Untitled Aggression Reduction Program for Boys

OVERVIEW

The Untitled Aggression Reduction Program for Boys was designed to reduce aggressive behavior among adolescent males through role-play and discussion.  In a random assignment study, boys assigned to take part in the 14-session intervention were compared with boys assigned to a control group.  Following the intervention, treatment group boys made fewer hostile attributions to characters in a scenario than did control group boys.  Also, among schools that provided suspension data, treatment boys received significantly fewer in-house suspensions than did control boys during the three months after the intervention.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: aggressive 7^th grade boys

This intervention is intended to help aggressive boys acquire the knowledge, skills, and preferences necessary for constructive need fulfillment.  Boys meet after school for an hour each week for 14 weeks and explore their basic needs and their customary ways of fulfilling these needs.  Boys were presented with frustrating hypothetical scenarios and were asked to role-play these scenarios.  Role-plays were filmed and, after viewing the films, boys engaged in structured discussion about how responses to the scenarios could be rendered more constructive.  Boys then role-played the scenarios again, focusing on constructive solutions to problems presented. 

The first seven intervention sessions are led by a graduate student and a trained undergraduate assistant.  The last seven sessions are led by the graduate student alone. 

EVALUATION(S)OF PROGRAM

Spielman, D. A. & Staub, E.  (2000).  Reducing Boys’ Aggression: Learning to Fulfill Basic Needs Constructively.  Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 21(2), 165-181.

Evaluated population: Twenty-five aggressive 7^th grade boys from two urban middle schools served as the study sample for this investigation.  Boys ranged in age from 11 to 14 years old.  The schools served lower-middle class to lower class families.  The schools were primarily made up of African American and Puerto Rican students.

Approach: The students were randomly assigned to treatment (n = 12) or control (n = 13) groups.  Treatment group boys met after school one day a week for 14 weeks to take part in the basic needs fulfillment intervention.

During the study, if a treatment group participant dropped out of the study, a matched control student would also be eliminated.  A limitation is that one control group member was randomly assigned to the treatment group.  The boys were assessed one month after intervention on in-house suspension records, teacher evaluations of the boys, hostile attribution bias, social role taking, and prosocial value orientation.

Results:  The treatment group was significantly less likely to attribute hostile intentions to characters in two out of five scenarios when compared with the aggressive control group.  The remaining three scenarios showed no significant differences between groups.  There was no significant difference between groups on prosocial value orientation.  One of the schools showed a significant decrease in suspensions among treatment group boys when compared with control group boys.  The other school did not provide pre-test suspension data.  There was no significant difference between groups on the teacher evaluations.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References:

Spielman, D. A. & Staub, E.  (2000).  Reducing Boys’ Aggression: Learning to Fulfill Basic Needs Constructively.  Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 21(2), 165-181.

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: 11-14 / Program age ranges in the guide: middle childhood; adolescence

Program components: school based

Measured outcomes: social and emotional health; behavioral problems

Keywords: Children (3-11), Adolescents (12-17), Middle School, Male-only, Urban, School-based, After School Program, Social/Life Skills, Other Behavioral Problems.

Program information last updated on 9/24/10