A Classroom-based Relational Aggression Intervention

描述（由申请人提供）：虽然女孩之间的攻击性曾经被认为是相对罕见的，但最近的研究表明，女孩经常参与关系攻击（例如，通过八卦和社会排斥来操纵人际关系和社会地位）。此外，经常表现出关系攻击行为的儿童经历了大量的外化、内化和社交困难，并有未来精神健康障碍的风险。尽管对关系攻击及其影响的理解有所进步，但几乎所有的攻击干预措施都是针对身体攻击和男孩的。此外，考虑到非洲裔美国学生在内城资源不足地区面临的风险增加，迫切需要建立内城学校能力的战略，以促进有效解决社会问题的技能的发展，同时降低学生的关系和身体攻击水平。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Although aggression among girls was once thought to be relatively rare, more recent research suggests that girls frequently engage in relational aggression (e.g., manipulating relationships and social standing through gossip and social exclusion). Further, children who frequently exhibit relationally aggressive behaviors experience a host of externalizing, internalizing, and social difficulties, and are at risk for future mental health disorders. Despite advances in understanding relational aggression and its repercussions, almost all aggression intervention efforts have been designed for physical aggression and for boys. Further, given the increased risk experienced by African American students in inner-city, under-resourced areas, strategies for building the capacity of inner-city schools to promote the development of productive social problem solving skills while decreasing students' levels of relational and physical aggression are critically needed. With funding from NIMH (K23 Award), the principal investigator has designed an intensive 20th session school-based group intervention, which includes a 12 session adjunctive classroom-based component. The goal of this program, termed Friend to Friend (F2F), is to teach 3rd - 5th grade inner-city African American relationally aggressive girls social problem-solving skills and reduce their levels of aggression. The current proposal seeks to develop a classroom-based intervention termed Preventing Relational Aggression in Schools Everyday (PRAISE) that expands upon the classroom-based curriculum of F2F. In phase 1, PRAISE will be developed and fine-tuned through focus groups with students and teachers, by relying upon an expert panel of local school and community stakeholders, and by conducting an open trial pilot study. In phase 2, the acceptability and feasibility of PRAISE for use within a classroom setting will be assessed, effect size estimates for the impact of PRAISE on relationally aggressive girls within experimental classrooms will be derived, and potential effects of the intervention at the classroom level will be preliminarily explored.