Evaluation of the effects of the Aban Aya Youth Project in reducing violence among African American adolescent males using latent class growth mixture modeling techniques.

This study employs growth mixture modeling techniques to evaluate the preventive effects of the Aban Aya Youth Project in reducing the rate of growth of violence among African American adolescent males (N = 552). Results suggest three distinct classes of participants: high risk (34%), medium risk (54%), and low risk (12%) based on both the participants' initial violence scores and their growth of violence over time. Results further show significant effects (almost 3 times as large as the effect found in the regular one-class analysis) for the high-risk class but not for the medium- or low-risk classes.

Violence prevention among African American adolescent males.

OBJECTIVE: To test psychosocial mediators of the effects of an intervention in reducing the rate of growth of violence among adolescents. METHOD: Five hundred and seventy-one African American adolescent males participated in this randomized trial. Multilevel modeling techniques were used to ascertain both intervention and mediated effects. RESULTS: Intervention significantly reduced rate of growth of violence and 5 social and psychological factors in the treatment group relative to the control group. Four of these social and psychological factors were found to be complete mediators between the intervention and its preventive effects. CONCLUSION: Changing psychological mediating variables is central to reducing youth violence.