Support Materials for Appplicants for SSE

CDC-RFA-PS13-1308 Applicant Support Materials

Safe and Supportive Environments for All Students and Staff (SSE)

Rationale:
Adolescents spend a large proportion of their day in school or involved in school-related activities.
Although the main purpose of school is to help students develop academically, the school environment
influences students’ social, emotional, and ethical development as well as their physical and mental
health and safety. For students at heightened risk of HIV/STD, such as young men who have sex with
men (YMSM), the school environment is an especially important factor in keeping them healthy and
engaged. The school environment is shaped by district and school policies and practices; school
structure and decision-making processes; and classroom factors, such as teachers’ classroom
management methods, curricular tasks, and peer-peer/teacher-student relationships.1
Promoting and providing a learning environment in which all students and staff can expect to feel safe
and supported is an essential function of schools.2 Research shows that safe and supportive school
environments are associated with improved education and health outcomes, including sexual health
outcomes, for all students3, and are especially important for those students at disproportionate risk of
HIV/STD, such as YMSM, who often experience increased victimization5,6. Several approaches to
promoting a safe and supportive school environment include a) enhancing safety by preventing
bullying and sexual harassment; b) promoting school connectedness; and c) promoting parent
engagement.
Research on prevention of school-based bullying and harassment has identified promising practices
such as implementing and enforcing a school-wide anti-bullying and harassment policy; improving the
supervision of students; and using school rules and behavior management techniques in the classroom
as ways to keep students safe.7 Research shows that supportive schools foster positive attitudes,
prosocial attitudes and behaviors, and positive health behaviors and outcomes by promoting parent
engagement in schools and students’ sense of connectedness during the school day.8-10
School connectedness and parent engagement in schools have been identified as promising protective
factors for adolescent sexual and reproductive health risk behaviors and outcomes, including ever had
sex, early sexual debut, frequency of sex, and pregnancy/birth.4,9,10 In addition, when students find
their school environment to be supportive and caring and their parents engaged in their school lives,
they are less likely to become involved in substance abuse, violence, and other problem behaviors3,10,11
that are associated with HIV and STD risk.12,13
Definitions:
1. School Environment: The overall school climate (including educational, cultural, social,
professional, and physical circumstances or conditions; staffing attributes; and schoolcommunity programs) that can affect student and staff safety and health.14
2. School Safety: Refers to the security of the school setting and school-related activities as
perceived and experienced by all stakeholders, including families, caregivers, students, school

CDC-RFA-PS13-1308 Applicant Support Materials

staff, and the community. School safety encompasses both emotional and physical safety, and
is influenced by positive and negative behaviors of students and staff as well as the presence of
substance use in the school setting and during school-related activities.15
3. School Engagement: A process of events and opportunities that lead to students gaining the
skills and confidence to cope and feel safe in the school environment. These events and
opportunities include relationships, respect for diversity, and school participation.16
4. Bullying: “Attack or intimidation with the intention to cause fear, distress, or harm; a real or
perceived imbalance of power between the bully and the victim; and repeated attacks or
intimidation between the same children over time. Bullying can include aggression that is
physical (hitting, tripping), verbal (name calling, teasing), or psychological/social (spreading
rumors, leaving out of group).”17
5. Electronic aggression: “Bullying that occurs through e-mail, a chat room, instant messaging, a
Web site, text messaging, or videos or pictures posted on websites or sent through cell
phones.”18
6. Harassment: Threatening, harmful, or humiliating conduct based on race, color, national origin,
sex, religion, or disability. Harassment may result in a hostile environment that interferes or
limits a student’s ability to participate in or benefit from the services, activities, or opportunities
offered by a school. Harassment, unlike bullying, does not have to include intent by the
perpetrator to harm, be directed at a specific person, or involve repeated incidents. 19
7. Sexual harassment: “Unwanted and unwelcome advances of a sexual nature. It could be a
touch, written note, joke, picture, etc. It can be intentional or unintentional.”20
8. School connectedness: “The belief held by students that adults and peers in the school care
about their learning as well as about them as individuals.”21
9. Parent engagement in schools: “Parents and school staff working together to support and
improve the learning, development, and health of children and adolescents.”22
10. Prosocial behaviors: Positive actions that benefit others, prompted by empathy, moral values,
and a sense of personal responsibility rather than a desire for personal gain.23
11. Mentoring: “Matches youth or “mentees” with responsible, caring “mentors,” usually adults…
Components of a mentoring relationship include creating caring, empathetic, consistent, and
long-lasting relationships, often with some combination of role modeling, teaching, and
advising.”24
12. Service learning: “Strategy that integrates meaningful community service with instruction and
self-reflection to support academic learning, teach civic responsibility, and strengthen
communities.”25

CDC-RFA-PS13-1308 Applicant Support Materials

Resources:
Safety
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Understanding Bullying
http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pdf/BullyingFactsheet2012-a.pdf
Electronic Media and Youth Violence: A CDC Issue Brief for Educators and Caregivers
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/EA-brief-a.pdf
Technology and Youth: Protecting your Child from Electronic Aggression
http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/EA-TipSheet-a.pdf
Protecting Students from Harassment and Hate Crime
http://www2.ed.gov/offices/OCR/archives/Harassment/harassment.pdf
Sexual Harassment: It's Not Academic
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/ocrshpam.pdf

School Connectedness
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School Connectedness: Strategies for Increasing Protective Factors Among Youth
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/adolescenthealth/pdf/connectedness.pdf
Fostering School Connectedness Staff Development Program
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/adolescenthealth/pdf/connectedness_facilitator_guide.pdf

Parent Engagement
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Parent Engagement: Strategies for Involving Parents in School Health
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/adolescenthealth/pdf/parent_engagement_strategies.pdf
Facilitator’s Guide for Staff Development on Promoting Parent Engagement in School Health
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/adolescenthealth/pdf/parentengagement_facilitator_guide.
pdf

References:
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Roeser RW, Urdan TC, Stephens JM. School as a context of student motivation and achievement. In: Wentzel K,
Wigfield A, editors. Handbook of Motivation at School. New York: Routledge; 2009:381–410.
U.S. Department of Education. Safe Supportive Learning. U.S. Department of Education Web site. Available at
http://safesupportiveschools.ed.gov/index.php?id=01.
Hawkins JD, Catalano RF, Kosterman R, Abbott R, Hill KG. Preventing adolescent health-risk behaviors by
strengthening protection during childhood. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 1999;153:226–234.
Markham CM, Lormand D, Gloppen KM, Peskin MF, Flores B, Low B, et al. Connectedness as a predictor of sexual
and reproductive health outcomes for youth. Journal of Adolescent Health 2010;46(3 Suppl):S23–41.
CDC. Sexual identity, sex of sexual contacts, and health-risk behaviors among students in grades 9-12—youth risk
behavior surveillance, selected sites, United States, 2001–2009. MMWR Early Release 2011;60[June 6]:1–133.
Available at http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/pdf/ss/ss60e0606.pdf.
Espelage DL, Aragon SR, Birkett M, Koenig BW. Homophobic teasing, psychological outcomes, and sexual
orientation among high school students: what influence do parents and schools have? School Psychology Review
2008;37(2):202–216.
Farrington DP, Ttofi MM. School-based programs to reduce bullying and victimization. Systematic review for The
Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice Group; 2010. National Criminal Justice Reference Service Web site.
Available at www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/229377.pdf.

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Epstein JL. School, Family, and Community Partnerships: Preparing Educators and Improving Schools Second
Edition. Boulder, CO: Westview Press; 2011.
Guilamo-Ramos V, Jaccard J, Dittus P, Bouris A, Gonzalez B, Casillas E,et al. A comparative study of interventions
for delaying the initiation of sexual intercourse among Latino and Black Youth. Perspectives on Sexual and
Reproductive Health 2011;43(4):247–254.
Resnick MD, Bearman PS, Blum RW, Bauman KE, Harris KM, Jones J, et al. Protecting adolescents from harm.
Findings from the National Longitudinal Study on Adolescent Health. Journal of the American Medical Association
1997;278(10):823–832.
Battistich V, Hom A. The relationship between students' sense of their school as a community and their
involvement in problem behaviors. American Journal of Public Health 1997;87:1997–2001.
Van Tieu H, Koblin BA. HIV, alcohol, and noninjection drug use. Current Opinion in HIV/AIDS 2009;4(4):314–318.
Maman S, Campbell J, Sweat MD, Gielen AC. The intersections of HIV and violence: directions for future research
and interventions. Social Science and Medicine 2000;50(4):459–478.
U.S. Department of Education. School Environment. U.S. Department of Education Web site. Available at
http://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/index.php?id=36, and Roeser RW, Urdan TC, Stephens JM. School as a
context of student motivation and achievement. In: Wentzel KR, Wigfield A, editors. Handbook of Motivation at
School. New York: Routledge; 2009:381–410.
U. S. Department of Education. School Safety. U.S. Department of Education Web site. Available at
http://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/index.php?id=37
U. S. Department of Education. School Engagement. U.S. Department of Education Web site. Available at
http://safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/index.php?id=34.
Farrington DP, Ttofi MM. School-based programs to reduce bullying and victimization. Systematic review for The
Campbell Collaboration Crime and Justice Group; 2010. Available at
www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/229377.pdf.
David-Ferdon C, Hertz MF. Electronic Media and Youth Violence: A CDC Issue Brief for Researchers. Atlanta (GA):
Centers for Disease Control; 2009. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/pub/EA-brief.html.
U.S. Department of Education. Dear Colleague Letter: Harassment and Bullying. U.S. Department of Education Web
site. Available at http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-201010.pdf.
CDC. Sexual Harassment. CDC Office of Diversity Management and Equal Employment Opportunity (ODMEEO)
Web site. Available at http://www.cdc.gov/diversity/faqs/discrimination.htm
CDC. School Connectedness: Strategies for Increasing Protective Factors Among Youth. Atlanta, GA: U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services; 2009. Available at
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/adolescenthealth/connectedness.htm
CDC. Parent Engagement: Strategies for Involving Parents in School Health. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services; 2012. Available at
http://www.cdc.gov/healthyyouth/adolescenthealth/parent_engagement.htm
Gavin LE, Catalano RF, Markham, CM. Positive youth development as a strategy to promote adolescent sexual and
reproductive health. 2010. Journal of Adolescent Health, 46(3 Supplement): S1–S6.
Find Youth Info. Mentoring. Find Youth Info Web site. Available at http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/youthtopics/mentoring, and DuBois DL, Doolittle F, Yates BT, Silverthorn N, Tebes JK. Research methodology and youth
mentoring. 2006. Journal of Community Psychology, 34(6): 657-676.
Find Youth Info. Service Learning. Find Youth Info Web site. Available at http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/youthtopics/service-learning.