Transcript Creating Schools of Hope:

Arizona Safe and Supportive Schools Conference
December 5, 2014
Phillip S. Woodall, MA (Tucson)
[email protected]
REIGN OF ERROR
• Strength versus deficit world view
• The destructive influence of imaginary peers
• Resiliency Research – key protective factors for “self-righting”
• Social norming frameworks for creating school and community
norms
THE RESILIENCY MODEL
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Interest in the area of resiliency first developed in the early 1970’s
from research which aimed to identify the factors that place young
people at risk of developing various problems: i.e., drug abuse,
delinquency and mental disorders.
Researchers noticed that many young people who had been
exposed to numerous ‘risk factors’ nevertheless developed into
healthy , competent adults.
These researchers became interested in studying the resiliency of
these young people and turned their attention to identifying the
protective factors – both internal and external – that help a person
to bounce back from (“self-righting”), or thrive in spite of, adverse
circumstances.
RISK VERSUS RESILIENCY
How do you see your relationships, profession, world?
• Fear and scarcity (deficit-based approach to problem-solving)?
• Hope and abundance (strengths-based approach to problemsolving)?
KNOWLEDGE BASE FOR PRACTICE
• Resiliency research clearly provides the prevention, education,
and youth development fields with nothing less than a
fundamentally different knowledge base and paradigm for
research and practice, one offering the promise of transforming
interventions in the human arena.
• A “strength/protective factor focus” provides a powerful rationale
for moving our narrow focus in the social and behavioral sciences
from a “risk/deficit focus” to an examination of the strengths
youths, their families, their schools, and their communities have
brought to bear in promoting healing and health.
EMMY WERNER & RUTH SMITH: KAUAI LONGITUDINAL
STUDY
“Buffers (protective factors) make a more profound impact on the
life course of children who grow up under adverse conditions
than do specific risk factors or stressful life events. They appear
to transcend ethnic, social class, geographical, and historical
boundaries.”
NAN HENDERSEN: SIX KEY ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTIVE FACTORS
• Caring and support
• High expectations
• Meaningful participation/contribution
• Pro-social bonding
• Clear, consistent boundaries
• Life-skills development
PERSONAL STRENGTHS: WHAT RESILIENCE LOOKS LIKE (BENARD)
Social Competence
• Responsiveness
• Communication
• Empathy/caring
• Compassion, altruism, forgiveness
PERSONAL STRENGTHS: WHAT RESILIENCE LOOKS LIKE (BENARD)
Problem Solving
• Planning
• Flexibility
• Resourcefulness
• Critical thinking/insight
PERSONAL STRENGTHS: WHAT RESILIENCY LOOKS LIKE (BENARD)
Autonomy
• Positive identity
• Internal locus of control
• Self-Efficacy/Mastery
• Adaptive Distancing/Resistance
• Self-Awareness/Mindfulness
• Humor
PERSONAL STRENGTHS: WHAT RESILIENCE LOOKS LIKE (BENARD)
Sense of Purpose
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Goal direction/educational aspirations
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Special interest/creativity/imagination
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Optimism/hope
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Spirituality/sense of meaning
SCHOOL PROTECTIVE FACTORS
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Every student has a caring relationship with at least one adult
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Schools and classrooms feel like communities
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Schools and classrooms make use of a number of small-group processes
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Schools and classrooms are small (“The Village Effect,“ Susan Pinker)
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Discipline is designed to keep students feeling connected
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Early intervention services are available
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School-based mentoring programs link students with community volunteers
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Families are invited to partner with the school (“Parent University”)
A GUIDE TO MARKETING SOCIAL NORMS
Paradigm Shifts in Prevention:
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Risk behavior – Prevention Strategies
Reactive – Proactive approaches
Individual – Environmental
Policy – Social Norms, (i.e. U. of A. Media Campaign): 1) Decrease the rate
of heavy drinking among undergraduates, 2) Reduce the consumption of
alcohol by heavy drinkers to a more moderate level, 3) Correct the campus
misperception that most college students are heavy drinkers who harm
others or themselves when they drink, 4) identify, implement , and enforce
campus alcohol/drug policies that increase campus safety and, 5) prevent
entering freshmen /women from misperceiving campus alcohol norms.
THE SOCIAL NORMS MODEL (W. PERKINS)
The strategy of the social norms approach is to gather credible data from a
target population and then, using various health communication
strategies, consistently tell the truth about its actual norms of health,
protection, and the avoidance of risk behaviors. With repeated exposure
to a variety of positive, data-based messages, the misperceptions that
help to sustain problem behavior are reduced, and a greater proportion
of the population begins to act in accord with the more accurately
perceived norms of health, protection, and safety.
SOCIAL NORMS APPROACH TO HEALTH PROMOTION
• Baseline: Identify actual and misperceived norms
• Intervention: Intensive exposure to actual norm messages
• Predicted Results: Less exaggerated misperceptions of norms
and reduction in harmful behavior increase in healthy behavior
KEY CONCEPT: THE SOCIAL NORMS APPROACH IS A PARADIGM
SHIFT WHEN COMPARED TO TRADITIONAL PREVENTION
STRATEGIES
1. Content: The content of a social norms intervention consistently highlights the
attitudinal and behavioral solutions and assets that are the norms of the target
population.
2. Context: The social norms intervention is an environmental strategy that targets
not just the individual but the entire social context.
3. Connection: By virtue of the data that it gathers from and then communicates to
the target population, he social norms approach is a health promotion strategy
that remains highly connected to the population it serves.
4. Conduct: The methods that are used to effect widespread changes in perception
and behavior frequently employ mass media and marketing strategies, although
other techniques can also be used to reduce misperceptions.
MONTANA MODEL OF SOCIAL NORMS MARKETING
Seven step focus on “Project Goal:”
1. Planning and environmental advocacy
2. Baseline data
3. Message development
4. Market plan
5. Pilot test and refine materials
6. Implement campaign
7. Evaluation
SOCIAL NORMS CAMPAIGNS
• Bystander behavior
• Alcohol and drug use
• Bullying
• Seat belt compliance
• Sexual assault
• Family meal time frequency
• Sexual debut
• Screen time (“Pyramus-Thisbe Dynamic”)
• Homework
RESOURCES
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Resiliency: What We Have Learned (Bonnie Benard, WestEd, 2004)
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The Social Norms Approach to Prevention (H. Wesley Perkins, Jossey Bass, 2003)
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Resiliency And Recovery: “Findings From The Kaui Longitudinal Study (Emmy
Werner, 2005)”
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The Resiliency Workbook, (Nan Henderson, Resiliency. Com, 2013)
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The Village Effect, (Susan Pinker, 2014, Spiegel & Grau, New York)
BOSTON STRONG
RESOURCES
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Resiliency: What We Have Learned (Bonnie Benard, WestEd, 2004)
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The Social Norms Approach to Prevention (H. Wesley Perkins, Jossey Bass, 2003)
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Resiliency And Recovery: Findings From The Kaui Longitudinal Study (Emmy
Werner, 2005)
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The Resiliency Workbook, (Nan Henderson, 2013)
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www.resiliency.com