Coping Power in the City: Promoting Coping in African American Male Students

Abstract

This article describes efforts to adapt an adolescent version of the Coping Power program, called Coping Power in the City, for use with high school students attending an urban school district with high concentrations of students exposed to community violence and challenges related to elevated tensions between youth and police. The goal of this group-based preventive intervention is to provide a comprehensive, school-based approach to stem rates of violence, discipline problems, and related mental health concerns for adolescents. A novel feature is the integration of a school police component into the intervention model with concurrent supports for students, parents, and teachers to supplement school counseling efforts. We present an overview of the program and a rationale for its adaptation to meet the needs of African American males in urban high schools. We summarize baseline data for 514 ninth graders (46% African American males) across 10 urban high schools participating in a randomized controlled trial. We also address lessons learned and implications for school-based counseling practices for African American male students and engagement of school police officers in urban high schools.

Keywords

African American high school males urban violence prevention

Urban school districts are challenged by higher rates of crime, student disruption, and aggression than schools in rural or suburban regions (Thapa et al., 2013). A staggering 85% of public schools report one or more crimes occurring on school grounds in a given year, with nearly three fourths of these same schools reporting incidents of violence (Robers et al., 2013). Moreover, national student survey data indicate that each year, 12% of students admit to getting into a physical altercation on school property (Robers et al., 2013). Beyond placing individual students who engage in such acts of aggression at risk for additional school conduct problems, these acts may also engender fear and distress in other students and interfere with learning and feelings of security in the school community (Flannery et al., 2004). Such problems present significant challenges for school counselors in urban schools, who must balance the demands of addressing students’ academic and socioemotional needs in the context of community violence exposure and other school safety concerns.

Although school-based prevention programs have shown promise in reducing behavioral precipitants of violence and increasing positive outcomes for students in lower grade levels (Durlak et al., 2011; Dymnicki et al., 2011; Hahn et al., 2007), more work is needed to develop effective approaches for students transitioning into high school, a time that poses unique risks and challenges developmentally (Benner & Graham, 2009). The risks are particularly high for African American male youth within the context of large, urban, underresourced high schools characterized by high rates of school violence, suspensions, school-based arrests, and school failure (U.S. Government Accountability Office [GAO], 2018).

One promising intervention for addressing youths’ risk for engaging in problem behavior is the Coping Power program (Lochman & Wells, 2004). This multifaceted, preventive-intervention program has been implemented in schools, enlists the support of school counselors and other school service providers as part of its protocol and sustainability efforts, and targets children and youth exhibiting aggressive behavior problems. Previous studies have demonstrated a range of positive effects of the program on upper elementary school children (Lochman & Wells, 2003, 2004) and recent research shows similar promise for students in middle schools (Bradshaw et al., 2017). However, whether these effects generalize to older African American adolescents enrolled in urban schools is less clear.

The current study describes a developmentally and contextually adapted version of the Coping Power program, called Coping Power in the City (CPIC). The research team adapted CPIC for an urban school setting impacted by high rates of community violence, racial tensions between community members and police, and other challenges resulting from a high concentration of disadvantage. As such, we used a community-based participatory research approach in the adaptation process, leveraging an academic–community partnership that equitably involved researchers, organizational representatives (i.e., school district partners), and community members—in this case, school counselors, administrators, school police, and students—contributing expertise and sharing in decision-making (Israel et al., 2005). We begin by providing the rationale for adapting the original Coping Power program and describe the specific components of CPIC. We then summarize information on the youth participating in the program, which is currently being tested using a randomized controlled trial in 10 urban high schools. Specifically, we present the baseline characteristics of the sample of African American students in terms of their behavioral and mental health needs, highlighting the particular behavioral challenges confronting African American males in these settings. We conclude with a summary of lessons learned from adapting and implementing CPIC in urban high schools.

Meeting Needs of African American Male High School Students

The initial transition to high school is a sensitive developmental period that presents a critical window of opportunity for effective violence prevention and intervention (Benner & Graham, 2009). Compared to earlier junctures in their schooling, students entering high school experience higher rates of school violence, out-of-school suspensions, diminished school connectedness, and declining parental involvement, all of which can lead to school truancy, poor academic performance, and dropout (Balfanz et al., 2015; Eccles & Roeser, 2011) and could foreshadow various mental health concerns. Being suspended even once in the ninth grade has been associated with a twofold increase in the likelihood of dropping out (Balfanz et al., 2015).

The transition to high school may be particularly difficult for African American male students (Chapman et al., 2011). Male students in general are more likely than their female counterparts to drop out of high school (Greene & Winters, 2006). Recent census data show that 7% of males ages 16 to 24 are high school dropouts, compared with 5% of females in the same age group (U.S. Census Bureau, 2017 ). Moreover, these findings revealed that, whereas males comprise roughly half of the population in this age group, they account for 59% of high school dropouts. This risk appears much greater for African American males. African American male students, especially those attending schools in socioeconomically disadvantaged districts, are disproportionally exposed to violence within and near school grounds. As a consequence, they are at higher risk for school dropout and related challenges, such as poor school attendance, academic engagement and performance problems, and suspensions (Balfanz et al., 2015; Orfield & Lee, 2005). These students are also disproportionally impacted by violence within and near school grounds. African American male adolescents (ages 12 to 19), both witness and are victims of violent crime at much higher rates than their White peers (Hannon, 2016).

African American male students, especially those attending schools in socioeconomically disadvantaged districts, are disproportionally exposed to violence within and near school grounds. As a consequence, they are at higher risk for school dropout and related challenges, such as poor school attendance, academic engagement and performance problems, and suspensions (Balfanz et al., 2015; Orfield & Lee, 2005).

Another risk factor is exposure to violence, which has been shown to interact in complex ways with normative challenges of development for students of color, increasing their risk for protracted negative behavioral outcomes (Thomas et al., 2011). These effects are further compounded for African American males who face broader systemic issues related to greater risk of peer victimization, racialized gender disparities in school discipline, and disparate treatment by police officers (Thomas & Stevenson, 2009; Welch & Payne, 2010). African American males are more likely than any other student group to face disciplinary actions in schools, including suspensions, expulsions, referrals to law enforcement officers, and school-based arrests (GAO, 2018; Skiba et al., 2014). Nationally representative studies have shown that, in a given year, African American males are suspended at nearly three times the rate of White males in secondary schools—28.4% of Black males versus 10% of White males (Losen, Ee, et al., 2015).

When closely examining the intersections of race, gender, and class status, we see that African American males from poor urban districts are the student group likely to be overidentified and classified for special education services (Moore et al., 2008). African American male students with disabilities are disproportionately suspended, such that more than a third (33.8%) of this student population are suspended at least once per year nationally (Losen, Hodson, et al., 2015); this translates to 121 days of instruction time lost on average per year for African American students with disabilities compared to just 43 days lost instruction among their White peers (Losen, 2018). An analysis of recent federal civil rights data also showed that, while Black students make up 15.5% of student enrollment nationwide, they account for 33.4% of pupils arrested on school grounds (Blad & Harwin, 2017). A closer examination of similar findings reveals disproportionately higher numbers of Black male students being referred for law enforcement intervention or arrested across a wide cross-section of public schools, as compared to other student groups (GAO, 2018).

The presence of police officers in schools has increased significantly in the wake of high-profile school shootings and other violent incidents in schools, and related uptick in public calls for stricter school safety reforms (Brady et al., 2007; Flannery et al., 2019). Nearly half of the nation’s public high schools have school–police partnerships and African American students are overrepresented in school settings with police officers (Blad & Harwin, 2017). This raises further concerns about risks facing African American males in secondary schools when considering the growing criticism that a significant portion of these school–police partnerships are informal and void of any specific guidelines.

Many officers are assigned to school systems without sufficient training about working effectively in schools and may not have a deep appreciation of the developmental and sociocultural needs of the students they serve (Wolff & McDevitt, 2008). Studies also show that officers are increasingly called upon by school administrators to respond to routine disciplinary matters, resulting in unwarranted exclusionary practices and, in some instances, violent confrontations; these in turn decrease feelings of school connectedness and fuel further distrust and other unfavorable perceptions between students of color and school law enforcement officers (Fisher & Hennessy, 2016; Theriot, 2016). Some researchers have even argued that the involvement of school police officers in school discipline practices has contributed significantly to the school-to-prison pipeline, which disproportionately impacts African American male students (Blad & Harwin, 2017). These findings highlight the need for more professional development training for school police. Specifically, a need exists for school police training to shift away from an overreliance on conventional law enforcement strategies toward practices that promote and maintain school safety while also encouraging improved decision making, appreciation of child and adolescent development, cultural awareness and responsivity, and positive relationship building with the students they serve (Blad & Harwin, 2017; Wolff & McDevitt, 2008). However, empirical research examining the effectiveness of professional development for school-based police and other school policing is extremely limited (James & McCallion, 2013).

A need exists for school police training to shift away from an overreliance on conventional law enforcement strategies toward practices that promote and maintain school safety while also encouraging improved decision making, appreciation of child and adolescent development, cultural awareness and responsivity, and positive relationship building with the students they serve (Blad & Harwin, 2017; Wolff & McDevitt, 2008).

In summary, although the potential benefits of evidence-based programs in schools to address precipitants of youth violence are clear, research has also established that traditional prevention approaches may fall short of meeting the particular needs of specific marginalized student populations (Marsiglia & Booth, 2015; Thomas et al., 2011). A common challenge is how to effectively integrate programming components that are relevant to students’ cultural experiences and daily contextual realities within the application of evidence-based practices. We sought to adapt the Coping Power program to be responsive to a range of challenges confronting African American youth, including the particular risks to African American males in urban high schools.

Overview of the Coping Power in the City Program

Like the original Coping Power program (Lochman & Wells, 2002), CPIC was designed to be a comprehensive and multicomponent, contextually adapted, evidence-based intervention responsive to both the recent and historical challenges related to youth violence in the partnering urban school district. Similarly, the goal of CPIC was to increase safety and reduce rates of violence, discipline problems, and related mental health concerns. Conceptually, the original Coping Power model was based on a contextual social-cognitive developmental model (Lochman & Wells, 2002), and designed for preadolescent and early adolescent students who display high levels of aggressive behaviors and are therefore at risk for later problem behaviors and school failure. The original Coping Power model was multicomponent, in that the program targeted children/youth (social-cognitive and self-regulation processes) and family processes (parenting practices) that could lead to delinquency and violence, while also providing classroom-based supports for teachers to promote school bonding, study and homework organizational skills, and academic success.

Similar to the original program, CPIC includes highly specified manuals and instructions for implementation with participating students, their parents, and school staff. A content development workgroup, consisting of the lead author and doctoral-level and undergraduate research assistants, undertook careful measures to adapt intervention content to be developmentally appropriate and relevant to the cultural experiences of urban African American youth. This process included consultation from recognized researchers and practitioners with expertise in urban adolescent development, African American racial socialization, urban pedagogy, and culturally responsive intervention practices. The research team also solicited feedback from focus groups with two sets of high school students and school counselors to ensure content was comprehensible, motivating, and connected to the participants’ everyday lives (Barrera et al., 2013). Another adaptation of the CPIC model was the inclusion of some modified school staff content and parent content, because parent engagement had been a challenge in previous trials of the Coping Power program (Ellis et al., 2013; Murray et al., 2014), and new content for school police. In the sections below, we describe each of these components in more detail.

Youth Component

As with earlier versions of Coping Power, CPIC was designed for use with small groups of students and delivered by two group leaders, a project-hired Coping Power clinician and a trained school-based clinician; in most cases, these were school counselors. CPIC student sessions ranged from 45–60 minutes, typically with one session of culturally and contextually relevant content delivered per week at participating schools. Whereas the program for middle schoolers included 25 sessions, the CPIC version included 16 student group sessions. The program was compressed into fewer sessions to make it more feasible for implementation in high schools.

Two groups of 7–10 students were formed in each school. Session topics covered goal setting, organizational and study skills, awareness of emotional arousal and anger, self-regulation of emotional arousal and anger, perspective taking, social problem solving, and contextual risk factors in relationships with deviant peers and associated school and neighborhood influences (see Larson & Lochman, 2011; Lochman et al., 2008). Table 1 provides an overview of the specific focus and content of each youth session. Developmental and contextual adaptations to support youth engagement and motivation to participate included activities to repair damaged peer relationships, manage problems in romantic relationships, cope with and prevent relational aggression and peer victimization, and navigate exposure to different neighborhood risks.

Table 1.

Coping Power in the City Group Sessions.

Session	Focus	Specific Objectives
1	Establish structure of the group and behavioral goal-setting procedure	• Described the purpose of the group • Discussed group structure, rules, and incentive system • Introduced weekly goals based on input obtained from teacher, counselor, school police officer, and/or parent
2	Setting long-term and short-term personal goals	• Described long-term and short-term goals • Discussed overcoming barriers to goal setting • Introduced regular goal-setting procedures
3	Organizational and study skills	• Highlighted strategies to promote school success (i.e., organizational skills, study skills for home and school) • Reviewed a homework contract to employ with input from caregivers
4	Awareness of feelings and physiological arousal related to anger	• Identified manifestations of different emotions • Elucidated the link between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors • Identified different gradients of anger
5	Practice anger coping and self-control	• Discussed linkage between coping ability and levels of anger experienced • Discussed the first of three targeted coping strategies, use of distraction, in anger-provoking situations as a way to maintain control
6	Practice using coping self-statements for anger coping (Part I)	• Introduced the second targeted coping strategy, self-statements, in anger-provoking situations • Practiced replacing maladaptive self-statements with coping self-statements
7	Practice using coping self-statements for anger coping (Part II)	• Created anger hierarchy • Demonstrated student use of distraction methods • Practiced coping self-statements
8	Relaxation and overcoming barriers to self-control	• Introduced the third targeted coping strategy, relaxation, and deep breathing techniques • Practiced deep breathing and maintaining self-control • Discussed overcoming barriers to maintaining self-control
9	Perspective taking and PICC model	• Established the process of perspective taking and engaged in perspective-taking activities • Discussed utility of effective perspective taking in preventing misunderstandings and interpersonal conflicts • Introduced the PICC (P = Problem, I = Identification, C = Choices, C = Consequences) problem-solving model
10	Social problem solving	• Reviewed and practiced using the PICC problem-solving model in different situations
11	Relationship development	• Discussed strategies for initiating and maintaining healthy friendships • Discussed desired qualities in a friend and personal attributes that make them a good friend • Discussed romantic relationship dynamics • Discussed active listening and utilizing “I” messages to resolve conflicts in relationships • Illustrated communication strategies that allow students to stand up for their rights without intruding on the rights of others (i.e., assertive communication)
12	Social aggression	• Operationalized social aggression with contemporary examples and discussed negative implications • Applied the PICC problem-solving model to social aggression
13	Peer pressure and practicing refusal skills	• Defined peer pressure and reasons why adolescents may give in to different forms of peer pressure • Introduced specific strategies to combat peer pressure in actual situations (i.e., refusal skills) • Practiced refusal strategies in peer pressure situations
14	Neighborhood peer pressure and deviant peer groups	• Discussed ways students deal with deviant peer group influences and risky situations in schools and neighborhoods • Applied the PICC problem-solving model in situations involving deviant peer groups and neighborhood risks
15	Positive development and positive peer networks	• Discussed personal strengths, positive qualities and interests, and benefits of affiliation with positive peer activities/groups • Introduced methods for membership in positive peer groups • Discussed qualities of good leadership
16	Review and termination/celebration activities	• Reviewed key concepts from group sessions • Processed individual lessons learned, personal gains, and achieved goals over the course of group sessions • Shared personal accounts of any impact students had on other students, family members, and/or neighborhood peers as a result of their participation in group sessions • Identified acquired skills and personal qualities that students currently have that make them good leaders and positive role models for other students • Recognized and celebrated individual development and collective accomplishments with the group

Preliminary adaptation testing in two pilot high schools helped us tailor group session content and materials to be responsive and germane to the African American students’ cultural experiences (Barrera et al., 2013). This testing included the efficacy of manualized text, corresponding illustrations, interactive videos, vignettes, role play scenarios, embedded cultural themes, skill-building activities, cofacilitation tasks, and other features of the intervention on two groups of African American students (59% males and 68% ninth graders) participating in preexisting school counseling groups. Consequently, school counselors played an integral role in fine-tuning the youth component for the experimental study.

In addition to the youth-focused group sessions, the group leaders made individual contacts with student participants over the course of the intervention to promote broader acquisition of the program’s content, to increase its generalization to students’ actual experiences, and to help build and maintain a robust working relationship between students and group leaders. The program also aimed to strengthen the student–teacher relationships through structured opportunities for students to seek positive teacher feedback on progress with weekly identified goals, and by allowing students to practice perspective taking by interviewing teachers regarding a classroom or school-based concern. Engaging teachers and adolescents in joint activities that facilitate positive student–teacher relationship development and school connectedness are essential determinants for navigating school transitional periods for adolescents and protective factors against school dropout, delinquency, and school violence (Eccles & Roeser, 2011).

Parent Component

Parents are critical partners in behavioral health interventions given their ability to support generalization of treatment strategies in the home (Haine-Schlagel & Walsh, 2015). However, families—particularly economically disadvantaged households—face numerous barriers to engaging fully with such interventions and other family–school partnership strategies (Murray et al., 2014). Suboptimal parent engagement rates have been observed in past implementations of Coping Power, particularly in middle schools (Ellis et al., 2013; Lochman et al., 2006). For CPIC, our initial intent was to form groups of parents and conduct a series of 12 parent-focused sessions co-led by the same group leaders from the youth sessions. Our efforts to engage caregivers of the ninth graders in the CPIC parent component included providing food, offering childcare for younger siblings, adjusting timing and meeting locations, and executing reminder calls and emails about sessions.

Despite these efforts, parent attendance for sessions was low and largely concentrated within a small subset of parents. Because parent involvement in the intervention is an underlying principle of the Coping Power model, we adopted a novel approach for delivering the CPIC parent content: using a text message “nudge” engagement strategy. Research on a technological enhancement to Coping Power suggests that parent engagement with the technological enhancement was associated with reductions in youth conduct problems (Lochman et al., 2017). The goal of the nudge in the current study was to enable parents to reinforce key content delivered in the youth group sessions. Parents received a text message with a corresponding infographic after each of the 16 youth group sessions. Each infographic not only provided information, but contained a behavioral nudge with prompts for discussion and parent-led activities related to content covered in the youth sessions. Parents also received prompts to review goal-setting sheets with their youth.

Teacher Component

This component included school-level professional development training on principles of Coping Power for the entire teaching staff at partnering schools during in-service training days. It also included regular consultation with focal teachers who volunteered to serve as “goal advocates,” which entailed meeting weekly with intervention students to suggest individual behavioral goals and monitor progress toward their attainment. Group leaders met periodically with goal advocate teachers to discuss the progress of the student group members, disseminated handouts summarizing content and activities covered in group sessions, and provided recommendations for behavior management. Each aspect of the teacher component was designed to enhance students’ socioemotional wellbeing and social competence by facilitating their emerging self-regulation skills, social problem solving through conflict management strategies involving peer negotiation, and teacher use of proactive classroom management methods (see Lochman & Wells, 2003).

School Police Component

This component was designed to build on the competencies of the participating school district’s school police force and their service to youth in the public high schools. CPIC provided a three-part training series, drawing upon a combination of research and evidence-based practice approaches to promoting the officers’ knowledge and skills related to working effectively with adolescents in urban schools. These included trainings in the following: (a) Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA; Kitchener & Jorm, 2009), (b) threat assessment and related de-escalation techniques in schools (Cornell et al., 2009); and (c) racial literacy training in the context of serving and building positive relationships with urban African American adolescents (Stevenson, 2014).

The project arranged for a YMHFA course for all school police officers. This 8-hr training introduced officers to common mental health challenges for youth, reviewed typical adolescent development, and taught a five-step action plan for how to help young people in both crisis and noncrisis situations. The second event was an 8-hr training on threat assessment and verbal de-escalation techniques to develop the officers’ skills in assessing transient or actual threats of school violence and in preventing behavioral escalations in encounters with youth. The third training was a 6-hr workshop comprising didactic, experiential, and youth-integrated activities to promote officer’s responsiveness and sensitivity to urban adolescent development and encourage positive student–police relationships. As part of this experience, officers were challenged on their attitudes, knowledge, and responses to cultural and contextual factors impacting urban youth, specifically the effects of racial stress (see Bottiani et al., 2020).

All trainings were offered to the entire partnering school police force, took place on the campus of one of the CPIC partnering institutions, and were facilitated by CPIC staff and invited external experts in the fields of education, psychology, and/or law enforcement. Attendees also included academic research partners, invited school district leaders, and community stakeholders, in an effort to enrich the officers’ professional development experience with diverse perspectives on serving the needs of youth and to foster interdisciplinary discourse and collaboration.

For additional information on the CPIC components or their development, contact the corresponding author.

Method

In the following sections, we summarize data on the baseline characteristics of the 514 youth participating in the CPIC randomized controlled trial in the 10 urban high schools. We also describe the screening process that determined eligibility for inclusion in the recruitment sample. We provide sample demographics and baseline student and teacher ratings of youths’ behavior problems and adaptive strengths. These data are intended to inform future research on CPIC and other youth violence prevention programming in urban high schools.

Procedure

Sample of Schools

A randomized controlled trial design was used with 10 urban high schools in the Mid-Atlantic region. In the 2017–18 school year, the 10 schools had enrollment rates ranging from approximately 400 to 1600 students, with an average enrollment rate of 943 students. Students at these schools were predominately African American (i.e., 70%–98%) and an average of 56% of students received free/reduced-priced meals. School-level attendance rates ranged from 61% to 94% across schools. Out-of-school suspensions ranged from approximately 1% to 28%, with half of the schools reporting that 14% or more of their students were suspended during the 2017–18 school year. The racial and ethnic composition of the participating district’s school police force during the 2017–18 school year included 107 African American/non-Hispanic officers and six European American officers. All school police officers assigned to the participating schools (n = 10) identified as African American/non-Hispanic.

Recruitment and Data Collection

The 10 participating high schools were identified and approached for recruitment by the school district. Administrators voluntarily consented to the project, and were informed in writing of all study procedures, including randomization of students to an intervention (CPIC) condition or a control. Specifically, half of the participating students within the 10 schools were randomly assigned to receive the CPIC intervention while the other half served as comparisons; random assignment was balanced within school, as the risk for contamination across condition was viewed as low, given the size of the schools and the fact that students exchange classrooms throughout the day. All data collection and intervention procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board at the participating university institutions and by the school board. All participation was voluntary. Youth provided written assent and parents/guardians provided written consent. Data were collected using a teacher screening procedure to determine eligibility; eligible youth were then consented and enrolled into the project and participated in three waves of data collection (fall pre-test, spring post-test, and spring 1-year follow-up). This article reports only baseline data because the study is ongoing.

Student Screening Procedure

We used teacher ratings to screen all students to determine eligibility for the study. Letters were sent home to caregivers to explain the screening procedures and to provide an opportunity to decline screening for their student. Ninth-grade teachers in participating high schools rated students’ aggressive behavior using a 6-item measure of reactive and proactive aggression on a 5-point scale ranging from never true to almost always true (Dodge et al., 1997). We set a cutoff score at nine to identify approximately 30% of ninth graders demonstrating the most acute aggressive behaviors across all classes within their schools (see Hill et al., 2004). Across all three study cohorts, we screened approximately 5,800 ninth graders. The initial pool of eligible students was approximately 35% of those screened. CPIC clinicians (i.e., master’s- or doctoral-level staff hired by the project) contacted the parents/guardians of these students to collect informed consent. The study team then performed randomization procedures, yielding 514 students enrolled in either the intervention or control conditions of the study. Participating ninth-grade students who completed baseline surveys had a mean age of 14.73 (SD = 0.74), 92% identified as African American, and 46% identified as male.

Measures

The Behavior Assessment System for Children–Second Edition (BASC-2; Adolescent [ages 12-21]; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004) was utilized as a multi-informant assessment of a youth’s behavioral and emotional difficulties and their adaptive strengths. Extensive research has documented the reliability and validity of the BASC-2 youth, parent, and teacher reports, including with sizable samples of African American and Latinx adolescents and their families (Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004). Our research team collected adolescent version of the BASC-2 Teacher Rating Scales at baseline, consisting of 10 clinical scales (aggression, anxiety, attention problems, atypicality, conduct problems, depression, hyperactivity, learning problems, somatization, and withdrawal) and five adaptive scales (adaptability, functional communication, leadership, social skills, and study skills). On the clinical scales, t scores of greater than 60 indicate “at-risk” level difficulties and t scores greater than 70 indicate clinically significant problems with impairment across multiple settings. For the adaptive scales, t scores lower than 40 suggest “at-risk” levels of adaptive skills and scores below 30 are indicative of a clinically significant deficit in adaptive skills. The homeroom or language arts teachers completed a teacher report of the BASC in reference to each student in the project at baseline. Teachers received a gift card for completion of the survey. Similarly, we collected at baseline the BASC-2 Adolescent Self-Report Survey, which consists of nine clinical scales (attention problems, atypicality, hyperactivity, locus of control, social stress, anxiety, depression, sense of inadequacy, and somatization), three school problems scales (attitude toward school, attitude toward teachers, and sensation seeking), and four personal adjustment scales (relationships with parents, interpersonal relations, self-esteem, and self-reliance). The t scores were scaled similarly to the teacher reports, as described above. Each school’s CPIC clinician administered the measure in a small group session. Items were read to students to ensure comprehension when necessary.

Analyses

We conducted descriptive analyses to characterize the sample in the current project. To contextualize the magnitude of the risks for African American males, we present data for this student population and for African American females. Specifically, we examined baseline differences in emotional and behavioral difficulties between male and female African American students. We also examined baseline differences in adaptive strengths between these two groups to elucidate the particular needs of African American male students and the potential relevance of CPIC in promoting positive behavioral outcomes for this population in urban high schools.

Results

Results of the baseline teacher BASC-2 assessment are presented in Figure 1, disaggregated by gender. Students were included if the responding teacher completed enough data for the calculation of a given scale score (n = 383–388). On average, there was approximately a two-point t-score difference between the African American male and female students on the teacher-reported BASC scales. The largest mean t-score differences between male and female students were noted on attention problems, hyperactivity, and study skills. African American males demonstrated higher mean t scores related to externalizing problems, notably on the attention problems and hyperactivity scales. Teachers also rated the male students lower on study skills compared to the female students.

Figure 1.

Behavior Assessment System for Children–Second Edition baseline teacher report scale t scores by student gender.

Results of the baseline student-report BASC-2 assessment are presented in Figure 2, disaggregated by gender. Students were included if they completed enough data for the calculation of a given scale score (n = 380–394). On average, average t scores on the self-report scales differed by about 1.5 points, suggesting similar levels of difficulty across scales for African American males and females. We found that the female students reported higher mean t scores for all clinical scales except sensation seeking; on this scale, African American males reported higher mean difficulties. Female students also reported lower mean t scores for all adaptive scales, with the exception of the relations to parent scale and the self-reliance scale. On these, the females reported higher mean strengths than the males. The greatest differences between African American male and female student t scores were on the internalizing scales related to depression, anxiety, and somatization. On these scales, the female students, on average, tended to report mean t scores that were 3.5–4.5 points higher than the male students’ scores, suggesting elevated internalizing problems among the African American females relative to the African American males.

Figure 2.

Behavior Assessment System for Children–Second Edition baseline student self-report t scores by student gender.

Discussion

Despite the increased risks faced by African American male youth in urban high schools, relatively few school-based prevention programs exist for this population, particularly programs that take the form of an indicated preventive-intervention. Similarly, only a handful of programs have been designed to address the complexity of issues and contextual risks faced by African American students, particularly males, attending schools in districts with high concentrations of economic disadvantage and community violence (Thomas & Stevenson, 2009; Thomas et al., 2011). A focus on ninth graders is also critical because the rates of interpersonal violence increase and reports of students’ connectedness to schools show marked decrease during this developmental transition to high school (Eccles & Roeser, 2011; Robers et al., 2013). Moreover, an increasing and disproportionate number of African American males experience school failure during this transitional school year and are at risk for entering the school-to-prison pipeline (Blad & Harwin, 2017). Another gap in the research is the lack of models focused on school-based police and their impact on youth (Bottiani et al., 2020; Flannery et al., 2019; James & McCallion, 2013).

In the current study, we built on the research-based Coping Power program, one of the few rigorously tested school-based programs currently available for youth demonstrating aggressive behavior (Lochman & Wells, 2002, 2003), and adapted it for use with a predominantly African American sample in urban high schools. We leveraged partnerships between school counselors, community stakeholders, and university-based researchers to help to mitigate the challenges that African American students in urban high schools confront through coordinated, contextually relevant implementation of CPIC to promote a range of positive outcomes for youth. Such partnerships to implement school-based violence prevention interventions have shown promise in reducing behavioral precipitants of violence and increasing prosocial behaviors for students (Thomas et al., 2011). The issue of partnership was particularly relevant in the participating school district because it had been deeply impacted by community violence, concentrated economic disadvantage, racial tensions, and community challenges with police. Such issues at the core of this community’s identity were critical to consider when implementing CPIC. As such, we applied a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach in adapting the program and designing the research study to demonstrate its impacts in urban high schools with a high proportion of African American students. Specifically, we focused on developing rapport and trust with the school system and school police. Consistent with principles of CBPR (see Israel et al., 2005), we also worked to share the decision making and summaries of the data collected with the school system and school leaders, in an effort to consistently engage them in CPIC from launch to dissemination of findings.

We leveraged partnerships between school counselors, community stakeholders, and university-based researchers to help to mitigate the challenges that African American students in urban high schools confront through coordinated, contextually relevant implementation of CPIC to promote a range of positive outcomes for youth.

Using this approach, we also contextually adapted the Coping Power program to try to address some of these local concerns. For example, we augmented the program to incorporate components not included in previous implementations for younger populations. We modified the content to be more culturally and developmentally relevant, based to some extent on input from African American students, school counselors, and other relevant stakeholders, and condensed it to be delivered over the course of 16 sessions, rather than the original 25 sessions.

With regard to training for school staff, we provided professional development workshops and client-centered case consultation with multiple teachers, given that high school students change classes and do not have a single classroom teacher. We also we modified the parent components using mobile phone text “nudges” in the form of emails/texts; these elements were intended to convey the program content to parents in an accessible format, to reinforce students’ acquisition of coping skills and promoting their generalizability outside of the school setting. Another novel element was the inclusion of the school police, featuring a three-part professional development training series. This component was particularly relevant for the urban school community context represented in the study and was intended to be responsive to corresponding local needs and challenges. However, it would likely be a helpful element for high schools in other public school districts varying in economic resources and contextual risks (e.g., suburban), where African American male students still face disproportionate challenges in schools compared to their White male counterparts and other groups of students (Moore et al., 2008).

Turning to some of the study’s empirical findings, although the screening process was largely focused on externalizing problems, which research shows are more prevalent among males (Kimonis et al., 2014), the sample was nearly evenly split between African American male and female students. Although we were chiefly concerned in this study with the needs of African American males, these findings suggest a high level of need for supports related to behavioral dysregulation among both the male and female students in these schools. This is a significant finding, given that students who exhibit externalizing problem behaviors (i.e., attention and conduct problems) are most likely to experience academic failure and discipline problems and to terminate schooling prematurely (Breslau et al., 2009). The baseline BASC data illustrated a high level of need in terms of supports for externalizing problems and adaptive-related needs, and also for co-occurring internalizing problems.

Although we were chiefly concerned in this study with the needs of African American males, these findings suggest a high level of need for supports related to behavioral dysregulation among both the male and female students in these schools.

These findings have implications for school counseling with African American male students, whose acting-out behaviors often mask actual affective disturbances, such as clinical depression, and whose internalizing symptoms (e.g., irritability, agitation) are often misinterpreted as conduct problems and go untreated and/or elicit unnecessary punitive responses (Lindsey et al., 2017). Interestingly, the self-reported BASC data suggested a slightly higher level of impairment among the African American female students in other areas of functioning relative to the male students. As such, while showing relevance for the African American males in the sample, CPIC appeared to also be reaching a broader range of African American students in great need of support.

Conclusions and Future Directions

Previous studies have demonstrated a range of positive effects for the Coping Power program on upper elementary school children (Lochman & Wells, 2003, 2004) and recent research shows similar promise for students in middle schools (Bradshaw et al., 2017). However, whether these effects also generalize to older adolescents is less clear. Ongoing research by our team is currently testing CPIC efficacy and results of that trial are forthcoming. We also intend to continue to track the clinical lessons learned that help optimize implementation of CPIC, with particular attention to issues of student engagement and increased school attendance. For example, given the high risk of the sample and the generally high rates of truancy and school dropout (Belfanz et al., 2015), issues of attendance at school also negatively impact session attendance; specifically, students who do not attend school cannot get access to the intervention. Thus, school attendance is critical not only for meeting educational goals but for opportunity to get exposure to CPIC. This is both a strength and limitation of a school-based approach for supporting a school district plagued with structural and systematic challenges. Nevertheless, this embedded preventive-intervention approach has some strengths as compared to an exclusively remedial, traditional school counseling approach, given the documented stigma, mistrust, and resistance associated with school counseling services for African American male students (Moore et al., 2008; Owens et al., 2010).

The active involvement of school counselors in the CPIC project, particularly in various aspects of intervention implementation, is noteworthy. The contributions from these stakeholders align with emergent themes from counseling education research on transformative processes contemporary school counselors must undertake to meet the particular needs of educationally vulnerable student populations, such as African American males (House & Sears, 2002; Moore et al., 2008). In their work, Moore et al. (2008) documented specific steps school counselors can take to support the academic, personal, and social development of African American male students. Among them was deploying teaming and collaboration efforts with teachers, other school service providers, and outside professionals to carry out culturally responsive school-based interventions to help improve school outcomes for African American males. Moore and colleagues also urged school counselors to take innovative measures to increase their visibility throughout the school and engage family members as part of their practices as means to building better rapport with African American male students and ensuring the generalizability of their gains from school counseling services. These are essential features of CPIC that deserve consideration for utilization with any future prevention programming with this population in urban high school settings.

The adaptation for parents of using the technology-based nudges is both innovative and potentially helpful in overcoming multifold barriers to engaging parents in school-based prevention efforts. The parent nudges are currently focused on disseminating content from the youth sessions, but additional nudges could be used in conjunction with conjoint group sessions or related services for parents, to increase their attendance in these services, reinforce content shared in the group sessions, and prompt them to practice acquired new skills.

The school police training is another point of innovation, and one worthy of further investigation for school service delivery efforts with African American male students. Recognition is growing of the importance of training opportunities for school police officers to enrich their understanding of the developmental and sociocultural needs of the students they serve and to enhance their repertoire of skills to respond appropriately to crises and noncrisis situations in schools (Wolff & McDevitt, 2008). This was an important focus in our study that informed the school police component and the content of training. We are currently piloting additional programming to further engage our school police partners in the actual group sessions and supplemental professional development opportunities that include elements of mindfulness-based stress reduction for school police to address their own work-related stress and risk for professional burnout.

Taken together, the community partnership approach used to adapt the CPIC program to meet the cultural, contextual, and developmental needs of high schoolers in predominantly African American urban communities appears promising. Although we cannot yet determine impacts of CPIC on youth outcomes, we remain mindful of the unique challenges school counselors face in reaching urban African American male students and the potential for positive youth development and school engagement that could be realized through this multicomponent effort. Ongoing research on CPIC is aimed at exploring these issues further, which, in turn, may inform the future use of this intervention model by school counselors and their utilization of other school-based interventions aimed at supporting African American males.

Footnotes

Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge Angela Holland for her invaluable management and assistance with multiple aspects of this research project. We also thank Tyrell Brown, William Howard, Janay Jacobs, Melvin Jews, George Leary, and Sharon Pendergrass for their technical assistance and other important contributions to clinical and research activities in participating schools. We extend our special gratitude to John Lochman at the University of Alabama for his invaluable insights, guidance, and support with the development of this research project.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article: This study was supported by Grant #2015-CK-BX-0023, awarded from the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice.

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