Introduction to the Special Issue of Behavioral Disorders: Serving the Needs of Youth with Disabilities through School-Based Violence Prevention Efforts

* A large literature exists on the prevalence, correlates, predictors, and outcomes of peer victimization and aggression; however, relatively few studies have focused on the experiences of youth with disabilities. Involvement in peer-based aggression, as either a victim or a perpetrator, is unfortunately commonplace with among school-age youth (Waasdorp, Bradshaw, & Duong, 2011). Several studies suggest that youth with disabilities may experience higher rates of peer victimization than their typically developing classmates and, in some cases, engage in higher rates of aggression (Rose, Monda-Amaya, & Espelage, 201 1 ). These statistics are concerning, as both experiencing victimization and perpetrating aggression (e.g., relational, verbal, or physical) in peer contexts are positively linked with difficulties related to academic achievement (Buhs, Ladd, & Herald, 2006) and adjustment (Bradshaw, O'Brennan, & Sawyer, 2008; Farrington, Loeber, Stallings, & Ttofi, 2011; Hawker & Boulton, 2000; Sullivan, Farrell, & Kliewer, 2006). Thus, the increased risk for violence exposure in peer contexts (especially as victims) among youth with disabilities and associated negative consequences highlight the need for prevention efforts that effectively serve the needs of youth with disabilities.School-based youth violence prevention efforts may be particularly relevant for youth with disabilities. Schools represent a primary context for social development and provide natural opportunities for students to practice and be reinforced for using skills taught by violence prevention programs. A number of school-based youth violence prevention programs focus on individual-level skill building to enhance social, emotional, and behavioral competencies. This focus is especially relevant, as one potential issue that has been proposed to explain higher rates of involvement in peer-based victimization and sometimes aggression among youth with disabilities is challenges in social skill areas that may stem from difficulties in attention and focus, emotion regulation, and social information-processing (Rose et al., 2011). Youth violence prevention efforts that engage school staff (e.g., teachers and guidance counselors) and parents to learn and deliver program components may be of further benefit to youth with disabilities, as these youth may depend on school staff and parent support in academic and social areas to a greater degree than do their typically developing peers (Waasdorp et al., 201 1). Overall, the general areas of focus (e.g., on social, emotional, and behavioral competencies) and specific avenues of offering support (e.g., via teachers, guidance counselors, and parents) within some youth violence prevention programs illustrate their potential benefit for youth with disabilities.For this special issue of Behavioral Disorders, we focus on three specific aims in an effort to inform the development, implementation, and/or evaluation of school-based youth violence prevention programs to better serve the needs of youth with disabilities. The first aim is to gain a more detailed understanding of the prevalence of peer-based victimization and aggression among youth with disabilities by addressing the degree to which the frequencies of these behaviors are differentially influenced by disability category. A second aim is to identify risk and protective processes for victimization and aggression for youth with disabilities across individual, peer, family, and school domains, as well as to consider the role of situational dynamics. Lastly, we seek to understand the impact of existing youth violence prevention programs on academic outcomes for youth with disabilities.Four articles in this special issue address the ways in which various risk and protective processes within individual, peer, family, and school domains, along with situational factors, may influence rates of peer-based victimization and aggression among youth with disabilities. …