THE ROLE OF VIOLENCE IN THE LIVES OF YOUTH PREPARING FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING

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THE ROLE OF VIOLENCE IN THE LIVES OF YOUTH
PREPARING FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING
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The Role of Violence in the Lives of Youth
Preparing for Independent LivingActivity Overview

• Understand how violence impacts the brain.
• Describe how violently traumatized youth respond
  to stressful situations.
• Describe strategies to assist violently
  traumatized youth with behavior management,
  learning and planning.
• Implement a cognitive learning approach to anger
  management.

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The HOME is the most VIOLENT place in America
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Family Violence Statistics

• A 1995 FBI report showed 27 of all violent crime
  involves family-on-family violence.
• 48 involved acquaintances with the violence
  occurring in the home.
• Intrafamilial abuse, neglect, and domestic
  battery account for majority of physical and
  emotional violence suffered by children in this
  country.
• Approximately less than 5 of all domestic
  violence results in a criminal report.

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How The Cat Gets Kicked

• Men commit most violence against men
• Men commit most violence against women
• Women commit most violence against children
• Most violence committed by children is against
  other children
• Children commit most violence against pets
  (children kill more cats than dogs do)

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Many of our youth grew up in situations with a
pervasive threat or reality of violence. They
attempted to adapt through emotional, behavioral,
cognitive, social and physiological functioning.
Many lived in incubators of terror.

• What was the impact on them?

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The brains of traumatized youth become
hyper-vigilant, focusing on non-verbal cues of
possible threat. They are in a persistent state
of arousal and anxiety.
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STATES OF ADAPTATION TO THREAT
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What behaviors would we see in youth at the FEAR
AND TERROR end of the continuum?

• How do we usually respond to these behaviors in
  youth preparing for independent living?

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• Rather than understand the behavior as
  fear -based, adults often respond to the violence
  by becoming more angry more demanding
• The youth, over-reading non-verbal cues of a
  frustrated angry adult, feels even more
  threatened moves from alarm to fear to terror.
• The youth may enter a mini psychotic
  regression or highly combative state.
• This behavior is actually the youths attempt to
  adapt respond to a perceived threat.

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When working with violently traumatized youth we
must create safe, calm environments.
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How would traumatized youth in high states of
arousal respond to our attempts to work with them
to prepare them for independent living?
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Challenges for helping violently traumatized
youth to manage their impulsive behavior

• Immediate reward is most reinforcing.
• Delayed gratification is ineffective.
• Consequences of behavior are difficult to
  conceive.
• Reflecting on impulsive/violent behavior not
  possible for youth in an alarm state.
• Aroused youth are cut off from internal
  regulating and respond reflexively to any
  perceived threat.

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Implications for learning for violently
traumatized youth preparing for IL

• The brain stores retrieves information in a
  state- dependent fashion.
• Violently traumatized youth in an arousal state
  must have a learning process that responds to
  this state.
• These youth focus on non-verbals and struggle to
  process and store verbal information.

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Implications for planning with traumatized youth
in high states of arousal

• Only calm youth can think in terms of a long
  range future.
• Youth in states of arousal, alarm, fear can
  only think in terms of days, hours, minutes
  seconds.
• Youth in a state of terror may have lost any
  sense of time.

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Strategies for working with violently traumatized
youth in arousal states

• Divide into 3 small groups Behavior Management,
  Learning Planning
• Review the implications for your group
• Describe at least 4 creative strategies that
  would respond to the implications for violently
  traumatized youth preparing for IL for your
  assigned area
• Be prepared to report to the large group

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Sogiven what weve discussed so far about
violence, can we safely assume that for most
youth violence is a learned behavior?
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If many of our youth learned to use violence as
their primary tool for meeting their needs and
solving their problems, what alternative tools
and skills do they need to meet their needs and
solve their problems without violence?
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Psychological Skills Training

• Is based on the belief that antisocial and
  aggressive behavior is learned..that youth who
  learned these behaviors need a structured
  approach to learn pro-social and anger management
  skills through modeling, behavioral rehearsal and
  reinforcement.
• The approach was developed refined in juvenile
  facilities by Arnold Goldstein.

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Psychological Skills Training

• Social Skills Training
• Anger Management
• Moral Development

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All skills training for violent and traumatized
youth should involve repeated

• Modeling
• Role playing
• Performance Feedback (from both youth and
  staff)
• Transfer of learning and opportunities to
  generalize it outside the class or training

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Think about the last time you were so angry that
you lost control of yourself and completeTHE
LAST TIME I LOST IT!
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Anger Control Training Can Be Done In A Group Or
Individual Basis Using The Following

• Modeling, Role Playing Performance Feedback
• Situations from youths life where they became
  overwhelmed by their anger
• A progressive sequential
  building of skills coping strategies
• A Hassle Log

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Anger control training utilizes an ABC approach
combined with cognitive learning process
A

• Antecedent. What was going on before the
  incident?
• Behavior. What was the youths behavior in
  response to the antecedent?
• Consequence. What was the result of the
  behavior?

B
C
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ANGER CONTROL TRAINING
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Demonstrating Anger Control Training

• Review the process for your assigned aspect of
  anger control training.
• Plan a 5 minute demonstration/ simulation of your
  assigned aspect of anger control training.
• Involve all members of your group.
• You have 5 10 minutes to plan your
  presentation.
• Trainers will be available for assistance.

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Its SHOWTIME!
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Summary

• The impact of violent experiences on brain
  functioning has implications for behaviors,
  learning and planning for independent living.
• Violence is often a learned behavior which has
  implications for how best to manage violent youth
  preparing to leave care.
• Violent youth preparing for independent living
  may benefit from a cognitive anger control
  training program that uses triggers, cues, self
  talk and stress management.