Effectiveness of the Coping Power program and of classroom intervention with aggressive children: Outcomes at a 1-year follow-up

This study examines key substance use, delinquency, and school-based aggressive behavior outcomes at a 1-year follow-up for a cognitive-behavioral intervention delivered to aggressive children and their parents at the time of these children's transition to middle school. This effectiveness study explored whether a classroom intervention directed at teachers and at all of the parents in the intervention classrooms enhanced the effects of the Coping Power program with at-risk children. The at-risk sample of boys and girls was identified through 4th-grade teacher ratings, and intervention took place during the 5th- and 6th-grade years. The Coping Power child component included school-based groups focusing on anger management and social problem solving skills, and the Coping Power parent component addressed parenting and stress-management skills. The current results indicate that prior findings of postintervention improvement for this sample (Lochman & Wells, 2002b) has led to preventive effects on delinquency and on substance use for older and moderate-risk children. The Coping Power program, in conjunction with a classroom-level intervention, also reduced school aggression I year after the intervention was completed. In addition, it appears that the classroom intervention facilitates radiating effects on reduced substance use for other at-risk children in the same classrooms who did not receive Coping Power.