The impact of reappraisal skills on aggressive children.

The study investigated the effects of reappraisal training on aggressive children. A pre-post-follow-up, experimental-control design was used to evaluate the impact of a small-group intervention that offered practice in reappraisal skills to 89 aggressive children (another 60 were wait-listed). Results indicate that treatment children benefitted in these skills more than their peers. Based on multiple sources of the report (child, parent, teacher), results also point to reduced aggression, anger, anxiety, and social problems, and an increase in self-regulation, all of which sustained at follow-up 7-8 months later. Finally, many outcomes were correlated with benefits in reappraisal skills. Qualitative data gleaned from the study supports these benefits and sheds light on group processes that were helpful. The findings suggest that reappraisal skills training is a useful intervention with aggressive children and can be successfully delivered in small groups.

Therapeutic Factors in Adolescents' Groups With and Without Movies.

The study explores the therapeutic factors in two types of group interventions--film therapy (n = 69) and affective support therapy (n = 48) for Arab adolescents (ages 13-14) in Israel. Film therapy is a relatively new method for groups, aimed at enhancing adolescents' engagement in the process of group counseling. Six-hundred students from 11 schools were screened for the level of parent-adolescent conflict, based on a self-report measure. The 117 students who met the cutoff point constituted our sample. They were randomly divided into 12 small groups (6 in each type of intervention). A previous study reported the outcomes of these two interventions, showing equal progress in both groups (compared to control). The current study explores process variables, specifically therapeutic factors, in an attempt to enhance our understanding of those outcomes. Results indicated common therapeutic factors across both types of intervention. The factors of relationship-climate and other- versus self-focus were ranked the highest and, contrary to expectations, were significantly higher in affective support therapy than in film therapy.

Individual Versus Group Physical Therapy for Patients with Low Back Pain: Outcomes and Process (Therapeutic Factors).

Low back pain (LBP) is a common health problem usually treated individually, and requires costly physical therapy. Group treatment, besides being cost-effective, provides psychological support to the recovery of people who struggle with a physically disabling condition. The current study compares individual and group treatment of LBP, measuring differences in outcomes and process data (therapeutic factors). The study included 158 patients who participated in group (n = 71) and individual (n = 87) physical therapy, using a pre-post-follow-up design. Results indicated a significant improvement in all outcome measures at postintervention in both treatment settings, with no difference between them, which were sustained at follow-up. On a clinical level, a few differences were found: At postintervention, minimal clinically important improvement in perceived functioning and level of pain was greater among patients treated individually. On the other hand, at follow-up, only group participants gained additionally in perceived functioning and in fear avoidance. Therapeutic factors of other- versus self-focus and problem definition-change were more prevalent in group treatment.

Feedback to semi-professional counselors in treating child aggression.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the impact of outcome feedback provided to semi-professional counselors of children and adolescents at risk for aggressive behavior, following group treatment. METHOD: Participants included 230 aggressive children and adolescents and 64 educators in a quasi-experimental design of 3 conditions: experimental group with feedback, experimental group without feedback, and control group (no treatment). The current study employed a feedback system based on self-report aggression scores measured after each session, provided to teachers, including an alert system and weekly follow-up group support. RESULTS: Outcomes were more favorable for the treatment children than the control group, but feedback had no impact on the results. CONCLUSION: Outcome feedback provided to group therapists does not have an effect on children and adolescents' reduction of aggression. Further research is needed to identify possible reasons for failure to show feedback effect.

Group Intervention with Aggressive Children and Youth Through Bibliotherapy.

Aggression in the school is one of the most disturbing behaviors that teachers and students face. It is usually addressed through preventive treatments, leaving the highly aggressive students unaffected. Group psychotherapy is a viable method to treat aggressive youth, despite reservations raised in the professional literature, when therapy is adjusted to this unique population. Aggressive children and youth are quite resistant to change, thus, creative methods are needed to engage them in therapy. This article suggests an innovative intervention, using bibliotherapy as an adjunct to an integrative theory of treatment, adjusted to the specific characteristics of aggressive children. The article describes the intervention, its theoretical foundation, and provides wide evidence for its effectiveness with aggressive children and youth.

Why Do People Prefer Individual Therapy Over Group Therapy?

The current study aims to identify the reason people avoid group therapy despite its recognized effectiveness. Participants were 224 university students, men and women from two ethnic groups (Jewish and Arab) in Israel. We asked them to mark their preference for individual or group therapy on a 7-point scale and add five arguments in favor and against each type of therapy. Results verified the tendency to prefer individual over group therapy, with minor gender or ethnic effects. Participant arguments indicated accuracy in identifying the strength of group therapy, but various fears limit their enthusiasm about group therapy. The discussion focuses on possible ways to overcome those fears.

Bullying and victimization in early adolescence: relations to social information processing patterns.

There is a gap in the literature on the social information processing (SIP) patterns of adolescents exposed to victimization in school. Therefore, we examine the SIP patterns of young adolescents characterized by their teachers and by their own reports as victims, bullies, bullies/victims, and neither bullies nor victims. The 105 adolescents participating in this study were asked to respond to hypothetical social scenarios in which a protagonist is either rebuffed or provoked by peers. The scenarios were ambiguous in nature and thus could have been processed in different ways. Indeed, distinctive processing patterns were found for each of these groups: victims tended to avoid challenging social situations while expecting others to be purposefully hostile or ignoring; bullies tended to interpret others as purposefully hostile and stated their desire to retaliate; bullies/victims showed patterns more similar to those of the bullies than the victims; and those who were neither victims nor bullies tended to view the same challenging social situations as non hostile and more likely to end well for them. We conclude by discussing the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Cross-cultural validity of the Self-Stigma of Seeking Help (SSOSH) scale: examination across six nations.

Researchers have found that the stigma associated with seeking therapy--particularly self-stigma--can inhibit the use of psychological services. Yet, most of the research on self-stigma has been conducted in the United States. This is a considerable limitation, as the role of self-stigma in the help-seeking process may vary across cultural groups. However, to examine cross-cultural variations, researchers must first develop culturally valid scales. Therefore, this study examined scale validity and reliability of the widely used Self-Stigma of Seeking Help scale (SSOSH; Vogel, Wade, & Haake, 2006) across samples from 6 different countries (England, Greece, Israel, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States). Specifically, we used a confirmatory factor analysis framework to conduct measurement invariance analysis and latent mean comparisons of the SSOSH across the 6 sampled countries. Overall, the results suggested that the SSOSH has a similar univariate structure across countries and is sufficiently invariant across countries to be used to explore cultural differences in the way that self-stigma relates to help-seeking behavior.

Groups for children and adolescents with trauma-related symptoms: outcomes and processes.

The study was conducted in Israel following the 2006 Lebanon war. The purpose was to examine the impact of counseling groups employing an expressive-supportive modality on children and adolescents with war-related or divorce/loss-related trauma symptoms. The 164 children were placed into 18 small groups for 10 weekly sessions. The children were screened for traumatic stress symptoms and then randomly divided into experimental and control (wait-list) conditions. All participants completed the measures of the dependent variables (trauma symptoms, anxiety), a social support measure, and group-process measures (group relationships, group cohesion, and catharsis). Results indicated a significantly sharper reduction in trauma symptoms and anxiety in the experimental group than in the control group, regardless of type of trauma. A reduction in anxiety was predicted by gains in social support and group cohesiveness.

Children with and without learning disabilities: a comparison of processes and outcomes following group counseling.

This study compared outcomes and processes in counseling groups of an expressive-supportive modality for children with learning disabilities (LD) and without them (NLD). Participants were 266 students (ages 10-18), all referred for emotional, social, and behavioral difficulties; of these, 123 were identified with LD and 143 were not. There were 40 groups in all--20 with LD children and 20 with NLD. Outcome variables included adjustment, social competence, and academic achievements. Process variables included bonding, group functioning, and client behavior. Analyses were nested using mixed models. Results indicated no differences in outcomes or process variables between populations except for academic achievements; some between-group differences were found in the effect of processes on outcomes. It was concluded that children with LD may be successfully treated in expressive-supportive counseling groups for their emotional and social difficulties.

Seeking psychological help: a comparison of individual and group treatment.

The study examined public and self-stigma and their association with attitudes and intentions to seek psychological help in regard to both individual and group treatment as well as to various subgroups, including gender, ethnicity, educational orientation, level of religion, and age. Undergraduate students (N=307) in three universities in Israel participated in the study. Results partly confirmed the model for both individual and group therapy: Self-stigma was related to attitudes and intentions to seek help. However, public stigma was not related to self-stigma. Importantly, some differences were also found among the various subgroups, and the model, which takes into account the different subgroups, looks somewhat different for individual and group therapy.

The association of process with outcomes in child group therapy.

This study investigated the prediction of outcomes by process variables related to client and therapist behavior in support groups of children being treated for emotional and behavioral difficulties. The study included 40 groups (N=266) and 40 counselors. The association of process with outcomes was analyzed through hierarchical structural equation modeling (Mplus 5.1). The child model showed that bonding affected group functioning and anxiety, group functioning affected social competence and client behavior, therapeutic change affected anxiety, and reduced anxiety affected reduction in aggression. The therapist model pointed to encouragement, interpretation, and therapist self-disclosure as having a positive impact on outcomes and challenges as affecting them negatively. The discussion points to the importance of process variables for clinicians.

School-based integrated and segregated interventions to reduce aggression.

The goal of the study was to assess two types of school-based interventions--a class intervention (integrated) and a small group counseling (segregated) intervention for highly aggressive children--and to determine which is more efficacious in reducing individual and classroom aggression, lessening internalizing and externalizing behavior, and increasing positive classroom relationships. The study, conducted in Israel, included 904 children from 13 schools. In each school, one age level was selected and divided randomly into three experimental conditions: psychoeducational class intervention, small group counseling, and control. In all classrooms, the highly aggressive children were identified a priori (n=166). Analyses were conducted separately for the aggressive children and their nonaggressive classmates, in a nested procedure (mixed models). Results showed similar positive outcomes on all variables in both treatment groups, and higher compared with the control group. The discussion focuses on the strengths of each type of intervention.

The effect of affective bibliotherapy on clients' functioning in group therapy.

Abstract The effect of affective group bibliotherapy (GB) was compared to affective group therapy (GT) on patients' functioning in therapy and their session impression. Three small groups totaling twenty-five in-patients in a hospital in Israel participated in the study. Clients concurrently participated in both group types, undergoing three sessions in each condition. In-therapy behaviors were assessed through the Client Behavior System (CBS; Hill & O'Brien, 1999). Results indicated that in the GB condition compared to the GT condition, clients showed less resistance, used simple responses less frequently, and expressed greater affective exploration. The Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ; Stiles et al., 1994) was used to measure clients' impressions of the sessions. Results indicated that patients evaluated the two treatment conditions equally. Overall, the results support earlier findings, suggesting that affective bibliotherapy can be an effective method of treatment.

Treating mothers of aggressive children: a research study.

In this empirical investigation, three conditions in the group therapy of aggressive children were compared: Child only treatment, Mother + Child treatment, and a notreatment control. The 75 participating children, all Druze from two cities in Israel, were assigned equally and randomly to the three conditions, 25 children in each. In addition, the mothers of these children participated in the study, with 25 of them treated in groups. A semi-structured treatment program using bibliotherapy was conducted, with some modifications, in the two therapy conditions. Results indicated that, compared to the control group, both treatment conditions were effective in reducing aggression, although the Mother + Child condition showed significantly greater gains on the children's self-report measure. With regard to maternal coping, gains were greater in the Mother + Child treatment group than in the Child treatment group on four of six subscales. Finally, three associations were found between reductions in children's aggression and changes in maternal coping.

The relation of client behavior and therapist helping skills to reduced aggression of boys in individual and group treatment.

In this study behavioral processes in the individual and group therapies of aggressive boys were compared and the relationship between these variables and treatment outcome was examined. Level of aggression was the outcome variable, measured by both self-report and teacher-report instruments. Hill's Client Behavior System (CBS; Hill, 1986) with our own ad hoc categories of Reference to Literary Figures and Response to Another, and therapist Helping Skills System (HSS; Hill & O'Brien, 1999) were the behavioral process measures. In terms of the boys' behaviors, discriminant function analyses revealed that Reference to Literary Figures and Response to Another differentiated the treatment formats; with regard to therapists' behaviors, Questions and Challenge differentiated the modalities. Results offered partial support for the greater effectiveness of group, compared to individual, therapy in reducing aggression. Outcome, however, as measured by teacher reports of aggression, was adversely affected in group therapy by the presence of specific behaviors in the boys. Implications of the findings for modifying the group therapy program as well as for the search for process variables appropriate to the treatment of aggressive children are discussed.

Group counseling to enhance adolescents' close friendships.

The purpose of this study was to measure the impact of group counseling on adolescents' intimacy with a close friend. The study population was comprised of 174 residential and day students of seven ninth-grade classes in a residential school in Israel. All participants were socially disadvantaged, with a problematic family background. They were randomly divided into experimental and control conditions: group counseling versus an in-class enrichment program. School personnel in the helping professions conducted all counseling groups after receiving training and supervision. Results of the counseling intervention showed a significant late effect in intimacy growth with a close friend. None of the three covariates (gender, residency, divorce) had a significant impact on results. The results support, to some extent, the dual process model of relationship development.