An attribution retraining program to reduce aggression in elementary school students

Proximal Peer-Level Effects of a Small-Group Selected Prevention on Aggression in Elementary School Children: An Investigation of the Peer Contagion Hypothesis

“…In this approach, students are removed from their regular classrooms for a period of time (typically 30-60 min) to receive prevention programming in a different room. Hudley and her colleagues and Lochman and his colleagues have used this strategy effectively in smallgroup interventions for anger and aggression among elementary and young middle school students (Hudley et al, 1998;Hudley & Graham, 1993;Larson & Lochman, 2002;Lochman & Lenhart, 1993). Feindler and her colleagues have obtained success with similar programs for older students (Feindler, Marriott, & Iwata, 1984;Feindler & Scalley, 1998).…”

“…As discussed earlier, the selected prevention approach to modifying children's aggression generally is well-established (e.g., Hudley et al, 1998;Larson & Lochman, 2002), particularly among children in the late childhood through early adolescent age range. Results from this investigation do not indicate that the selected prevention approach should be abandoned entirely.…”

A Multi-Session Attribution Modification Program for Children with Aggressive Behaviour: Changes in Attributions, Emotional Reaction Estimates, and Self-Reported Aggression

“…There is evidence from previous research that attributional bias typical of aggressive children can be beneficially modified. For example, Hudley et al (1998) developed the Brain Power program, a 12-session attribution retraining intervention, which focused on the early stages of the social information-processing model. Based upon the link between faulty attributions and aggression, it was designed to train children to detect intentionality accurately, to attribute negative outcomes of ambiguous causality to accidental and non-hostile causes, and to develop decision rules to guide decision-making when facing ambiguous situations.…”

Developmental Issues in School-Based Aggression Prevention from a Social-Cognitive Perspective

“…There are many ways in which a broad social-cognitive model has been applied to the design of specific aggression prevention program techniques and activities, and we briefly review a selection of those here (for detailed reviews, see Boxer & Dubow, 2002;Huesmann & Reynolds, 2001;Thornton et al, 2000). For example, Hudley et al (1998) designed program activities for 8-12 year olds that help aggressive children perceive and interpret the intentions of others more accurately through "attribution retraining." After several sessions learning to read and interpret others' verbal, physical, and behavioral cues, children are taught to link "inconsistent or uninterpretable social cues with attributions to 'uncontrollable' or 'accidental' causes" (Hudley et al, 1998, p. 274).…”