Talk-story: Perspectives of children, parents, and community leaders on community violence in rural Hawaii: Populations at risk across the lifespan: Empirical studies

Purpose: To enhance our understanding of what community violence means to a multiethnic school community in rural Hawaii and obtain people's perspectives of how to deal with and prevent violence-related behaviors among children. Design and sample: An exploratory design was used to collect qualitative data from a purposive sample of 150 key stakeholder participants, including 84 school children aged 5-10 years and 66 adults. Measurement: Focus group methodology via Hawaiian island-style (culturally adapted techniques) of "talk-story" and a metaphor of introduction were used to elicit contextual data on the experiences, meanings, and perceptions of youth violence. Qualitative narrative analyses were used to analyze the data. Results: Five higher order themes were found, including the need to: build a common understanding of what violence looks like; develop school-based identification, management, and prevention efforts; develop comprehensive school health services; develop state-level school health policies; and conduct outreach to make violence prevention a community affair. Conclusion: The findings will inform the development of a school-based culturally adapted violence-prevention program led by teachers, in partnership with parents, students, and community-cultural leaders.