| Abstract [eng] |
Research relevance. Criminological, sociological, psychological and other kinds of studies that have been conducted in various countries (including Lithuania) show that violence and abuse against children is a multidisciplinary problem. Pedagogical instruments play an important role in the violence prevention scheme. However educational institutions are lacking an overall strategy to deal with the issues concerning aggressive child behaviour. It is clear that all the community members of the institution are required to contribute to an effective solution of the child aggression problem, qualified preparation and implementation of programmes aimed at reducing the number of child violence cases. The subject of the research: the implementation of school violence prevention programs for children. The Aim of the research: to provide a theoretical basis for and to conduct an empirical research of the situation concerning the implementation of school violence prevention programmes. Research instrument. An interview with the school executives (principals and their deputies for education), a survey interview (respondents: representatives from 5 schools), and a questionnaire survey of students (respondents: 129 Form 5-10 students). Research methods: theoretical, empirical, and statistical. The findings of the qualitative and quantitative research show that school violence prevention programs for children are under implementation at the basic schools of Pasvalys district however the responsibility for their development and implementation is not shared and the biggest load rests with the deputy head for education and the teachers. Violence prevention programs for children are launched at the local (institutional, regional) level. They cannot participate in republican programs because of lack of funds. Children are active participants in prevention programs, also parents and personnel from other organizations can be easily engaged. Most of violence prevention programs for children are short-term and do not offer long-term effects. Prevention activities are organised on an occasional basis. In most cases, discussions with children take place during class meetings whereas activities such as anti-violence video watching and discussion are absent. Children would like to have a bigger variety of events and incentives for participation in events are important to them. The respondents believe that tightening up of the school internal procedure, permanent organisation of interesting prevention events, and involvement of students identified as aggressive into them would help a lot in dealing with violence at school. |
