Program Profile: Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RIPP)

This program for middle school students is designed to provide conflict-resolution strategies and skills to reduce aggressive behavior and prevent violence. The program is rated Promising. Overall, findings were mixed. Results indicated a statistically significant reduction in violent disciplinary code violations and favorable attitudes toward violence for participants, compared with the control group. However, there were no differences between groups in drug use, anxiety, or aggression.

A Promising rating implies that implementing the program may result in the intended outcome(s).

This program's rating is based on evidence that includes either 1) one study conducted in multiple sites; or 2) two or three studies, each conducted at a different site. Learn about how we make the multisite determination.

Program Goals/Target Population

Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RIPP) is designed to provide conflict-resolution strategies and skills to sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students in middle and junior high schools. The goals of RIPP are to reduce aggressive behavior and violence in school-aged youth, and to intervene with young children to help them avoid potential violence in adolescence.

Program Components

RIPP is a school-based violence-prevention program. The program combines a classroom curriculum of social/cognitive problem-solving with real-life skill-building opportunities, such as peer mediation. Students learn to apply critical thinking skills and personal management strategies to personal health and well-being issues through a variety of educational techniques, including team-building activities, repetition and mental rehearsal, small group work, and role playing. RIPP teaches key concepts, such as:

• The importance of significant friends or adult mentors
• The relationship between self-image and gang-related behaviors
• The effects of environmental influences on personal health
• The importance of making effective choices based on the situation and personal strengths

Using a variety of lessons and activities, students learn about the physical and mental development that occurs during adolescence, analyze the consequences of personal choices on health and well-being, learn that they have nonviolent options when conflicts arise, and evaluate the benefits of being a positive family and community role model.

Program Theory

RIPP draws from theories of social cognition, problem-solving, and emotional processes that are essential in controlling aggressive behavior and in increasing social competence. RIPP targets a developmental phase in the child’s life, the transition from elementary to middle school, as an opportunity to intervene to prevent violence (Farrell et al. 2003a).

Study 1

The Farrell and colleagues (2003a) assessed violent-behavior outcomes among seventh graders in two urban middle schools in Richmond, Va. Each school had administered Responding in Peaceful and Positive Ways (RIPP) to sixth graders the previous year. Classes of seventh graders were randomized to a no-intervention control condition or to the RIPP for seventh grade intervention. Eleven classrooms were assigned to the control group (n = 237), and 10 classrooms made up the intervention group (n = 239). The sample was 47 percent male, with an average age of 12.8 years. Nearly all children (97 percent) were African American. Forty-six percent reported living with single mothers, 20 percent lived with both parents, and another 16 percent lived in stepfamilies. There were no significant differences between groups in gender, race, age, or family structure.

Participants completed a pretest at the beginning of seventh grade and a posttest at the end of the year. Two follow-ups were obtained at 6 and 12 months posttest during the eighth grade. The primary outcomes were measured by the disciplinary code violations of the school (violence, fighting, assault, possession of a weapon, and suspensions). Measurements of violence also included the Problem Behavior Frequency Scales in which students self-report the frequency of violent behavior, nonphysical aggression, drug use, and delinquent behavior in the past month. Other measures used were the Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale and the RIPP Knowledge Test (which assesses attitudes toward violence).

The data was analyzed using an intent-to-treat approach with generalized linear models and generalized estimating equations. These methods are specifically used to address the nested design of data in which clusters (classrooms) of participating schoolchildren were assigned to the intervention. The authors conducted subgroup analyses on gender.

Study 2

Farrell and colleagues (2003b) examined the impact of RIPP for sixth and seventh grade on violent behavior outcomes. Participants in the study were students at four intervention schools (n = 752) and four control schools (n = 735) in rural Florida. The sample was equally divided between boys and girls, with 29 percent being children of migrant workers and 32 percent living in homes where English was not the first language. The average age at the start of sixth grade was 11.4 years, with 65 percent identifying themselves as white, 22 percent as Hispanic, and 11 percent as African American.

In 1998–99, the intervention group received RIPP for sixth grade and RIPP for seventh grade the following year. Measurements were taken at pretest (beginning of sixth grade), at two midpoint assessments (mid-sixth and beginning of seventh grade), at a 4-month follow-up (end of seventh grade), and at 9 months posttest. The measure used to assess behavior included disciplinary records (for only a subsample of six schools, of which three were control and three were intervention schools); the Problem Behavior Frequency Scales; the Children’s Report of Exposure to Violence; Peer Provocation Scale; Life Satisfaction Scale; the RIPP Knowledge Test; the Problem Situation Inventory; the Beliefs Supporting Aggression Scale; the Attitude Toward Conflict Scale; and the Peer Support for Nonviolence Scale.

The data was analyzed using generalized linear models and generalized estimating equations, which are specifically used to address the multilevel design of data in which schools with participating schoolchildren were randomized (rather than individual participants). The authors conducted subgroup analyses on gender.

Subgroup Analysis

With regard to subgroup findings, Farrell and colleagues (2003a) found that girls who participated in RIPP endorsed more prosocial responses than did girls in the control group, at the 9-month follow up. This difference was statistically significant. However, no significant differences were found among boys. Farrell and colleagues (2003b) found that boys who participated in RIPP demonstrated less favorable attitudes toward violence, compared with control group boys, at the 12-month follow up. This difference was also statistically significant; however, there were no significant differences found among girls.

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

These sources were used in the development of the program profile:

Following are CrimeSolutions-rated programs that are related to this practice:

School-Based Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) Programs

Designed to foster the development of five interrelated sets of cognitive, affective, and behavioral competencies, in order to provide a foundation for better adjustment and academic performance in students, which can result in more positive social behaviors, fewer conduct problems, and less emotional distress. The practice was rated Effective in reducing students’ conduct problems and emotional stress.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

	Juvenile Problem & At-Risk Behaviors - Multiple juvenile problem/at-risk behaviors
	Mental Health & Behavioral Health - Internalizing behavior

Universal School-Based Social Information Processing Interventions for Aggression

School-based violence prevention interventions that target social information-processing difficulties in students, aiming to reduce the aggressive and disruptive behavior of school-aged children. The practice is rated Promising for reducing aggressive behavior in school-aged children.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Juvenile Problem & At-Risk Behaviors - Aggression

Targeted School-Based Social Information-Processing Interventions for Aggression

This practice examines targeted prevention efforts for particular students that attempt to improve one or more aspects of the students’ social information processing, aiming to prevent and/or reduce aggressive or violent behavior in school-aged children. The practice is rated Effective for reducing aggressive behavior in school-aged children.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Juvenile Problem & At-Risk Behaviors - Aggression

Universal School-Based Prevention and Intervention Programs for Aggressive and Disruptive Behavior

Universal school-based prevention and intervention programs for aggressive and disruptive behavior target elementary, middle, and high school students in a universal setting, rather than focusing on only a selective group of students, with the intention of preventing or reducing violent, aggressive, or disruptive behaviors. The practice is rated Effective in reducing violent, aggressive, and/or disruptive behaviors in students.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Juvenile Problem & At-Risk Behaviors

School-Based Conflict Resolution Education

This practice aims to reduce school-based conflict and encourage long-term prosocial behavior. It teaches students to understand the nature of the conflict and provides options for responding. This practice is rated Promising for multiple problem or at-risk behaviors. Student participants in the programs reported significantly fewer antisocial behaviors than students in the control group.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Juvenile Problem & At-Risk Behaviors - Multiple juvenile problem/at-risk behaviors

School-Based Interventions to Reduce Exclusion

School exclusion (more commonly known as suspension and expulsion) is broadly defined as a disciplinary measure imposed in reaction to students’ misbehavior. This practice comprises school-based programs that seek to decrease the prevalence of exclusion and thereby reduce the detrimental effects that suspensions or expulsion from schools may have on students’ learning outcomes and future training or employment opportunities. This practice is rated Effective for reducing school exclusion.

Evidence Ratings for Outcomes

Education - Expulsion/Suspension

Why might a practice's outcome ratings differ from the ratings of specific programs encompassed by that practice?