Anger Management for Youths: What Works and for Whom? (From Violence in American Schools: A Practical Guide for Counselors, P 217-230, 2000, Daya Singh Sandhu and Cheryl Blalock Aspy, eds. --See NCJ-185486)

• NCJ Number: 185499
• Author(s): Douglas C. Smith; James D. Larson; Barbara DeBaryshe; Michael Salzman
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 14 pages
• Sale Source: American Counseling Assoc
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Collected Work
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Continuing concerns about youth violence, especially school-related violence, have led to a proliferation of anger management programs aimed at children and youth; despite the high public profile and strong professional interest in such programs, there have been few systematic attempts to evaluate their utility.

Abstract

Anger management programs for children and adolescents are reviewed, with the intent of providing school counselors with a sense of the types and content of anger management programs described in the professional literature. The review covers both school-based programs and those conducted in clinic, residential, and other treating settings. The summaries and analyses of studies include descriptions of participant characteristics, treatment settings, program content, efforts to enhance generalization, target outcomes and treatment effectiveness, and implications for school counselors. The review of 37 anger management intervention studies with children and adolescents over the past 18 years suggests some interesting trends and directions for future efforts. Specifically, the review shows that a wide range of treatment strategies fall under the anger management umbrella, most programs include multiple cognitive-behavioral components, and significant diversity in program content and delivery makes it difficult to adequately assess what works and what does not work. 61 references