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Can the “My FRIENDS” Anxiety Prevention Programme Also be Used to Prevent Aggression? A Six-Month Follow-Up in a School

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Abstract

Aggression and externalisation problems at school hold negative consequences for both the perpetrators and the victims. This paper argues that the relationship between anxiety and aggression may make it possible to use certain anxiety prevention programmes to help prevent aggression. This hypothesis was tested on a sample of early adolescents using a quasi-experimental design with a control group. Four classes of early adolescents (N = 73) were randomly assigned to the control or intervention group. The intervention group was exposed at school to an anxiety prevention programme based on social and emotional learning called My FRIENDS. Aggression and externalisation problems were measured before the intervention, immediately after and at a six-month follow-up. The results show: (a) in the control group, aggression (dimensions: aggression towards authority, physical aggression) increased over the study period, whereas in the intervention group, it remained at the baseline level after the intervention and at the six-month follow-up; (b) externalisation problems (dimension: hyperactivity) were reduced in the intervention group relative to the baseline after the intervention and at the six-month follow-up. The results support use of the My FRIENDS programme as a possible prevention programme for aggression and externalisation problems as well as anxiety. Study limitations and future research directions are considered.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by ARRS (the Slovenian Research Agency) (Grant Number: 2’11-II∕902).

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Correspondence to Ana Kozina.

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Ana Kozina declares that she has no conflict of interest.

Research Involving Human Participants and/or Animals

All procedures performed in studies 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.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Kozina, A. Can the “My FRIENDS” Anxiety Prevention Programme Also be Used to Prevent Aggression? A Six-Month Follow-Up in a School. School Mental Health 10, 500–509 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-018-9272-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12310-018-9272-5

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