Research Results(2010-2011)

The project focused on proactive aggressors in primary schools during this year. There were three kinds of group interventions in this study: child group intervention, parent group intervention and parent-child conjoint group intervention. The results are shown below.

Child Group Intervention

Results of Student Questionnaires
Questionnaire

Valid Sample Size

Mean Difference

t-value
Proactive Aggression
(RPQ: Proactive Aggression)
47 0.13 0.15
Reactive Aggression
(RPQ: Reactive Aggression)
47 -2.38 -3.29**
**p<0.01

After the child group intervention, the students’ reactive aggression decreased significantly.

Parent Group Intervention

Results of Student Questionnaires
Questionnaire

Valid Sample Size

Mean Difference

t-value
Proactive Aggression
(RPQ: Proactive Aggression)
41 -0.66 -1.06
Reactive Aggression
(RPQ: Reactive Aggression)
41 -1.93 -2.50*
*p<0.05

After the parent group intervention, the students’ reactive aggression decreased significantly.

Parent-child Conjoint Group Intervention

Results of Student Questionnaires
Questionnaire

Valid Sample Size

Mean Difference

t-value
Proactive Aggression
(RPQ: Proactive Aggression)
50 0.10 0.14
Reactive Aggression
(RPQ: Reactive Aggression)
50 -2.49 -3.26**
**p<0.01

After the parent-child conjoint group intervention, the students’ reactive aggression decreased significantly.

The Effectiveness of Three Kinds of Group Intervention

According to the results of this study, the proactive aggressors’ reactive aggression was immediately reduced following all three kinds of group interventions: student group intervention, parent group intervention and parent-child conjoint group intervention. It initially appeared that the interventions were only able to reduce reactive aggression, not proactive aggression, but this was not the case. According to the previous studies in this project, two crucial factors were found that had a significant relationship with proactive aggression. They are as follows (Fung, Raine, & Gao, 2009).

(a) Age: Proactive aggression increases with age, whereas reactive aggression does not change at all. Therefore, even though proactive aggression was not significantly reduced after intervention, it did not become worse as the children grew. This shows that the interventions successfully resisted the development of proactive aggression brought on by the age factor.

(b) Sex: According to this study, males had more serious proactive aggression than females and there was a significant difference in gender. Further, proactive aggression was positively correlated with a male’s physical growth. Hence, it was more difficult for males to reduce their proactive aggression than females. Seventy seven percent of the group members in this study were male, and only 23% were female. This is why it appeared that proactive aggression did not significantly decrease after the intervention. This study has shown that the males were prevented from developing proactive aggression.

To conclude, the aggressive behaviour of proactive aggressors effectively declined through the interventions, regardless of whether it was a child group intervention, parent group intervention or parent-child conjoint group intervention. To compare the effectiveness of the three kinds of interventions, mixed ANOVA was applied. As expected, the results showed that there is no significant difference in effectiveness among the three kinds of interventions. Therefore, regardless of the intervention, it was always remarkably effective at reducing aggression. Social workers and other professional front-liners can use any of the group intervention to help high-risk schoolchildren based on the similar effectiveness of their outcomes.

Back to Top

© 2019 City University of Hong Kong          Project on Children and Adolescents at Risk Education (Project C.A.R.E.)