Individual and Group Intervention Formats with Aggressive Children

描述（由申请人提供）：荟萃分析表明，将具有外化行为问题的儿童聚集到群体中可能会降低预防干预措施的有效性（Lipsey，2006）。文献中有两个主要的空白限制了我们对这一现象的理解。首先，干预内容往往与干预形式混淆，因此很难明确区分干预效果的两个问题。很少有研究将儿童随机分配到任何一组或单独形式的单一干预中。第二，很少做干预研究仔细研究个人对干预的反应维斯直接观察小组会议，以确定具体的过程和事件，可能会提高或降低干预的有效性（Dishion和道奇，2006）。本研究建议在随机试验的背景下进行这两项研究。这项研究如果能够检验干预措施的各种形式，而且这种干预措施已经建立了证据基础，并有可能广泛传播，那么这项研究将是最富有成效的。当前应用程序将使用基于情境社会认知模型的应对能力程序的儿童组件作为焦点干预。应对能力预防计划已被证明对青少年的攻击性，犯罪和物质使用的预防效果在以前的功效和有效性（Lochman和威尔斯，2002年a，2002年b，2003年，2004年）的研究。计划中的研究将随机分配攻击性儿童到两个版本的应对能力儿童组件之一。应对能力子组件将以通常的小组形式（小组应对能力：GCP）或新开发的个人形式（个人应对能力：ICP）提供。据推测，与GCP相比，ICP将在一年的随访评估中产生更大的物质使用减少，儿童的外化行为问题和犯罪。这项研究还将确定儿童的特征（例如，努力控制;预期成果;侵略的严重性;冷酷无情的特点;冲动的决策;同伴排斥和受害;人口统计学变量）和组长的行为会影响GCP条件下（基于录像小组会议编码和组长评分）儿童对群体偏差同伴效应的易感性，并削弱干预对物质使用、犯罪和外化行为问题的影响。公共卫生相关性：一个重要的核心公共卫生问题涉及提供循证预防干预措施，以减少青年药物滥用和暴力。在青少年预防领域，一个关键的问题已经出现，在小组格式与风险反社会儿童的工作有可能产生偏差的同伴效应，使儿童升级或保持他们的行为问题，而不是减少他们。这一应用提供了一个创新的机会，以经验检验条件下，越轨的同行过程中促进或预防干预过程中的随机试验，并将是第一个研究直接比较组与个人管理的影响相同的循证预防性干预措施对长期的青年成果。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Meta-analyses suggest that aggregating children with externalizing behavior problems into groups has the potential of reducing the effectiveness of preventive interventions (Lipsey, 2006). There are two major gaps in the literature that limit our understanding of this phenomenon. First, intervention content is often confounded with the intervention format, so it is difficult to clearly disentangle the two issues about intervention effects. Few studies have randomly assigned children to a single intervention delivered in either group vs individual format. Second, rarely do intervention studies carefully study individual responses to an intervention vis a vis direct observation of group sessions, to identifiy specific processes and events that may enhance or detract from the intervention's effectiveness (Dishion & Dodge, 2006). This research proposes to do both within the context of a randomized trial. This research will be most productive if it can test variations in format for an intervention that has already established an evidence base and has the potential for wide dissemination. The current application will use the child component of the Coping Power program, based on a contextual social- cognitive model, as the focal intervention. The Coping Power prevention program has been demonstrated to have preventive effects on youths' aggression, delinquency and substance use in prior efficacy and effectiveness (Lochman & Wells, 2002a, 2002b, 2003, 2004) studies. The planned study will randomly assign aggressive children to one of two versions of the Coping Power child component. The Coping Power child component will either be delivered in the usual small group format (Group Coping Power: GCP) or in a newly-developed individual format (Individual Coping Power: ICP). It is hypothesized that ICP will produce greater reductions in substance use, children's externalizing behavior problems and delinquency at a one-year follow-up assessment, in comparison to GCP. This study will also determine whether children's characteristics (e.g., effortful control; outcome expectations; severity of aggression; callous-unemotional traits; impulsive decision-making; peer rejection and victimization; demographic variables) and group leaders' behaviors will influence children's susceptibility to deviant peer effects in groups in the GCP condition (based on coding of videotaped group sessons and leader ratings), and weaken the intervention's effects on substance use, delinquency and externalizing behavior problems. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: A significant central public health issue involves the provision of evidence-based preventive interventions to reduce youth substance abuse and violence. Within the youth prevention field, a critical concern has arisen that working with at-risk antisocial children in group formats has the potential for deviant peer effects, whereby children escalate or maintain their behavior problems, rather than reducing them. This application offers an innovative opportunity to empirically examine conditions under which deviant peer processes are promoted or prevented during the course of intervention in a randomized trial, and will be the first study to directly compare the effects of group versus individual administration of the same evidence-based preventive intervention on long-term youth outcomes.