Students Managing Anger Resolution Together (SMART) Talk

OVERVIEW

SMART Talk is an anger management program which focuses on teaching conflict resolution skills to adolescents. The program has 8 modules: What’s Anger, Triggers and Fuses, Anger Buster, Channel Surfin’, What’s On Their Minds, Celebrity Interviews, Teen Interviews, and Talking It Out. These modules mainly address the causes of anger in children, anger management, perspective taking when conflict does occur, and resolution strategies for conflict. The program is computer-based and uses a variety of activities; games, simulations, cartoons, animation, and interviews. Students work independently on the computer programs and attend hour-long sessions once or twice a week for up to 5 weeks. The evaluations below found that the SMART Talk anger management program was effective in increasing students’ awareness of their responses to anger, knowledge about anger triggers, and intentions to use non-violent solutions to resolve conflict. SMART Talk was also effective in decreasing students’ beliefs supportive of violence as a solution to conflict. However, significant impacts were not found in a study of junior high students in a disciplinary alternative education program, though this may reflect a very small sample size.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Elementary and middle school-aged children who are at risk for development of violent or aggressive behavior

The SMART Talk program is a computer-based anger management program for aggressive and/or violent elementary and middle school-aged children. The program has 8 different modules which address different aspects of anger management and conflict resolution. In the program, students learn about situations that can provoke anger, how to deal with anger without expressing it in aggressive or violent behavior, understand others’ perspectives of conflict, how to resolve disputes, and problem solving for conflict situations.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Scheckner, S. B. (2003). The evaluation of an anger management program for pre-adolescents in an elementary school setting. Dissertation Abstracts International. (UMI No. 3098399)

Evaluated population: 44 fifth grade students who were rated by their teachers as “aggressive”. The school sampled was 87% African-American and 13% Caucasian. The sample consisted of 3 Caucasians, 39 African-Americans, and 2 American Indians. All but 5 students were on free or reduced price lunch programs.

Approach: The teacher-rated aggressive students were randomly assigned to SMART Talk treatment groups or a control group who completed a computer-based reading skills improvement program (developed by Bosworth; see below). Students went to their respective programs once per week for one hour per session for a total of 8 weeks. Students were then given a variety of measures designed to assess knowledge of anger triggers, efficacy in being able to use non-violent strategies, intentions to implement non-violent strategies, and overall knowledge learned from the program.

Results: SMART Talk treatment students reported higher levels of intent to use non-violent strategies when compared with those in the reading skills control group. Treatment students also had more knowledge about conflict resolution and were more confident in using nonviolent strategies when compared to control students, but these results were not statistically significant.

Bosworth, K., Espelage, D., Dubay, T., Daytner, G., & Karageorge, K. (2000). Preliminary evaluation of a multimedia violence prevention program for adolescents. American Journal of Health Behavior, 24, 268-280.

Evaluated Population: 516 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students from an urban/suburban middle school. The school was comprised of 12% bused in students from the inner-city and 20% from low income rural area. The student sample was 84% Caucasian, 9% African-American, 4% bi-racial, 4% other ethnicities. A total of 29% of the students were on free or reduced price lunch programs.

Approach: Schools randomly assigned students to classrooms at the beginning of the school year. Researchers then randomly assigned classrooms to either the SMART Talk treatment condition or a control condition which received no treatment program. Students in the treatment condition used the SMART Talk program in their classes or in their free-time. There were no assigned lessons within the program and students could work at their own pace. Students were assessed using tests to measure the following: self-awareness, beliefs supportive of violence, self-efficacy, intentions to implement non-violent conflict resolution strategies, and aggressive behavior.

Results: Students in the SMART Talk treatment had higher levels of intentions to use non-violent strategies to resolve conflict when compared to controls. Treatment groups were less likely to value violence as a solution to a conflict compared to control groups. Lastly, students in treatment groups were more aware of their responses to anger when compared with control students. Efficacy/confidence and aggressive behavior were not affected.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

Link to program curriculum: http://www.lmssite.com/

References

Scheckner, S. B. (2003). The evaluation of an anger management program for pre-adolescents in an elementary school setting. Dissertation Abstracts International. (UMI No. 3098399)

Travis, S. L. (2005). Teaching conflict resolution skills, using computer-based instruction, to at-risk junior high students assigned to disciplinary alternative education program. Dissertation Abstracts International. (UMI No. 3195966)

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: grades 5-8 / Program age ranges in the Guide: mid-childhood, adolescence

Program components: school-based

Measured outcomes: education and cognitive development; social and emotional health and development; life skills; behavioral problems

Program information last updated 9/19/07

		© Child Trends 2003