Educational Entertainment as an Intervention with Adolescents Exposed to Community Violence

Background: Violence is often part of life in impoverished Black communities. Youth with higher violence avoidance self-efficacy and positive coping strategies are better able to avoid violence than those without these skills. Using edutainment, e.g. dramatic presentation followed by group discussion, is one intervention that has shown success in increasing self-efficacy and coping strategies. Methods: This quasi-experimental research, examined the impact of live dramatic presentation about violence followed by group discussion, as an intervention with Black adolescents exposed to community violence as compared to group discussion only and no intervention. Self-administered scales were used to measure the concepts: stress, anxiety, violence avoidance self-efficacy and coping strategies. Data were collected pre and 9 days post intervention/no intervention from 19 subjects receiving the edutainment intervention, 20 subjects participating in a group discussion about violence, and 21 subjects receiving no intervention (N = 60). Analysis: Univariate descriptive statistics and ANOVA were conducted to determine comparability of the groups. ANOVA was conducted to determine differences in outcomes among the interventions and regression analysis was undertaken to assess mediator effects of violence avoidance self-efficacy on outcomes. Results: Edutainment and no intervention were more effective than group discussion alone in increasing violence avoidance self-efficacy. Although self-efficacy was not found to be a mediator in the relationship between edutainment nor group discussion/no intervention and outcomes, it was found to have an intervening relationship between edutainment and the outcome of stress. This study indicates limited but positive effects for edutainment. Clinical implications, limitations and further research are discussed