clear-cut, as the bystander struggles with such complex issues as loyalty, friendship, fear of reprisal, uncertainty about the seriousness of the situation, and lack of clarity about what to do and whom to approach for help. Through video viewing and guided discussion, the program explores the dilemmas bystanders face and calls on participants to consider ways their school community can encourage and support positive bystander intervention. The video was produced in English with Spanish subtitles and features characters representing diverse racial and ethnic groups.
Over a three-year period (2005-2008), the project piloted the VAV program in multiple classrooms at a school in the CCYVP catchment area and conducted outcome and process evaluation in order to further understand the attitudes and behaviors of students, parents and school staff regarding bystander responsibilities in different potentially violent situations. Informed by findings and community input, the project is now producing a truly bilingual, audio-CD version for use with English and Spanish-speaking families in predominantly Latino communities. This new version will incorporate stories from the original program as well as add vignettes about cyber-bullying and dating violence. Like the original program, this new, culturally tailored, audio-CD version is designed for use either as a stand-alone toolkit or as one component in a comprehensive youth violence prevention program.
Surveillance
In collaboration with the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH), the Columbia Center for Youth Violence Prevention (CCYVP) continues to acquire, collect, and summarize data on indicators of non-fatal and fatal violence among Washington Heights youth – that is, emergency department (ED) visits, hospitalizations and homicides. ED visits are monitored through active surveillance. Data collectors visit EDs, now chosen through a new probabilistic sampling design implemented in March 2008. At selected hospitals, ED records are reviewed for one week per quarter.
The first week is selected at random; the remaining three are set at 13-week intervals. From this sample, assault related ED counts and rates are estimated. Trained data collectors review ED records to abstract assault circumstances and the relationship between the victim and alleged offender. Injury-related hospitalization and mortality data are acquired through passive surveillance, with data from the New York State Department of Health and the New York City DOHMH and Office of Vitals Statistics, respectively. These three data sources form the city’s Injury Surveillance System. A Research Assistant (Krystal Perkins) funded by the CCYVP, but housed at the NYC DOHMH, manages the datasets and conducts analyses that enable the Center and the New York City DOHMH to monitor changes in violent injury and death citywide, by borough, and by neighborhood.
