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Preliminary Effectiveness Study of Coping Power Program for Aggressive Children in Pakistan

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Abstract

Aggression is a characteristic feature of many psychiatric disorders. To address the scarceness for evidence-based interventions for behavioral problems in Pakistan, we evaluated the effectiveness of culturally adapted version of Coping Power Program. The purpose of the study was to determine the extent to which Coping Power Program is capable of reducing aggressive behavior and improving competent behavior, when delivered in a different culture, i.e., Pakistan. With randomized control trial (RCT) of pre- and post-testing, 112 fourth grade boys were allocated to Coping Power intervention condition and waitlist control condition. The intervention group showed significant reduction in aggression at post assessment, in comparison to control group. Boys who received Coping Power intervention also showed improvements in behavior, social skills, and social cognitive processes, with better anger control and problem solving strategies, in comparison to the control group. The results of the study provide preliminary evidence, supporting the effectiveness of Coping Power Program for Pakistani children. Despite its limitations, the results of this study are promising and suggest that Coping Power is an effective intervention to reduce behavioral problems and promote healthy and positive behaviors in children, even when implemented in different contexts with greater potential for violence exposure.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Psychology, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Asia Mushtaq & Pervaiz N. Tariq

  2. University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL, USA

    John E. Lochman

  3. Riphah International University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Fazaila Sabih

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  1. Asia Mushtaq
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  2. John E. Lochman
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  3. Pervaiz N. Tariq
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  4. Fazaila Sabih
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Correspondence to Asia Mushtaq.

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Conflict of Interest

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. John Lochman is the co-developer of the Coping Power program and receives royalties from the Oxford University Press for the Coping Power Implementation Guides for the Child Group Program and the Parent Group Program. He is also the Principal Investigator on grants from NICHD and NIDA which provide funding for intervention research on the Coping Power program.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. It is the Doctoral research of the First Author (Asia Mushtaq) and approved by the Syndicate/Advanced Studies and Research Board (SAS&RB) of Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

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Informed consent was obtained from all concerned parties, i.e., school authorities, class teachers, parents, and participants (boys).

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Mushtaq, A., Lochman, J.E., Tariq, P.N. et al. Preliminary Effectiveness Study of Coping Power Program for Aggressive Children in Pakistan. Prev Sci 18, 762–771 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-016-0721-9

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