Teaching Skills to Second and Third Grade Children to Prevent Gun Play: A Comparison of Procedures

A posttest only control group design was used to investigate the effects of two programs to teach firearm injury prevention skills to second and third grade children. Children were taught the safety skills "Stop. Don't touch. Leave the area. Tell an adult." should they ever find a firearm. The effectiveness of the National Rifle Association's Eddie Eagle GunSafe Program (Level Two) was compared to a Behavioral Skills Training (BST) procedure in reducing gunplay behaviors. Participants were trained according to either the Eddie Eagle program or the BST procedure in one session lasting forty-five minutes to an hour. Self-report, role-play, and in-situ assessments were used to determine the effects of each treatment. Those children not demonstrating the target skills at assessment received an additional in-situ training session and a second assessment. Findings showed that (a) both programs were successful in teaching children to verbally state the target behaviors as compared to the control group; (b) the Behavioral Skills Training program and the Eddie Eagle program were equally effective in teaching children to role-play the skills, and the Behavioral Skills Training group was superior to the control group; (c) there were no differences among any of the conditions in regards to measures of in-situ assessment; and (d) children in each group varied on the amount of in-situ training sessions needed before displaying the target behavior.