ATTRIBUTIONAL BIAS AND REACTIVE AGGRESSION

This article looks at a cognitive behavioral intervention designed to reduce minority youths' (Latino and African-American boys) levels of r eactive peer-directed aggression. The BrainPower Program trains aggres sive boys to recognize accidental causation in ambiguous interactions with peers. The objective of this research is to evaluate the effectiv eness of this attribution retraining program in reducing levels of rea ctive, peer-directed aggression. This research hypothesizes that aggre ssive young boys' tendency to attribute hostile intentions to others i n ambiguous social interactions causes display of inappropriate, peer- directed aggression. A reduction in attributional bias should produce a decrease in reactive physical and verbal aggression directed toward peers. A 12-session, attributional intervention has been designed to r educe aggressive students' tendency to infer hostile intentions in pee rs following ambiguous peer provocations. The program trains boys to ( 1) accurately perceive and categorize the available social cues in int eractions with peers, (2) attribute negative outcomes of ambiguous cau sality to accidental or uncontrollable causes, and (3) generate behavi ors appropriate to these retrained attributions. African-American and Latino male elementary-school students (N = 384), in grades four-six, served as subjects in one of three groups: experimental attribution re training program, attention training, and no-attention control group. Three broad categories of outcome data were collected: teacher and adm inistrator reports of behavior, independent observations of behavior, and self-reports from participating students. Process measures to asse ss implementation fidelity include videotaped training sessions, obser vations of intervention sessions, student attendance records, and week ly team meetings. The baseline data indicated that students who were e venly distributed across the four sites were not significantly differe nt on the baseline indicators: student cognitions, teacher perceptions of behavior, and student suspension rates. Substantial evidence has s hown that aggressive boys tend to attribute hostile intentions to peer s, often resulting in inappropriate retaliatory aggression. The BrainP ower Program was designed to determine whether psychoeducational strat egies in a school context are effective in reducing attributional bias and whether such reductions significantly reduce aggressive behavior. Medical Subject Headings (MeSH): violence, prevention, youth, school- age population, aggression, education, adolescent behavior, interventi on studies, minority groups.