1. Children who receive intervention programs throughout the elementary school years are less likely to engage in a number of dangerous or unhealthy activities when they are 18. A package of interventions targeted at teachers, parents and children reduced participants' levels of violent behavior, heavy drinking and sexual intercourse. In addition, the children who received the intervention performed better in school.¹ 
  2. Teenagers feel safer and more at home in smaller schools with even-handed discipline policies and teachers who can maintain control. Studies show that "school connectedness" -- the feeling that students are part of a school and cared for -- is important in helping to protect teenagers from violent behavior, drug use, depression, suicide and pregnancy.² 
  3. Teenagers who watch more than an hour of television a day during early adolescence are more likely to be violent in later years. The rate of violence, including assaults, fights and robberies, increases dramatically if daily TV time exceeds three hours.³

¹ According to a 1999 study by University of Washington. Contact David Hawkins, jdh@u.washington.edu.

² Based on the surveys from the University of North Carolina's National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, given 1994-95.

³ According to a recent study by researcher Jeffrey G. Johnson of Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. The study involved 700 people over a period of 17 years.