| Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) |
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Program Overview
This universal, multidimensional intervention decreases
juveniles’ problem behaviors by working with parents,
teachers, and children. It incorporates both social
control and social learning theories and intervenes
early in children’s development to increase prosocial
bonds, strengthen attachment and commitment to schools,
and decrease delinquency.
Program Targets
The Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) can be used
for the general population and high-risk children (those
with low socioeconomic status and low school achievement)
attending grade school and middle school.
Program Content
SSDP’s success lies in its combination of parent
and teacher training. Teachers receive instruction that
emphasizes proactive classroom management, interactive
teaching, and cooperative learning. When implemented,
these techniques minimize classroom disturbances by
establishing clear rules and rewards for compliance;
increase children’s academic performance; and
allow students to work in small, heterogeneous groups
to increase their social skills and contact with prosocial
peers. In addition, first-grade teachers teach communication,
decision-making, negotiation, and conflict resolution
skills; and sixth-grade teachers present refusal skills
training.
Parents receive optional training programs throughout
their children’s schooling.
- When children are in 1st and 2nd grade, 7 sessions
of family management training help parents monitor
children and provide appropriate and consistent discipline.
- When children are in 2nd and 3rd grade, 4 sessions
encourage parents to improve communication between
themselves, teachers, and students; create positive
home learning environments; help their children develop
reading and math skills, and support their children’s
academic progress.
- When children are in 5th and 6th grade, 5 sessions
help parents create family positions on drugs and
encourage children’s resistance skills.
Program Outcomes
Evaluations have demonstrated that the Project improves
school performance, family relationships, and student
drug/alcohol involvement at various grades.
At the end of grade 2, Project students, compared to
control students, showed:
- Lower levels of aggression and antisocial, externalizing
behaviors for white males, and
- Lower levels of self-destructive behaviors for
white females.
At the beginning of grade 5, Project students, compared
to control students, had:
- Less alcohol and delinquency initiation;
- Increases in family management practices, communication,
and attachment to family; and
- More attachment and commitment to school.
At the end of grade 6, high-risk youth, compared to
control youth, were:
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more attached and committed to school, and
- boys were less involved with antisocial peers.
At the end of grade 11, Project students, compared
to control students, showed:
- Reduced involvement in violent delinquency and
sexual activity, and
- Reductions in being drunk and in drinking and driving.
