Research
MACS

Investigators: Patrick Tolan, David Henry, and Richard Van Acker,
University of Illinois at Chicago
Nancy C. Guerra, University of California at Riverside
L. Rowell Huesmann and Leonard Eron, University of Michigan

Metropolitan Area Child Study is a longitudinal research program conducted in selected Chicago and Aurora schools since the 1990-91 school year. This program focuses on high-risk urban children with over 4,000 children participating in eight cohorts. The purpose of MACS was to prevent the development of antisocial and violent behavior in children and to promote the development of social competence.

Schools were randomly assigned to one of four conditions. Some schools were "assessment only" control. Others received a classroom program that focused on all children and their teachers. Others received a small group meeting for children that were high-risk for aggression outside the classroom (in addition to the classroom program). Finally, some schools had the classroom program, the small group meeting, and also a family program in the evenings for the children that participated in the small group (we call this the full condition). We were interested in learning how our program effected the indicators listed above, and if this effect was different if the program was received earlier in development (grades 2 & 3) versus later (grades 5 & 6).