Alternative treatments for sibling aggression

Abstract

Eighteen clinic-referred, aggressive pairs of siblings and their mothers participated in one of three brief clinical interventions. Participant observation of aggressive episodes in the home setting served as the treatment outcome measurement. All sibling pairs participated in four clinic treatment sessions consisting of one of three treatments: Social Skills (SS), Timeout (TO), or Combination (COMBO). Training procedures consisted of observation of videotaped child models reacting to typical conflict situations, verbal rehearsals, role-playing, and parent training. Between treatment sessions, all mothers recorded aggressive episodes in the home and consequated such behavior with either discussion, timeout, or a combination of these events. The data indicated that timeout training was more effective than social skill training. Social skill training may also have been useful, however, especially for children from higher socioeconomic status homes. It was concluded that initial treatments for sibling aggression should include a discipline component.