ART seems smart: The achievement of aggression replacement training (ART) on children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was the following. First, to examine the distribution of the intervention aggression replacement training (ART) in Iceland, including how many teachers and other professionals had been trained in the method and whether and how they had used it following the training. Second, to find out whether ART treatment is effective for children. Questionnaires were prepared in order to examine the distribution of the ART treatment. ASEBA screening lists were used to measure participant internal and external problems before and after an ART treatment intervention. The children themselves, their parents and their teachers answered the ASEBA screening lists.

The ASEBA assessment tool was used in this study to assess internal and external problems of children completing an ART intervention training. The ASEBA was completed both before and after the training program. The study used three forms of the ASEBA, the youth self-evaluation form, the parent rating form and the teacher rating form. Eighteen children completed the intervention program, but evaluations were missing for a few of them, either before or at the end. No significant difference was found on any of the assessment forms for the children with both evaluations and those with only one evaluation. Thus, the children who dropped out were no different from the children who completed the treatment. There was a significant decrease in internal and external problems between the first and second evaluation for both the parent and teacher forms when paired t-tests were used in the analysis. The children showed fewer behavior problems as well as less distress following the ART treatment compared to measures conducted before the intervention. However, their social skills did not improve significantly. Treatment effect was detected by the children’s self-evaluations. The intervention did not seem to have such a strong impact on social skills as on other measured qualities, since the difference on that variable, before and after the ART treatment was not significant. That might be due to the fact that the sample was small and the statistical power might, therefore, not have been strong enough. However, ART treatment seems to reduce behavior problems and increase the well-being of children who have struggled with aggression.