The Effects of A Group Counseling Intervention On Students With Behavioral Adjustment Problems

Abstract

Cognitive-behavioral group counseling was studied with students that exhibited externalizing behavior. A total of 24 male students (12 control and 12 experimental) who exhibited externalizing behavior participated in this study. The intervention resulted in clear and salutary changes in the behavioral adjustment of students. The intervention demonstrates that school counselors can play a substantial role in remediating and preventing disruptive behavior in schools.

A Review of Social Problem-Solving Interventions

“…Students’ grade level ranged from kindergarten to eighth grade, with students in third grade studied most often. Across studies, 51.58% of participants were male, with four studies including only males (Guevremont & Foster, 1993; Nelson et al, 1996; Quinn, 2002; Robinson et al, 2002) and one study including only females (Leff et al, 2009). Of those studies reporting participants’ race, the overall sample included the following: 33.36% Caucasian, 28.02% African American, 25.14% Hispanic, and 12.66% other or not reported.…”

“…Of those studies reporting participants’ race, the overall sample included the following: 33.36% Caucasian, 28.02% African American, 25.14% Hispanic, and 12.66% other or not reported. The remaining participants ( n = 41, 0.82% of participants) were included in studies that reported race for the overall school population (Elias & Hoover, 1997; Nelson et al, 1996) or did not report students’ racial background (Guevremont & Foster, 1993).…”

“…Friend to Friend lessons included instruction on types of problems, emotion regulation strategies, how to evaluate problem responses, and the application of SPS strategies to situations involving gossip and joining peer groups. Nelson et al (1996) used 8 weeks of small group SPS counseling sessions with students referred for externalizing behaviors, using techniques such as questioning, discussion, modeling, role-plays, reflective listening, paraphrasing, and feedback. Sessions focused on teaching students that they have control over problems, how to identify problems, and SPS skills (e.g., goal setting, generating alternative solutions, consequential thinking) and allowed students to apply skills to problems at school.…”

“…Several researchers specified the SPS theoretical underpinnings of their programs, with an emphasis on theories by Shure and colleagues (i.e., interpersonal cognitive problem-solving skills; Spivack et al, 1976) and Dodge and Crick (i.e., social information processing theory; Crick & Dodge, 1994). For example, Nelson et al (1996) based their program on the work led by Shure that began in the 1970s with the training of interpersonal cognitive problem-solving skills, and on Note. SPS = social problem solving; SIP = social information processing; beh = behavior; gr = grade; obs = observations; Em Reg = emotion regulation; Peer Acc = peer acceptance; RA = random assignment; M = male; EBD = students with emotional and behavioral disorders; Y = yes; N = no; TR = teacher report on student behaviors; SR = student self-report; Peer = peer nomination.…”

“…There were also notable behavioral outcomes in three studies in which researchers investigated selected SPS instruction delivered to small groups of students (Leff et al, 2009;Nelson et al, 1996;Teglasi & Rothman, 2001). In their study of the Friend to Friend program, Leff et al (2009) compared effect size differences in teacher-reported aggression and social behavior change scores between girls with relational aggression in treatment and control groups and found that girls with relational aggression who received Friend to Friend instruction had greater decreases than those in the control group in both relational aggression (effect size of .74) and physical aggression (effect size of .43).…”