Dr. Rashmi Shetgiri has published a new study examining the perspectives of parents on adolescent fighting and prevention. The new study, entitled “African-American and Latino Parents’ Attitudes and Beliefs Regarding Adolescent Fighting and Its Prevention” has been published in the Journal of Child and Family Studies. In it, Dr. Shetgiri and her colleagues have findings which suggest “that youth violence-prevention programs may benefit from addressing parental attitudes towards fighting and parent–child communication about fighting, teaching adolescents non-violent conflict-resolution skills, and tailoring programs by race and ethnicity.”
Dr. Shetgiri’s research focuses on bullying and violence prevention among children and adolescents. She conducts health services research and community-based research to address racial/ethnic disparities in child health and to improve the health of Latino children. She also collaborates on research to examine the impact of language and cultural issues on children’s health.
Dr. Shetgiri told Science 2.0 that the risk of serious injury and even death when physical altercations among adolescents happen was the impetus for the researcher’s search to find ways to prevent such physical altercations.
“Most violence prevention programs,” she says, “focus on school-based interventions with little involvement of families.” Their research suggests that it is critical to involve the families, especially parents, when trying to prevent adolescents from fighting.