Parent-Directed Physical Aggression by Clinic-Referred Youths

This study evaluated the effects of problem-solving skills training (PSST) and parent management training (PMT) on children (N = 97, ages 7-13 years) referred for severe antisocial behavior. Children and families were assigned randomly to 1 of 3 conditions: PSST, PMT, or PSST and PMT combined. It was predicted that (a) each treatment would improve child functioning (reduce overall deviance and aggressive, antisocial, and delinquent behavior, and increase prosocial competence); and (b) PSST and PMT combined would lead to more marked, pervasive, and durable changes in child functioning and greater changes in parent functioning (parental stress, depression, and overall symptoms). Expectations were supported by results at posttreatment and 1-year follow-up. PSST and PMT combined led to more marked changes in child and parent functioning and placed a greater proportion of youth within the range of nonclinic (normative) levels of functioning.

Although many important advances have been made in our understanding of childhood aggression in recent years, a significant limitation of prior studies has been the lack of attention to the possible moderating role of gender in the links between aggression and social-psychological adjustment. To address this issue, the author evaluated the adjustment status associated with engagement in gender normative versus gender nonnormative forms of aggression for both boys and girls. Indexes of social-psychological adjustment assessed included teacher and self-reports of internalizing and externalizing difficulties (N = 1.166 children 9-12 years old). Results showed that children who engaged in gender nonnormative forms of aggression (i.e., overtly aggressive girls and relationally aggressive boys) were significantly more maladjusted than children who engaged in gender normative forms of aggression and children who were nonaggressive.