主要研究 今天

A new National Science Foundation grant will help 主要研究 researchers launch a violence prevention solution for high school students that addresses relationship violence, 欺凌, 骚扰等等. 有了548,000美元的资助，主要研究的 预防创新研究中心 将推出和试点uSafeHS™, 一个全面的, 商业上可行的高中暴力预防和安全应用程序.

The app draws on PIRC’s extensive research into evidence-based measures to end relationship violence and builds upon the success of its uSafeUS® 大学生手机应用. 目前在24所高校使用, uSafeUS®广受好评, but “feedback from colleges consistently told us that we needed to help students learn healthy behaviors earlier,莎琳·波特说, professor of women’s and gender studies and executive director of research for PIRC.

“学生们每天都有问题, so uSafeHS is with them 24-7 in a form students are most comfortable with — their phones.”

去年，这个原型在七所高中进行了试点, uSafeHS™ addresses the five most common types of high school violence: hazing, 欺凌, 性骚扰和身份骚扰, 还有青少年约会和性侵犯. 研究表明，这些消极行为, 有时被认为是“成长的一部分”,” affect more than their victims; if unchecked, 它们会随着时间的推移而升级, putting an entire school community at risk for more serious forms of school violence.

“Students often don’t know what to do when faced with behaviors like 欺凌,波特说。. Microlearning modules in the app, based on a social emotional learning framework identified by the 学术、社会和情感学习协作(CASEL), teach students how to respond safely, build positive relationships, and practice self-care. 学习是游戏化的，以保持学生的参与.

这款应用还包括“离开时间”, an innovative feature of the college-focused uSafeUS® app that lets users send themselves a fake text or call, 给他们一个离开不舒服环境的理由. 除了, uSafeHS™为学生和高中管理人员提供了广泛的应用, easily customizable school resources and research-informed sources of information, 包括一条机密的举报热线, 哪个是美国?.S. Department of Justice deems a best practice for preventing school violence. An administrator dashboard gives schools insights into how students are using the app with analytics, helps them manage tips and enables them to send push notifications directly to student cellphones, 为学校提供额外的沟通渠道.

This is PIRC’s second NSF grant for this initiative; the first enabled the team to extensively research requirements and to build and test the prototype. 这项为期三年的拨款, they’ll take the app into 40 schools with the ultimate goal of widespread distribution and commercialization.

The app can be used both in the classroom to reinforce social and emotional learning as well as outside of school, to help students find evidence-based support and assistance even when there are no school staff nearby. “学生们每天都有问题, so uSafeHS is with them 24-7 in a form students are most comfortable with — their phones,波特说。.

除了波特, the all-female team from PIRC includes postdoctoral researcher Eliza贝丝 Moschella; Michelle Lynch, director of technology product development and marketing; and project and customer coordinator Laurie Dawe. 该团队与开发者Jonathan Shallow合作, 现任主要研究研究生和讲师, 和T.J. 他还设计和开发了uSafeUS®应用程序. 在下一个发展阶段, Potter’s team will partner with faculty and graduate students at Johnson C. 史密斯大学是北卡罗来纳州一所历史悠久的黑人大学.