# Enhancing School-Based Violence Prevention through Multilevel Racial/Ethnic Discrimination Intervention

> **NIH NIH R01** · MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA · 2020 · $563,641

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
 African American (AA) and Hispanic/Latinx (HL) adolescents disproportionately engage in interpersonal
violence/aggression. Even after exposure to evidence- and school-based violence prevention programs,
racial/ethnic (R/E) disparities in aggression persist for these populations. One factor accounting for the
disparities is R/E discrimination. Three major forms of R/E discrimination-related processes occur in schools:
1) peer R/E discrimination, 2) teachers' unintentional R/E biases, and 3) R/E disproportionality in harsh
discipline, all of which have been linked to R/E minority students' poor educational and behavioral outcomes.
Thus, effectively preventing aggression/violence among AA and HL youth requires a comprehensive approach
that addresses R/E discrimination on multiple levels in schools. Yet, research levering empirically supported
ways of addressing discrimination to enhance school-based violence prevention is sorely lacking. Drawing on
compelling evidence for the efficacy of diverse approaches to addressing R/E discrimination from members of
the research team, an integrated multilevel discrimination intervention is proposed to target four areas.1)
Reduce unintentional bias in school personnel using the prejudice-habit breaking intervention, the only
intervention that has been shown experimentally to produce long-term changes in bias. 2) Reduce peer R/E
discrimination using an adaption of the prejudice-habit breaking intervention for adolescents. 3) Reduce R/E
disproportionality in discipline by identifying the settings and practices in the school that are the greatest
drivers of the disparities and problem-solving to address these drivers. 4) Reduce teacher stress using
occupational stress management. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of integrating these R/E
discrimination interventions (RED) into mental health-enhanced Positive Behavioral and Interventions Supports
(PBIS-MH), an evidence-based approach to reducing aggression and other problem behavior in schools..8
middle schools will be randomly assigned to 2 years of PBIS-MH or PBIS-MH augmented to address R/E
discrimination (PBIS-MH+ RED). Data will be collected from students, teachers, and parents and school
records over the course of 2 years, with a subset of youth participants assessed again at 1-year follow up while
they are in high school. The study will address the following novel aims: 1) Examine the effects PBIS-MH
+RED on discrimination targets. 2) Examine the effects of PBIS-MH +RED on student aggressive behavior and
aggression risk factors. We will also explore the extent to which R/E group and gender moderate these effects.
3) Examine the extent that discrimination targets mediate the effects of PBIS-MH +RED on aggression and
aggression risk. This study addresses critical questions needed to move the field forward in the development of
comprehensive evidence-based approaches to reducing aggression in AA and HL youth.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9934272
- **Project number:** 5R01MD013812-02
- **Recipient organization:** MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA
- **Principal Investigator:** Colleen A Halliday
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $563,641
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-05-23 → 2024-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9934272

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9934272, Enhancing School-Based Violence Prevention through Multilevel Racial/Ethnic Discrimination Intervention (5R01MD013812-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9934272. Licensed CC0.

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