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Testing effectiveness of a community-based aggression management program for children 7 to 11 years old and their
Ellen L Lipman1, Michael H Boyle1, Charles Cunningham1
1Drs. Lipman, Boyle, and Cunningham are with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences McMaster University and The Offord Centre for Child Studies, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; Ms. Kenny, Ms. Sniderman, and Mr. Duku are with The Offord Centre for Child Studies; Mrs. Mills was formerly with and Mr. Evans and Ms. Waymouth are with McMaster Children's Hospital, Chedoke Site, Hamilton.
Insights
A community-based anger management group did not significantly reduce childhood aggression in a randomized controlled trial. Further research is needed to explore effective interventions for child aggressive behaviors.
Area of Science:
- Child Psychology
- Behavioral Interventions
- Community Health
Background:
- Childhood aggression presents a significant challenge, with limited well-evaluated community-based interventions.
- Community-based programs are crucial for accessible support, yet evidence for their effectiveness in managing aggression is scarce.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the impact of a community-based anger management group on child aggressive behaviors.
- To assess the effectiveness of this intervention using a randomized controlled trial (RCT).
Main Methods:
- 123 families with children aged 7-11 concerned about aggression were recruited and randomized.
- Intervention included parent education, child group sessions, and in-home family practice.
- Outcomes measured child anger, parent-rated aggression, externalizing behavior, hostility, parent-child relationship, and parenting stress via intent-to-treat analyses.
Main Results:
- No significant differences were found between the intervention and control groups for most outcomes.
- Effect sizes were small, ranging from 0.27 to 0.29.
- Parent-rated measures showed a trend favoring the intervention group, though not statistically significant.
Conclusions:
- The community-based anger management group showed no differential impact on child aggressive behaviors compared to the control group.
- Factors like regression to the mean, sample size, comorbidity, and methodological issues may have influenced the results.
- Further investigation into effective interventions and program refinement is warranted.
Objective:
There are few well-evaluated uncomplicated community-based interventions for childhood aggression. The authors assess the impact of a community-based anger management group on child aggressive behaviors, using a randomized, controlled trial (RCT).
Method:
Families with children 7 to 11 years old were recruited through advertisements and randomized (N = 123). Inclusion required parent concern about anger/aggressive behavior, RCT agreement, and a telephone behavior screen. Intervention participants were offered three parent education/skill-building group sessions, 10 weekly child group sessions, and three in-home family practice sessions. Nine groups ran from August 2002 to August 2004. Interviewers naïve to randomization collected data on all participants pre- and postgroup. Outcomes included child-rated anger and parent-rated child aggressive behavior, externalizing behavior and hostility, parent-child relationship, and parenting stress. Intent-to-treat analyses were done.
Results:
Pre/postoutcome comparisons indicated no significant differences between intervention versus control, with small effect sizes for most outcomes (0.27-0.29). Although not significant, the magnitude of improvement favored intervention families on all parent-rated measures.
Conclusions:
Overall, there was no differential impact of participating in a community-based anger management group versus control on child aggressive behaviors and other associated measures. The impact of regression to the mean, effect, and sample size estimates; child comorbidity; and programmatic and methodological issues are discussed.
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