To develop procedures for the evaluation of nonviolence training effectiveness with participants who are traffic offenders.
Highway
Nonviolence training is offered at URI as a form of community service for some persons convicted of traffic offenses. A means of evaluating the effectiveness of such training is needed. This project will develop an evaluation procedure for use before training (pretest), immediately after training (posttest), and at followup intervals. The evaluation will focus on attitudes, behavior intentions, and actual behavior, and allow measurement of changes attributable to the training. The overall goal of the project is to improve the application of this kind of nonviolence training for traffic offenders, and so help to put safer drivers back on the road.
A four-part questionnaire is being developed to measure attitudes and behavioral intentions before training and after training. The questionnaire will be incorporated into nonviolence training programs and results will be analyzed, interpreted and reported. The results will be disseminated through publications and presentations to the URITC and outside sponsors.
Fall 2004 - Drafts and revision of questionnaire
Spring 2005 - Collection and analysis of data with offender training group and comparison groups (student teachers, etc)
$7,086.00 ($7,086.00 Yearly)
Three undergraduate students will be participant observers in the training. They have previously taken a seminar in the psychology of violence and nonviolence. This project will provide advanced study of an application of nonviolence training. Students will be able to assist with training delivery and data analysis.
This is one of three pretest-posttest evaluation projects being carried out this year. The other two involve groups of student teachers in URI's School of Education, and high school students at Central High in Providence. These projects are part of an ongoing program aimed at improving nonviolence training by finding out what works and how.
Scholarly papers, conference presentations, reports to sponsors, and on-campus talks will be used to disseminate the findings.
By finding out how to deliver effective nonviolence training, we hope to put safer drivers back on the road following traffic offenses.
Aggressive driving, driver safety, driver training, sentencing options, nonviolence, attitude change