This study examines the effectiveness of the Friend to Friend (F2F) program when conducted by teachers and counselors with active coaching from the research team. The project involves 14 small group sessions for relationally aggressive girls and 8 classroom sessions. Students, teachers, counselors and parents at intervention and control schools fill out pre- and post- program questionnaires.
This study takes a proven effective program (Friend to Friend) that was initially run by the research team in a clinical trial and examines for the first time its effectiveness when conducted by teachers and counselors with active coaching from the research team. The primary target population for this study will be 4th-5th grade relationally aggressive girls. In intervention schools, these girls will participate in Friend to Friend with Coaching (14 small group sessions, 8 classroom sessions and additional pre- and post- program questionnaires). In both intervention and control schools all 4th-5th grade students (boys and girls) will participate in a screening measure to identify the relational aggressors and pre- and post-program questionnaires. Counselors and 4th-5th grade teachers in both conditions will participate in pre/post questionnaires and will also participate in training, coaching, the small group intervention and classroom sessions in intervention schools. These procedures will be repeated with new students in 5 of the F2F with Coaching schools the following school year, except that the research team will provide minimal coaching to staff running the intervention in year 2.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
5,250
Friend to Friend (F2F) with Coaching has 14 small group sessions and 8 classroom sessions as led by school staff with coaching from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) research team. The program aims to improve problem solving and prosocial behaviors, and decrease aggressive behaviors.
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Change in hostile attribution biases
The self-report Cartoon-Based Hostile Attributional Bias measure will be used to assess hostile attributions with 2 relational vignettes and 2 physical vignettes, with one question asking whether a behavior was intentional or unintentional and a second questions asking whether the behavior was harmful or not harmful. Scores on the 2 items per vignette type (relational, physical) are summed, each vignette has a range of 0 (no bias) to 4 (strong bias) where higher scores reflect a worse outcome (i.e. more relational hostile attributional biases and/or more physical hostile attributional biases).
Time frame: Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later
Change in Knowledge of Anger Problem-Solving Steps
Knowledge of Anger Problem Solving (KAPS) is a 9 item abbreviated multiple choice measure (original measure was 15 items) designed to assess students' general knowledge of the steps underlying the social information processing model of aggression and of anger management techniques. Scores are calculated through summing across all 9 items, where a score is given a 1 if a correct answer is selected or 0 if an incorrect answer is selected; with a range of 0 (no correct) to 9 (all correct), higher scores reflect a better outcome.
Time frame: Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later
Change in Relational Aggression
Teacher report of relational aggression will be assessed using the Children's Social Behavior Questionnaire with 5 items. Scores are calculated by averaging across all items, with a range of 1 to 5, higher scores reflect a worse outcome (more relational aggression). Peer reports of relational aggression will be measured using two items. These items are based on Crick and Grotpeter and have strong psychometric properties. Students rate the frequency that each classmate engages in relational aggression on 2 items (leaving out, rumor spreading) on a scale from 1- Not at All to 5- A Whole Lot. Each individual child has a mean score ranging from 1 to 5 (drawn from an average rating across all students/peers in a class). Higher scores reflect a worse outcome (more relational aggression).
This platform is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional.
Time frame: Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later
Change in Prosocial Leadership
This 7-item measure combines items from the leadership and prosocial competence scales from the Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) to create a combined scale called Prosocial Leadership that has been found to be reliable and valid in prior studies. Items are rated on a 4-point scale (1-hardly ever to 4-almost always).
Time frame: Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later
Change in Teacher-Student Relationships
The STRS has demonstrated strong psychometric properties, and a strong student-teacher relationship has been shown to be predictive of adaptive adjustment in school. Ten items drawn from the Closeness subscale (e.g., "shares information about self") (α = .89) and the Conflict subscale (e.g., "easily becomes angry at me") (α = .93) will be completed by teachers for all assented students (boys and girls) in their class. Teachers respond to each item on a five-point scale (1 = definitely does not apply to 5 = definitely applies), with higher scores indicating higher closeness or higher conflict.
Time frame: Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later
Change in Staff Self-Efficacy for Handling Aggression
This 12-item measure called "Staff Self-Efficacy for Handling Aggression" has been designed for this study for school counselors and teachers to rate their own strategies for intervening, comfort in intervening, and perceived effectiveness for intervening with girls who are relationally aggressive on a five point scale from (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree). Scores are averaged across items with higher scores indicating a better outcome.
Time frame: Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and on up to 8 months later
Explore peer rejection as mediator/moderator
Peer reports of rejection are measured using two items asking how much students like each classmate and how much they dislike each classmate on a scale from 1- Not at All to 5- A Whole Lot. Each individual child has a mean score ranging from 1 to 5 (drawn from an average rating across all students/peers in a class). Level of peer rejection is calculated by subtracting an individual child's likeability mean score from their dislikability mean score. Higher scores represent greater peer rejection. We anticipate using the first time point for this analysis.
Time frame: Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later.
Explore perception of intervention attributes as mediator/moderator
Given one time in the study, this measure was adapted from the Teacher perceptions of the intervention attributes measure and includes 10 items with a scale of 1- Not at All to 5- A Whole Lot. Scores are averaged across items with higher scores indicating a better outcome (positive perception of the intervention)
Time frame: Up to 8 months after the study began.
Explore student self-efficacy for non-violence
Self-Efficacy for Nonviolence is an 9-item, self-report measure adapted from the Multisite Violence Prevention Project, which used modified items from the Teen Conflict Survey. Questions ask how confident students are on a scale from 1=Not at all confident to 4=very confident. Items are averaged with higher scores indicating a better outcome (more self-efficacy for using non-violent approaches to conflict). We will use the first time point for this analysis.
Time frame: Given two times throughout the study, first at baseline (early in the school year, October/November) and up to 8 months later.
Explore implementation factors
Measured by number of sessions attended
Time frame: This will be first administered during the first session/lesson in the school year (approximately October/November) and to be filled out weekly by facilitators for up to 8 months.