Implementing violence prevention programs has become a priority for schools; however, most programs used for this purpose are limited in the skills they teach. In this study, two different resiliency building/violence prevention models were evaluated to assess their effectiveness at preventing violent and maladaptive behaviors in youth. Data from the California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) was used to compare a narrow versus a comprehensive/ecological approach for resiliency building. Structural equation modeling was employed to test the preventive impact of both resiliency building approaches. The results showed that the comprehensive/ecological approach is much stronger than the traditional narrow approach for preventing violent and maladaptive behaviors. Implications for program development and implementation are discussed.