Relational aggression prevention programs

Based on these strong results, the research team was awarded two dissemination grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts , Strong results were found overall for participating students, as well as for students identified as aggressive on standardized measures. This model is intended to build school capacity for implementing and sustaining needed prevention programs, and to maximize the number of schools and students that can receive the program. For instance, girls in classrooms randomly assigned to the PRAISE Program demonstrated higher levels of knowledge for social information processing and anger management techniques and lower levels of relational aggression following treatment as compared to similar girls randomly assigned to a no-treatment control condition.

Further, relationally aggressive girls exhibited similar benefits from the program greater knowledge and lower levels of relational aggression plus lower levels of overt aggression following treatment as compared to relationally aggressive girls within the control classrooms. In contrast, the program was not associated with improvements for boys across most measures.

Key stakeholder feedback An advisory board consisting of five teachers from three different schools and two community members was formed to discuss perceptions of the new program, how it could be most impactful, and what further modifications were needed.

Finalizing the curriculum Based on advisory board feedback, several modifications were made to the curriculum. Cartoon-based hostile attributional bias measure A widely used written vignette-based hostile attributional bias measure Crick, , Crick et al.

Intervention acceptability and feasibility A student acceptability questionnaire was developed for PRAISE based on previous acceptability measures used with urban intervention participants Leff et al. Results Overview of Analyses First, we present descriptive analyses at the baseline period for boys and girls. Preliminary Findings of PRAISE Effects for aggressive girls As shown in Table 3 , relationally aggressive girls within intervention classrooms had significantly higher post-treatment knowledge scores as compared to relationally aggressive girls within control classrooms after controlling for baseline levels.

Further, inspection of the data indicated that there was a disproportionate number of cases in the intervention condition as compared to the control condition who experienced a floor effect in their level of preintervention hostile attributions in overt situations, which may have contributed to this inconsistent pattern of results. Effects for all girls All girls within intervention classrooms had significantly higher scores in knowledge for social information processing and anger management following treatment as compared to all girls in the control classrooms after controlling for pretreatment scores see Table 3.

Effects for all boys and aggressive boys For aggressive boys, there were no significant differences in knowledge, levels of overt and relational aggression, or hostile attributions between intervention and control classrooms at posttreatment after controlling for baseline levels.

Discussion The current study provides preliminary evidence of a culturally sensitive relational aggression prevention program for urban youth, specifically for girls. Footnotes 1 Although researchers have often used the terms aggression and bullying interchangeably, peer aggression is a broader construct that is defined as any negative action directed toward another peer or group of peers when angry or upset.

Contributor Information Stephen S. The development of direct and indirect aggressive strategies in males and females. Of mice and women: Aspects of female aggression.

Ecology of the family as a context for human development: Research perspectives. Developmental Psychology. Direct and indirect aggression during childhood and adolescence: A meta-analytic review of gender differences, intercorrelations, and relations to maladjustment. Child Development. Multiple sources of data on social behavior and social status in the school: A cross-age comparison. The Journal of Primary Prevention. Relational aggression: The role of intent attributions, feelings of distress, and provocation type.

Development and Psychopathology. Relational aggression, gender, and social psychological adjustment. Borderline personality features in childhood: A shortterm longitudinal sample. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology. Response decision processes in relational and overt aggression.

Merrill-Palmer Quarterly. Resiliency partnership-directed research: Enhancing the social competencies of preschool victims of physical abuse by developing peer resources and community strengths. In: Cicchetti D, Toth S, editors. Developmental perspective on trauma: Theory, research and intervention. University of Rochester Press; Rochester: Evaluating a school-based social competence program: Linking behavior, goals, and beliefs.

Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology. A developmental investigation of social aggression among children. A developmental psychopathology perspective on vulnerability to personality disorders. Vulnerability to psychopathology: Risk across the lifespan. Guilford Press; New York: Relational aggression at school: Associations with school safety and social climate. Journal of Youth Adolescence. Effectiveness of a violence prevention curriculum among children in elementary school.

Journal of the American Medical Association. Community violence exposure, social cognition, and aggression among urban elementary school children. Using participatory action research to design an intervention integrity system in the urban schools. School Mental Health. Comparing teacher and peer perceptions of aggression: An ecological approach. Journal of Educational Psychology. Commentary: Participatory action research leads to sustainable school and community improvement.

School Psychology Review. Review of community-based research: assessing partnership approaches to improve public health. Annual Review of Public Health. Early correlates of preschool aggressive behavior according to type of aggression and measurement. Preadolescent peer status, aggression, and school adjustment as predictors of externalizing problems in adolescence. Individual and classroom variables associated with relational aggression in elementary-school aged children: A multilevel analysis.

Journal of School Psychology. Using a participatory action research model to create a school-based intervention program for relationally aggressive girls: The Friend to Friend Program. Bullying, victimization, and peer harassment: Handbook of prevention and intervention. Haworth Press; New York: Initial validation of a knowledge-based measure of social information processing and anger management. Using participatory-action research to develop a playground-based prevention program.

Understanding socialcognitive development in context: Partnering with urban African American girls to create a hostile attributional bias measure. An initial evaluation of a culturally-adapted social problem solving and relational aggression prevention program for urban African American relationally aggressive girls. Journal of Prevention and Intervention in the Community.

In: Leff S, editor. School-based aggression prevention programs for young children: Current status and implications for violence prevention.

Developing a hostile attributional bias measure for urban African American boys. In: Werner N, editor. Relational aggression and social information processing in middle childhood: Recent developments and future directions; Symposium presented at the biennial meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development; Boston, MA.

Effectiveness of the Coping Power Program and of classroom intervention with aggressive children: Outcomes at a 1-year follow-up. Behavior Therapy. The Coping Power Program for preadolescent aggressive boys and their parents: Outcome effects at the 1-year follow-up. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. Aggression in the context of gender development. Aggression, antisocial behavior, and violence among girls. How effective are school bullying intervention programs?

A meta-analysis of intervention research. School Psychology Quarterly. Social Development. A short-term longitudinal study of growth of relational aggression during middle childhood: Associations with gender, friendship intimacy, and internalizing problems. Bullying behaviors among US youth. Using ethnography to strengthen and evaluate intervention programs.

All types of bullying continue to be a problem in US schools and beyond, but it's important to remember that all bullying is not physical or verbal e. While relational aggressors are often disliked by peers, a good portion of these bullies are socially influential and popular.

They may use their relational aggression as a way to achieve higher status in the peer group e.