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An anger‐control intervention with aggressive delinquent youths
Author(s) -
Hains Anthony A.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
behavioral interventions
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.605
H-Index - 34
eISSN - 1099-078X
pISSN - 1072-0847
DOI - 10.1002/bin.2360040305
Subject(s) - anger , psychology , intervention (counseling) , coping (psychology) , self control , clinical psychology , anger management , developmental psychology , aggression , applied psychology , psychiatry
Social problem‐solving skills, a self‐instructional procedure, and a “thinking‐ahead” procedure were taught to institutionalized, aggressive, delinquent adolescents as part of an anger‐control intervention package. A multiple baseline design across four subjects and an alternating‐treatments design were used. The effects of intervention were assessed on problem‐solving ability, use of self‐guiding verbalizations for coping with anger provoking situations, reported frequency of anger‐control behaviors relative to loss of anger‐control incidents, and behavioral progress within the institution. All youths showed improvement during the training of problem solving on hypothetical dilemmas, with some generalization to untrained problems. Follow‐up data on some youths suggested maintenance of treatment gains. Three of the youths displayed increased usage of self‐instructions and thinking‐ahead statements during personal anger‐provoking situations. All youths displayed an increase in self‐reported anger‐control behaviors relative to loss of anger‐control. Improvements in behavior outside of the therapy sessions were indicated by positive behavioral progress within the institution.