Reducing Schoolchildren With Reactive Aggression Through Child, Parent, and Conjoint Parent-Child Group Interventions: A Longitudinal Outcome Effectiveness Study

This study was the first to evaluate the effectiveness of three different group interventionsto reduce children’s reactive aggression based on the social information processing (SIP)model. In the first stage of screening, 3,734 children of Grades 4–6 completed the Reactive–Proactive Aggression Questionnaire (RPQ) to assess their reactive and proactive aggres-sion. Respondents with a total score of z ≥ 1 on the RPQ were shortlisted for the secondstage of screening by qualitative interview. Interviews with 475 children were conducted toselect those who showed reactive aggression featuring a hostile attributional bias. Finally,126 children (97 males and 29 females) aged 8 to 14 (M = 9.71, SD = 1.23) were selectedand randomly assigned to one of the thr ee groups: a child group, a paren t group, and aparent–child group. A significant Time 9 Intervention effect was found for general an dreactive aggression. The parent–child group and child group showed a significant drop ingeneral aggression and reac tive aggression from posttest to 6-month follow-up, after con-trolling for baseline scores, sex, and age. However, the parent group showed no treatmenteffect: reactive aggression scores were signific antly higher than those in the child gr oup at6-month follow-up. This study has provided strong evidence that children with reactiveaggression need direc t and specific treatment to reconstruct the steps of the SIP involvingthe selection and interpretation of cues. The intervention could help to prevent severe vio-lent crimes at the later stage of a reactive aggressor.