Learning to Reformulate Peer Conflict: Effects of a Language-Based Educational Program on Conflict Management, Peer...

Peer conflict in early adolescence ranges from everyday disagreements to repeated aggression and bullying-related experiences. Bullying should not be reduced to physical violence: it may involve relational exclusion, psychological harassment, or verbal aggression without direct physical harm, whereas isolated aggressive acts do not necessarily constitute bullying. This study evaluated Reformulando, a school-based program that trains communication-based socio-emotional skills through pragmatic reformulation and respectful language. Using a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design with a non-equivalent control group, we assessed changes in conflict management strategies, peer aggression, and bullying-related experiences among students aged 10-13 years. Initial analyses suggested reductions in verbal peer aggression in the experimental group relative to the control group, although these effects were attenuated in age-adjusted and classroom-clustered sensitivity analyses. Collaborative conflict management increased over time, although this change did not differ significantly between groups. Bullying-related experiences decreased during the study period, but these reductions were not specific to the experimental group. This pattern emerged in the primary analyses but was attenuated in age-adjusted and cluster-adjusted sensitivity analyses. Findings suggest the potential value of brief communication-based training for addressing verbal peer conflict, while highlighting the need for cautious interpretation due to baseline group differences, grade-level imbalance, classroom clustering, and the quasi-experimental design.