Research Press Publishers talked with Dr. Diane de Anda, the author of Violence Prevention for Adolescents: A Cognitive-Behavioral Program for Creating a Positive School Climate where you can listen to the complete podcast interview.
Interviewed by podcast host Elizabeth Hess, the author discussed the updated statistics on gun violence and expresses alarm as to why these numbers are so startling: “Statistics, as you watch them, are very frightening, because of the increase, especially in gun violence. In 2020, which was the latest available…there was a 14 percent increase from 2019; there was a 25 percent increase from five years previous and a 43 percent increase from 10 years previously.”
Dr. de Anda talks about how the Violence Preventions lessons are laid out in a way that makes each session easy to lead. The author stated “The leader’s manual is very explicit. Not only does it give directions, but you also actually have a script, and in addition to the script, on the side, are little icons which tell you exactly what is going on and the time frame to do it.”
During this fascinating interview, she talked about why working with this key demographic continues to be so important. “The problems that they have are quite gigantic in terms of family problems, and socio-economic problems. There are all kinds of issues involved that I always feel we have to intervene at this early stage if we have any hope for them and for society, as a whole.”
Author Dr. de Anda is a retired UCLA professor. She served as editor of the Journal of Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Social Work for twelve years, has edited four books dealing with issues related to ethnically diverse populations, and has published numerous articles in scholarly journals on issues of adolescent populations. Her bicultural background, as a third generation Latina, is often evident in her work. She operates her own website de Anda Bookshop at https://deandabookshop.com/
Click on the link to read de Anda’s updated statistics on gun violence: https://www.researchpress.com/product/violence-prevention-adolescents-2/