Monitor on Psychology - February 2012 - (Page 56)

Punishment-based strategies, such as suspension and expulsion, do not give students who bully the tools they need to make lasting behavior change, says Swearer. “There’s a connection between bullying in elementary school and middle school and adult criminal behavior. We need to get these kids off that trajectory,” Swearer says. To help bullies change, Swearer has developed a three-hour program that, according to preliminary results, significantly reduces bullying behavior and bullying-related suspensions. During the first part of the session, a school mental health professional assesses the student’s habits around explaining the behavior of others, also known as attributional style. Many bullies often see other people’s perhaps innocuous acts — such as pushing past them in the hall — as being aggressive. Then, the therapist works with the student to talk through and reinterpret events in his or her own life — perhaps that shoving student was simply running late. In the final part, the counselor, student and family members write a plan for reducing the student’s bullying behaviors in the future. A typical plan sets up regular communication between the school and the parent about how the student is doing, arranges follow-up training in emotional regulation skills and lays out rewards for prosocial behavior, Swearer says. Another psychologist-developed intervention, called Coping Power, brings together groups of bullies and children identified as aggressive by their teachers and classmates. During weekly sessions, students talk about times when they lashed out in anger and rehearse alternative, less hostile ways of successfully handling conflicts with peers. A modification of the intervention, designed by John Lochman, PhD, of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, is being tested in 20 Alabama elementary schools with 360 fourth- and fifthgraders. The modification adds one-onone sessions to the typical group therapy format. Group therapy for bullies and aggressive children, however, has a potential downside. Research by British criminologist David Farrington, PhD, and earlier work by Thomas J. Dishion, PhD, of the University of Oregon has shown that bringing aggressive children together can reinforce deviant behavior. For example, a child talking about a particularly inventive bullying tactic or some other destructive activity may get a laugh or some other encouraging response from others in the group, says Lochman. To avoid such potential effects, Lochman is videotaping group sessions and looking for signs of such reinforcement and whether the group leader can quash and redirect such moments. The data’s not in yet on how group therapy leaders can avoid deviant behavior reinforcement, but the program seems to work overall: A study published Whether patient, colleague or someone else set adrift by addiction, we can in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical help you correct their course. Life wants them back. It’s time to right the Psychology in 2009 found that aggressive ship. To learn more about how Hazelden can help those affected by drug students who completed Coping Power or alcohol addictions, call 877-429-5092 or visit hazelden.org/florida. with school guidance counselors trained to conduct the intervention got along ADDICTION better with peers and were less aggressive STOPS HERE than an untreated comparison group. © 2012 Hazelden Help write a comeback story. 56 M o n i t o r o n p s y c h o l o g y • F e b ru a ry 2 0 1 2 http://www.hazelden.org/florida http://www.hazelden.org/florida

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Monitor on Psychology - February 2012

Monitor on Psychology - February 2012
Letters
President’s column
Contents
From the CEO
APA files two briefs in support of same-sex couples
New registry seeks to understand addiction recovery through ‘crowdsourcing’
APA launches a database of tests and measures
Watch for new member benefit: “APA Access”
Apply now for APA’s Advanced Training Institutes
PsycTHERAPY, APA’s new database, brings therapy demos to life
In Brief
APA scientists help guide tobacco regulation
A-mazing research
‘A machine for jumping to conclusions’
Judicial Notebook
Random Sample
Righting the imbalance
The beginnings of mental illness
Science Directions
Improving disorder classification, worldwide
Protesting proposed changes to the DSM
Interventions for at-risk students
Harnessing the wisdom of the ages
Anti-bullying efforts ramp up
Hostile hallways
R U friends 4 real?
Support for teachers
Speaking of Education
Record keeping for practitioners
Going green
At the intersection of law and psychology
Division Spotlight
Grants help solve society’s problems
Personalities

Monitor on Psychology - February 2012